March Madness went ahead and went, well, mad on Saturday in the first day of Round 2 action to kickstart the weekend. One day after No. 1 seed Purdue got booted to the curb by No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson, a second No. 1 seed got sent packing – and it was a big one as reigning champion Kansas fell to No. 8 seed Arkansas in a stunner. The Jayhawks led or were tied for all but 114 seconds of the 2,400 played across two halves of action, but it wasn’t doing so as the clock struck zeroes in a 72-71 loss thanks to a string of Razorbacks free throws in crunch time.
And get this: that wasn’t even the most surprising result of the day.
No. 15 seed Princeton punching its ticket to the Sweet 16 was, by point spread, the real shocker of Saturday’s slate. Princeton knocked off No. 7 seed Missouri 78-63 to become the fourth 15 seed to get to the Sweet 16 in tourney history, giving us our first official Cinderella story of the year. The Sweet 16 berth marked Princeton’s first in 56 years (!!) – 18 years before tourney expansion – and gave the Ivy League its first team dancing into the Sweet 16 since Cornell did it in 2010.
That’s just a sliver of the goods Saturday delivered as we cleared the halfway mark of the second round. The rest – in winners and losers fashion – is detailed below.
Let’s dive in.
Winner: Alabama looks unstoppable vs. Maryland
No. 1 overall seed Alabama looked every bit the part of the No. 1 overall seed in this year’s tournament in a dominant, runaway 73-51 win over No. 8 seed Maryland. The Tide have run it up on teams all season in SEC play and they did the same against the Terps, outscoring them 45-28 in the second half to distance themselves en route to a Sweet 16 berth. Freshman star Brandon Miller contributed 19 points after being held scoreless in the first round and Jahvon Quinerly led all scorers with 22 points. The win moved Alabama to the Sweet 16 for the second time in three…
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Author : Kyle Boone
Publish date : 2023-03-19 05:56:49
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