March Madness: Biggest Storylines En route to Sweet 16
USA TODAY’s Paul Myerberg looks back on one of the wildest weekends in March Madness history and looks ahead to the Sweet 16.
US TODAY
After a three-day breather after a chaotic weekend, the men’s NCAA tournament returns to action with the start of the Sweet 16.
The first of four games in the West and East regions concludes Thursday at 6:30 p.m. ET when Michigan State plays Kansas State. After the Spartans vs. Wildcats clash, it comes between Connecticut and Arkansas that knocked out Kansas, the 1st seed team. Florida Atlantic, who ended the Cinderella story for No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson, will take on Tennessee in the third game of the night and a heavyweight showdown between UCLA and Gonzaga will conclude the night.
Follow the rest of the day for live updates.
MEN’S TOURNAMENT: Complete scores and schedule
WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT: Complete scores and schedule
As Nowell left the ground after rolling his ankle, someone asked if Mahomes could offer the K-State guard any advice. No need, Mahomes tweeted.
“He has it! I believe!!” Mahomes said, adding two flexed bicep emojis.
The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback knows a thing or two about playing on a butt, which aggravated his severe ankle sprain in the second quarter of Super Bowl 57. Mahomes’ status looked questionable as he hobbled off the field at halftime, but he played the entire second half and led the Chiefs to the Super Bowl title.
– Nancy armor
An unplanned hotel change didn’t stop UConn No. 4 from gaining a commanding lead over 8-seeded Arkansas.
The Huskies, who were forced to change hotels in Las Vegas after CT Insider reported their rooms were in a terrible state, dominated for the first 20 minutes. At one point, UConn mounted a 14-0 run.
UConn’s Jordan Hawkins led all scorers with 10 points at halftime. Teammate Adama Sanogo is on double-double watch with eight points and six rebounds before the break. Nick Smith Jr. led Arkansas by nine points.
Even award-winning actor Bill Murray enjoyed the dominance of the huskies. To support his son Luke, who is an assistant coach at UConn, Murray was shown cheering from the crowd as the huskies continued their run.
Kansas State guard Markquis Nowell fell awkwardly while attempting a short runner and had to be helped off less than five minutes into the second half of the No. 3 Wildcats’ Sweet 16 match against No. 7 Michigan State.
Nowell had played every minute for KSU, which led 50-46 by 15:31, and had seven points with 10 assists.
One of the standout stars of this year’s tournament, Nowell is the Wildcats’ second-best scorer (17.1 points per game) and ranks second nationally for assists (7.8 per game).
Nowell removed his shoe and let sneakers tape his ankle before returning to the court. While the ankle visibly bothered him, he still flashed his offensive creativity.
– Paul Meyerberg
Markquis Nowell was an offensive magician, weaving pinpoint passes to his teammates to give No. 3 Kansas State a five-point lead over 7-seeded Michigan State at the break.
Nowell racked up 10 assists in the first 20 minutes and added a deep 3-point field goal for the Wildcats.
The Spartans, on the other hand, got a great performance from Joey Hauser (12 points, three rebounds) in the first half. Hauser connected 2 out of 4 attempts from the 3-point area. Michigan State also won the first-half rebound fight 18-12 and pulled down seven offensive boards compared to just one for Kansas State
Many college basketball fans, who may not know all about Michigan State basketball, seemed surprised when Pro Football Hall of Famer and Detroit Lions legend Barry Sanders appeared on their TV screens wearing a green and white MSU cap appeared — and behind the former MSU football sat coaches Mark Dantonio and Kirk Gibson — during Sunday’s NCAA second-round tournament game for the Spartans against Marquette.
But as all Spartan fans know, there’s a very simple explanation for why Sanders was in Columbus, Ohio for the game. His son Nick is a freshman on the MSU basketball team.
– Phil Friend, Lansing State Journal
Las Vegas is now poised to become a hub for collegiate sports with several NCAA events planned over the next few years, beginning with Thursday’s West Regional at the T-Mobile Arena. From golf to bowling to hockey—it’s also home to the 2026 Frozen Four—the NCAA logo will soon be as ubiquitous on the Las Vegas Strip as advertisements for celebrity chef restaurants and Cirque du Soleil shows.
It will all lead to 2028, when the NCAA brings its crown jewel event, the men’s Final Four, here for the first (and likely not last) time.
