The Sweet 16 is set. There haven’t been many upsets, but an injury changes the championship picture. Get caught up on the NCAA tournament.
Schedule
Friday (Birmingham Regional 2)2:30 ET – #2 Duke vs #3 North Carolina
5:00 ET – #1 South Carolina vs #4 Maryland
Friday (Spokane Regional 1)7:30 ET – #2 NC State vs #3 LSU
10:00 ET – #1 UCLA vs #5 Ole Miss
Saturday (Birmingham Regional 3)1:00 ET – #2 TCU vs #3 Notre Dame
3:30 ET – #1 Texas vs #5 Tennessee
Saturday (Spokane Regional 4)5:30 ET – #2 UConn vs #3 Oklahoma
8:00 ET – #1 Southern Cal vs #5 Kansas State
Juju
Southern Cal’s Juju Watkins suffered a torn ACL in her right knee just a few minutes into #1 Southern Cal’s second round game against #9 Mississippi State. The Trojans rallied for a comfortable 96-59 win, but Watkins’ injury dramatically upends the entire tournament.
Watkins is one of the best players in the country and the likely Player of the Year. She almost single-handedly led Southern Cal to its two wins over UCLA.
The Trojans still have a lot of talent, but that talent was recruited to supplement Watkins. Coach Lindsay Gottlieb only has a few days to reshape the Trojans.
Chalk
There was a decided lack of big upsets in the first two rounds. There were a couple of nine seeds that won, as well as two 10 seeds, but those didn’t move the needle.
There were some near-upsets in the second round. #10 Oregon put a scare into #2 Duke. #8 Richmond was tied with #1 UCLA at halftime, and #1 South Carolina struggled to put away #9 Indiana, but Cinderella appears to be sitting this dance out.
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Fear the Fives
The only upsets – if you can even call them upsets – came from the five seeds. Tennessee took down Ohio State, Ole Miss handled Baylor, and Kansas State survived a game-winning shot attempt from Kentucky.
It came down to the game of the tournament to see if the fives could complete the sweep, something that has never happened before. But #5 Alabama fell to #4 Maryland 111-108 in an epic double-overtime thriller.
SEC!
SEC women’s basketball wasn’t as dominant as men’s basketball this season, but it was pretty tough. The league backed it up in the tournament, putting a record-tying six teams in the Sweet 16.
The SEC went 9-1 in the first round when only Vanderbilt bowed out. The Big Ten was 10-2 (including the First Four). The ACC went 6-2 in the opening rounds, and the Big 12 was 5-3 (Iowa State went 1-1).
The SEC went 6-3 in the second round. The Big Ten went 3-7, while the ACC was 4-2. The remaining teams are from the Big 12 (two) and Big East (one).
Familiarity
The Sweet 16 features two intraconference games: Texas-Tennessee and Duke-North Carolina. There was nearly a third, had Alabama beaten Maryland, but the Terps and Gamecocks know each other well, having played seven times since 2017.
Texas beat Tennessee 80-76 in the regular season, a game that coach Kim Caldwell missed after giving birth. Duke and North Carolina split their two meetings this season, and have never played in the tournament before.
There are some rematches, too. LSU beat NC State 82-65 in late November. TCU beat Notre Dame 76-68 in the Cayman Islands in November.
