NCAA Event winners and losers from Saturday’s Elite Eight
Hoot!
No. 9 Florida Atlantic beat No. 3 Kansas State 79-76 in the East Regional finals to guide one of many craziest and most surprising Closing 4 berths in NCAA males’s basketball match historical past.
Making simply this system’s second match look, the Owls now lead Division I with 35 wins and are the primary Convention USA crew to succeed in the nationwide semifinals since Memphis in 2008.
Regardless of the loss, this has been a outstanding season for Kansas State. Picked final within the preseason Massive 12 ballot, the Wildcats laid the muse for a protracted and profitable run below first-year coach Jerome Tang.
Within the second recreation Saturday, No. 4 Connecticut embarrassed Gonzaga 82-54 to succeed in the Closing 4 for the primary time since 2014.
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The Owls and Huskies lead the primary spherical of winners and losers from Saturday’s Elite Eight motion:
Winners
Connecticut
The most well liked crew within the match must be seen as the favourite to win all of it no matter which groups win Sunday to spherical out the Closing 4. The 28-point win towards Gonzaga marks a brand new excessive for the Huskies, who have been excellent in the course of the common season however have taken issues to a distinct stratosphere the previous two weeks. After dismantling the Bulldogs, Connecticut turns into the seventh crew to win all 4 regional video games earlier than the Closing 4 by 15 or extra factors. Coincidentally, the final crew to do this was Gonzaga in 2021.
Adam Sanogo
Even whereas struggling from the sphere, Sanogo continued to spark the Huskies’ along with his second double-double of the match. The junior ahead scored 10 factors on 3 of 11 capturing with 10 rebounds and a career-high six assists, making the most of Gonzaga’s consideration to search out teammates Jordan Hawkins (20 factors) and Alex Karaban (12 factors). Stopping the Huskies entails stopping Sanogo — and the perfect of luck in that.
Florida Atlantic
Coach Dusty Might has pushed again towards the Cinderella label, however the slipper matches. FAU has been one of many worst applications within the nation since becoming a member of Division I in 1993, posting only one season with greater than 19 wins and rating close to the underside of three successive conferences — the Atlantic Solar, Solar Belt after which Convention USA. Might has steadily constructed a winner, nonetheless, posting half of the ten successful seasons in program annals and compiling a deep however very younger roster stuffed with missed and under-recruited prospects. Whereas the Owls seemed the a part of a High 25 crew all through the common season, this nonetheless ranks among the many most spectacular postseason runs in trendy match historical past.
Markquis Nowell
Even within the loss, the Kansas State senior placed on a present. With teammate Keyontae Johnson battling foul bother — the All-America ahead scored 9 factors in 18 minutes earlier than fouling out with simply over two minutes left — Nowell took on a fair bigger position as a scorer, placing up a season-high 21 makes an attempt and ending with 30 and 12 assists. The previous Arkansas-Little Rock switch averaged 23.5 factors and 13.5 assists throughout these 4 video games and is definitely the match’s breakout star.
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Convention USA
Each win by the Owls means extra money for Convention USA, which is ready to earn at the very least 5 “models” price $337,000 every throughout the following 5 seasons, or greater than $2 million total. This can be a very good parting reward from Florida Atlantic, which is able to depart the league this summer season for the American Athletic Convention.
Losers
Kansas State
This loss will not overwrite what has been an impressive debut season for Tang or diminish what looks as if an extremely brilliant future for this system. However whereas Kansas State has reached the regional finals thrice since 2010 below three totally different coaches, there’s a bitter finality to coming this near the Closing 4 however arising a possession brief — leaving Tang and his workers answerable for constructing off this disappointment because the Wildcats head into subsequent season as a longtime contender.
Tang is aware of what it takes to rebound from this second: With him as an assistant below Baylor coach Scott Drew, the Bears reached the Elite Eight in 2010 and 2012 however did attain the Closing 4 till successful the nationwide championship in 2021.
Gonzaga
The Bulldogs have been run off the courtroom and into oblivion by the Huskies. What did Gonzaga do effectively? Attempt nothing. The Bulldogs shot 33.3% from the sphere, together with simply 2 of 20 from deep, and made 12 of twenty-two free throws. The sport went south rapidly after the Bulldogs misplaced ahead Drew Timme to foul bother minutes into the second half; what was then a 12-point lead ballooned to 23 factors after a 14-3 Connecticut run. The primary nationwide title in program historical past will once more have to attend.
Mark Few
Gonzaga’s longtime coach has gained almost 84% of his video games total however is now 2-3 in Elite Eight video games, with no single March second worse than this shellacking by the hands of the Huskies. With Few in cost, the Bulldogs recruit at a excessive stage, develop NBA expertise and memorable school scorers — Timme is simply the most recent — and play a fast-paced offensive model that may overwhelm the various less-talented groups on a typical regular-season schedule. So what’s stopping this program from lastly cashing in and successful a championship? If not already, in some unspecified time in the future Few might be outlined by his lack of ability to get Gonzaga over this final hurdle.
