Kansas State wins in Candy 16
Following a three-day breather after a weekend of chaos, the men’s NCAA Tournament returns to motion with the start of the Sweet 16.
Kansas State defeated Michigan State in additional time within the first of 4 video games within the West and East. Following the Spartans-Wildcats conflict might be Connecticut vs. Arkansas, which knocked off No. 1 seeded Kansas. Florida Atlantic, which ended the Cinderella story for No. 16 seeded Fairleigh Dickinson, will tackle Tennessee within the evening’s third recreation, and a heavyweight showdown between UCLA and Gonzaga will conclude the evening.
Observe alongside for dwell updates all through the remainder of the day.
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Markquis Nowell leads Kansas State to thrilling additional time win over Michigan State
Traditional.
In a white-knuckle, heart-stopping trip, third-seeded Kansas State outlasted seventh-seeded Michigan State in additional time, 98-93, Thursday in a Candy 16 matchup of the lads’s NCAA Match.
Markquis Nowell, Kansas State’s 5-foot-8 level guard, was good with 19 assists – an NCAA Match single-game file — together with 20 factors and 5 steals.
His fifth steal got here within the remaining moments of the recreation to ship the Wildcats into the Elite Eight. Throughout his electrical efficiency, Nowell overcame an ankle harm within the second half that pressured him to the bench for about 2½ minutes and left him hobbled.
With the victory, Kansas State, which was picked final within the Huge 12 preseason ballot, continues its outstanding run.
The Wildcats wanted all the things they acquired from Nowell, as Michigan State fought again after trailing by as many as 9 factors early within the second half and once more by seven factors with lower than 5 minutes to play. Michigan State’s Tyson Walker scored with 5 seconds left in regulation to drive additional time.
Nowell – who else? – supplied the signature play of additional time with an ideal, seemingly no-look lob to Keyontae Johnson, who completed with a team-high 22 factors.
For Michigan State, the loss ended its quest to achieve the Closing 4 for the eleventh time in class historical past. But it surely was a powerful Match run for the Spartans, which began the season outdoors of the High 25.
– Josh Peter
Markquis Nowell has a fan in Patrick Mahomes
When Nowell left the ground after rolling his ankle, somebody requested if Mahomes might give the Ok-State guard any recommendation. No want, Mahomes tweeted.
“He’s acquired it! I imagine!!” Mahomes stated, including two flexed biceps emojis.
The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs quarterback is aware of a factor or two about enjoying on a bum ankle, aggravating his excessive ankle sprain through the second quarter of Tremendous Bowl 57. Mahomes’ standing regarded questionable as he limped off the sector at halftime, however he performed your complete second half and led the Chiefs to the Tremendous Bowl title.
– Nancy Armour
Halftime: UConn 46, Arkansas 29
An unplanned change in accommodations did not hold No. 4 UConn from leaping out to a commanding lead over 8-seeded Arkansas.
The Huskies, who have been pressured to alter accommodations in Las Vegas after CT Insider reported their rooms have been in terrible situation, have been dominant within the first 20 minutes. At one level, UConn mounted a 14-0 run.
UConn’s Jordan Hawkins led all scorers with 10 factors within the half. Teammate Adama Sanogo is on double-double watch with eight factors and 6 rebounds earlier than the break. Nick Smith Jr. led Arkansas with 9 factors.
Even award-winning actor Invoice Murray was having fun with the Huskies’ dominance. In attendance to help his son, Luke, who’s an assistant coach at UConn, Murray was proven cheering from the group because the Huskies went on their run.
Kansas State star Markquis Nowell wants assist off court docket after showing to twist ankle
Kansas State guard Markquis Nowell fell awkwardly whereas making an attempt a brief runner and needed to be helped off the court docket lower than 5 minutes into the second half of the No. 3 Wildcats’ Candy 16 matchup towards No. 7 Michigan State.
Nowell had performed each minute for KSU, which was main 50-46 with 15:31 left, and had scored seven factors with 10 assists.
One of many breakout stars of this 12 months’s match, Nowell is the Wildcats’ second-leading scorer (17.1 factors per recreation) and ranks second nationally in assists (7.8 per recreation).
Nowell eliminated his shoe and had trainers tape his ankle up earlier than he returned to the court docket. Whereas the ankle was clearly bothering him, he nonetheless flashed his offensive creativity.
– Paul Myerberg
Halftime: Kansas State 43, Michigan State 38
Markquis Nowell was an offensive magician, weaving pinpoint passes to teammates to present No. 3 Kansas State a five-point lead over 7-seeded Michigan State on the break.
Nowell racked up 10 assists within the first 20 minutes and added a deep 3-point area aim for the Wildcats.
The Spartans, in the meantime, acquired a torrid first-half effort from Joey Hauser (12 factors, three rebounds). Hauser related on 2 of 4 makes an attempt from 3-point vary. Michigan State additionally gained the first-half rebound battle 18-12 and pulled down seven offensive boards in comparison with only one for Kansas State
Why you would possibly see Barry Sanders throughout Michigan State’s Candy 16 recreation
A whole lot of faculty basketball followers maybe not fully clued into Michigan State basketball gave the impression to be stunned when Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer and Detroit Lions legend Barry Sanders appeared on their tv screens carrying a inexperienced and white MSU cap — and sitting behind former MSU soccer coach Mark Dantonio and Kirk Gibson — through the Spartans’ second-round NCAA match recreation Sunday towards Marquette.
