The third day of the NCAA tournament is now in the books.
Here are the biggest stories from Saturday’s games as the men worked through the second round of their tournament and the women wrapped up their opening round.
Kentucky, you’re on deck.
In his first season post-breakup, former Kentucky coach John Calipari is back in the Sweet 16. He got there with 10th-seeded Arkansas, the first double-digit seed he’s coached in 24 NCAA tournament appearances.
His Razorbacks advanced thanks to a win over No. 2 St. John’s Saturday to knock out the tournament’s highest-seeded team to be eliminated so far. They did so by defeating Calipari’s longtime rival coach Rick Pitino, who fell to 2-3 in tournament games against Calipari with the loss.
It’s all pretty sweet for Calipari, who’s been one of the most criticized coaches in college basketball for the better part of the last decade. The crux of that criticism was Kentucky’s NCAA tournament failures under his watch with rosters brimming with NBA talent.
John Calipari’s back in the Sweet 16. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Calipari coached Kentucky to a national championship in 2012. But he’s probably best-remembered in Lexington for failing to advance the Wildcats to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament in his last five chances.
Cal sure can recruit. But can he coach with the game’s best? Saturday’s win over St. John’s suggests that yes, he can.
Kentucky and first-year coach Mark Pope have their opportunity to counter on Sunday with a Sweet 16 berth at stake against Illinois.
—Jason Owens
JuJu Watkins had an excellent game on Saturday to lead the top-seeded Trojans to a 71-25 shellacking of UNCG. But the USC All-American got banged up in the process.
Watkins appeared to injure her left hand early and was repeatedly seen massaging it in the first half. Then she rolled her left ankle in the second half and briefly left the court to have it looked at.
Watkins quickly returned to the bench and the game even though the outcome was long determined. She finished with a game-high 22 points alongside 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals while nearly outscoring UNCG by herself.
Watkins downplayed the injuries in a sideline interview on ESPN, calling them “end-of-the-season knick-knacks.” She maintained that stance in her postgame interviews, telling reporters “I’m all right, don’t worry.”
We’ll know more on Monday, when USC takes on No. 9 seed Mississippi State. Playing hurt against No. 16 seed UNCG is one thing. It’s another as the competition stiffens.
-Jason Owens
Michigan beat Texas A&M Saturday afternoon to advance to the Sweet 16 and improve the Big Ten’s record in NCAA tournament play to 10-0. But 11-0 was not meant to be.
Wisconsin trailed BYU by double digits in the late window only to mount a rally and have a look at a game-tying basket in the final seconds. But John Tonje’s contested jumper missed the mark, and BYU held on for a dramatic 91-89 win that featured a Wisconsin rally sparked by a flagrant 2 foul for “non-incidental contact to the groin.”
Wisconsin will not advance to the Sweet 16, and it was the first Big Ten team eliminated from the field. Tennessee then beat UCLA in the last game of the day to drop the Big Ten to 10-2.
Each of the Big Ten’s eight NCAA tournament participants (Wisconsin, Purdue, Michigan, Oregon, Michigan State, Illinois, Maryland and UCLA) won in the first round. In a season filled with well-deserved hype around the SEC, the Big Ten staked its own claim to excellence early in the tournament.Alas, the perfect start is no more.
-Jason Owens
UConn cruised into the second round of the tournament with a 69-point win on Saturday. (Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images)
It’s only one game, but Paige Bueckers and the Huskies look ready to run their Spokane region.
No. 2 UConn absolutely demolished No. 15 Arkansas State on Saturday afternoon in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The Huskies picked up a 69-point win, which set up a second-round matchup with No. 10 South Dakota State on Monday. It was the largest margin of victory in the tournament so far.
Azzi Fudd led the way with 27 points, seven assists and six steals in the blowout win, and Sarah Strong added 20 points and 12 rebounds. Bueckers had 11 points, and shot 5-of-9 from the field. They shot almost 59% from the floor as a team while looking like a truly vintage NCAA tournament team built by longtime coach Geno Auriemma.
The blowout was one of several seen throughout the day. No. 2 NC State, No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 3 North Carolina, No. 3 LSU, No. 4 UConn, No. 5 Alabama, No. 6 Iowa and No. 6 West Virginia all rolled to double-digit wins in their respective first round matchups. The only true upsets we saw were from the Jackrabbits, who beat No. 7 Oklahoma State, and No. 9 Mississippi State’s win over No. 8 Cal.
Top seeds USC and Texas each walked away with huge blowout wins, too. The Trojans nearly tripled up on UNC Greensboro, and Texas rolled to a 105-61 win over William & Mary on Saturday night.
While it’s still early, and a lot needs to happen, a battle between USC and UConn with a spot in the Final Four on the line looks even better now than it did on Selection Sunday.
-Ryan Young
You’d think, by the third day of play, that CBS would have it together.
But during BYU’s win over Wisconsin on Saturday, their score bug went completely haywire in a wild fashion. It wasn’t a one-time error, either. It kept happening randomly throughout the game and seemingly tried to give Wisconsin a leg up.
But, even with the boost from CBS, the Badgers couldn’t pull off the win. And in the network’s credit, this was the first game of the tournament with a significant technical issue.
Hopefully it was just a hilarious one-off mistake.
-Ryan Young
The last perfect bracket, at least on the men’s side, has been busted.
That’s not that big of a surprise, considering both the quest for a perfect bracket is a seemingly impossible one and that only 11 brackets entered in Yahoo Sports’ Men’s Bracket Mayhem were perfect entering the day on Saturday. But the brackets disappeared quickly even with how relatively straightforward the games were.
But it was Arkansas’ win over St. John’s that eliminated the bulk of the brackets on Saturday. That upset left just one perfect bracket alive though Michigan’s win over Michigan State ruined that almost immediately.
The women’s side was a little bit better. Nearly 98% of brackets were busted to start the day on Saturday, but by the end of the first round just more than 100 of them remained intact. We’ll see how long those last when the second round gets started on Sunday.
-Ryan Young