“It was just about breaking the stigma that it was Las Vegas,” said Jim Livengood, Washington State, Arizona’s and UNLV’s longtime director of athletics.
– Dan clouds
With Mick Cronin at the helm, the prognosis for UCLA’s legendary basketball program remains consistently sunny. The Bruins are in the NCAA men’s Sweet 16 for the third straight season.
Next up is a rematch against Gonzaga, who outlasted UCLA 93-90 in overtime at the 2021 Final Four.
“We’re four games away from hanging a 12th banner,” Cronin said, referring to UCLA’s 11 national championships. “That’s how we see it. That’s how we talk about it.”
– Josh Peter
The men’s Sweet 16 round concludes Thursday night with action in the Big Apple and Sin City.
►No. 3 State of Kansas vs. State #7 Michigan
Time/TV: 6:30 p.m. ET, TBS
►No. 4 Connecticut vs. No. 8 Arkansas
Time/TV: 7:15 p.m. ET, CBS
►No. 4 Tennessee vs. No. 9 Florida Atlantic
Time/TV: 9 p.m. ET, TBS
►No. 2 UCLA vs. No. 3 Gonzaga
Time/TV: 9:45 p.m. ET, CBS
The 2022 Men’s Basketball Final Four ended up being dominated by Bluebloods. This year’s version could be more about New Bloods.
Of the 16 remaining teams, only four have won a championship (Michigan State, UCLA, UConn, Arkansas). Three of these are in the same region, so there’s a good chance someone new will be cutting the nets in Houston.
Seven of the Sweet 16 teams (Alabama, Creighton, Florida Atlantic Miami, San Diego State, Tennessee and Xavier) have never been to a Final Four. We ranked them according to their chances of reaching the national semifinals for the first time.
– Eddie Timanos
Surprise and excitement defined the first two rounds of the men’s NCAA tournament, sending home some of college basketball’s biggest names – including Kansas, Purdue, Duke, Virginia and Kentucky – as Fairleigh Dickinson defeated Purdue and surpassed Princeton Arizona and Missouri, to write two of the top Cinderella stories in recent tournament history.
Amidst this barrage of unpredictability, one can only guess what happens next.
To kick off the Sweet 16, we detailed eight lessons from the first weekend of the tournament.
– Paul Meyerberg
Michigan State, which ranked outside of the top 25 for most of the season, wouldn’t have been considered a major threat to the Sweet 16 except for one thing: They have Tom Izzo on the touchline.
It’s not like Izzo is unbeatable in March or has an ironclad track record. Like any other great coach, he’s had his share of surprise flare-ups. But every few years, Izzo finds a way to push a team deeper into the tournament than it should.
Michigan State’s second-round win over No. 2 Marquette marked the 16th time Izzo defeated a higher-seeded team in the NCAA tournament and beat Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim for the all-time record. Perhaps more impressively, it was the sixth time he’d made the Sweet 16 with a team ranked fifth or worse.
The Spartans take on No. 3 Kansas State in Thursday’s first men’s Sweet 16 game.
– Dan clouds
This was a tournament that the Ivy League will long remember before Princeton’s men advanced to the second round.
This is the first year that Ivy’s teams have won first-round games at both tournaments. A day after the Princeton men stunned Arizona, the 10th seeded Princeton women upset NC State with a 3-pointer with seven seconds remaining on Friday night.
“We watched (the men) in the dressing room right before practice,” Julia Cunningham said on Friday night. “Seeing them, all the media coverage they’re getting, was so well deserved. We looked at each other and thought we’re next, now it’s our turn.
“It’s something special,” she added. “A special week to be a tiger.”
The Princeton women were beaten by Utah in the second round, but the Tigers men will face Creighton in Friday’s Sweet 16.
– Nancy armor
Houston entered the NCAA tournament ranked No. 1 in USA TODAY Sports’ Coaches Poll, despite losing the American Athletic Conference championship game before the unveiling of the brackets.
The Cougars, who were without top scorer Marcus Sasser in the loss to Memphis, retained 21 of 32 No. 1 votes to hold off second-place Alabama. The Crimson Tide earned eight firsts after impressively winning the SEC title on Sunday.
Houston and Alabama are the only No. 1 seeds remaining in the tournament after Kansas were beaten by Arkansas in the second round and Purdue, the top seed in the East, was upset by Fairleigh Dickinson in the first round.
– Eddie Timanos