However as all Spartan supporters know, there is a quite simple rationalization as to why Sanders was in Columbus, Ohio, for the sport. His son, Nick, is a freshman on the MSU basketball team.
– Phil Pal, Lansing State Journal
Las Vegas is now poised to be a hub for college sports with a number of NCAA occasions scheduled over the following a number of years, starting with Thursday’s West Regional at T-Cellular Area. From golf to bowling to hockey — the 2026 Frozen 4 will even be held right here — the NCAA brand will quickly be as ubiquitous on the Las Vegas Strip as adverts for movie star chef eating places and Cirque du Soleil exhibits.
It can all lead as much as 2028, when the NCAA brings its crown jewel occasion, the lads’s Closing 4, right here for the primary (and possibly not final) time.
“It was simply getting over the stigma that it was Las Vegas,” stated Jim Livengood, the longtime athletics director at Washington State, Arizona and UNLV.
— Dan Wolken
With Mick Cronin in cost, the forecast for UCLA’s storied basketball program remains perpetually sunny. The Bruins are within the Candy 16 of the lads’s NCAA Match for the third straight season.
Up subsequent: a rematch towards Gonzaga, which at the 2021 Closing 4 outlasted UCLA in additional time, 93-90.
“We’re 4 video games away from hanging a twelfth banner,” Cronin stated, referring to UCLA’s 11 nationwide championships. “That is how we have a look at it. That is how we speak about it.”
— Josh Peter
The men’s Sweet 16 round tips Thursday night, with motion within the Huge Apple and Sin Metropolis.
►No. 3 Kansas State vs. No. 7 Michigan State
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
Greatest shot at making Closing 4
The 2022 Closing 4 in males’s basketball was, in the long run, dominated by bluebloods. This 12 months’s model might be extra about new bloods.
Of the 16 remaining groups, solely 4 have gained a championship (Michigan State, UCLA, UConn, Arkansas). Three of these are in the identical area, so there’s a excessive likelihood that any person new might be slicing down the nets in Houston.
Seven of the Candy 16 groups (Alabama, Creighton, Florida Atlantic Miami, San Diego State, Tennessee and Xavier) have by no means even been to a Closing 4. We ranked them in order of their probabilities to make the nationwide semifinals for the primary time.
— Eddie Timanus
What have we realized?
Surprises and upsets outlined the primary two rounds of the lads’s NCAA Match, sending a few of faculty basketball’s largest names packing – together with Kansas, Purdue, Duke, Virginia and Kentucky – as Fairleigh Dickinson beat Purdue and Princeton topped Arizona and Missouri to write down two of the highest Cinderella tales in latest match historical past.
Amid this flurry of unpredictability, what occurs subsequent is anybody’s guess.
With the Candy 16 set to start, we detailed eight lessons learned from the primary weekend of the match.
— Paul Myerberg
‘Spartan sturdy’
Ranked outdoors the highest 25 for many of the season, Michigan State wouldn’t have been thought-about a lot of a risk to get to the Candy 16 aside from one factor: They have Tom Izzo on the sidelines.
It’s not that Izzo is unbeatable or has an ironclad observe file in March. Like each different nice coach, he’s had his share of unusual flameouts. However each few years, Izzo finds a solution to push a staff deeper into the match than it’s imagined to go.
Michigan State’s second-round win towards No. 2 seed Marquette was the sixteenth time Izzo has overwhelmed a higher-seeded staff within the NCAA Match, beating out Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim for the all-time file. Maybe extra impressively, it was the sixth time he has gotten to the Candy 16 with a staff seeded fifth or worse.
The Spartans tackle No. 3 seed Kansas State within the first males’s Candy 16 recreation Thursday.
— Dan Wolken
Princeton males, girls win first-round video games in identical 12 months, make Ivy historical past
This was a match to recollect for the Ivy League even earlier than Princeton’s males reached the second spherical.
That is the primary 12 months the Ivy’s groups have gained first-round video games in each tournaments. A day after the Princeton males surprised Arizona, the Tenth-seeded Princeton girls upset N.C. State on Friday evening on a 3-pointer with seven seconds left.
“We have been watching (the lads) within the locker room proper earlier than follow,” Julia Cunningham stated Friday evening. “Watching them, all of the protection they’re getting from the media, it was so nicely deserved. We checked out one another and thought, we’re subsequent, now it’s our flip.
“It’s particular,” she added. “A particular week to be a Tiger.”
The Princeton girls have been overwhelmed within the second spherical by Utah, however the Tigers’ men will take on Creighton on Friday within the Candy 16.
– Nancy Armour
Closing USA TODAY Sports activities coaches ballot
Houston entered the NCAA Tournament with the No. 1 rating within the USA TODAY Sports activities coaches ballot, regardless of its loss within the American Athletic Convention championship recreation previous to the disclosing of the brackets.
The Cougars, who have been enjoying with out main scorer Marcus Sasser within the loss to Memphis, retained 21 of 32 No. 1 votes to stave off second-ranked Alabama. The Crimson Tide obtained eight firsts after profitable the SEC title in spectacular vogue on Sunday.
Houston and Alabama are the lone No. 1 seeds remaining within the match after Kansas was knocked off by Arkansas within the second spherical and Purdue, the highest seed within the East, was upset within the first spherical by Fairleigh Dickinson.
— Eddie Timanus
