Highlights from Saturday’s NCAA men’s, women’s tournament games

Kansas, the reigning national champion, is out of the NCAA men’s tournament.

Playing without their head coach, Bill Self, for a second straight game, the top-seeded Jayhawks were stunned by No. 8 seed Arkansas 72-71 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa.

Kansas was bidding to become first the repeat men’s champion since Florida won the tournament in 2006 and 2007. Instead, the Razorbacks advanced to the Sweet 16 in Las Vegas against the winner of Sunday’s game between Connecticut and St. Mary’s in Albany, New York. Arkansas (22-13) finished tied for ninth in the Southeastern Conference, while Kansas (28-8) was the Big 12 regular-season champion.

The Jayhawks became the second No. 1 seed to get bounced from the tournament in less than 24 hours, after No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson toppled No. 1 seed Purdue on Friday night. Six consecutive defending champions have now been eliminated before the Sweet 16.

Just two No. 1 seeds remained after the loss: Alabama in the South and Houston in the West. Both teams won their matchups Saturday night.

The last time only two No. 1 seeds made the Sweet 16 was in 2018; it also happened in 2004, 2000 and 1981.

After the upset, Arkansas coach Eric Musselman climbed on a table and pulled off his shirt to celebrate in front of the Razorback fans.

“That’s just an unbelievable win for our program,” Musselman said in a television interview. “I keep telling people that we’re getting better. Not many teams can get better this time of year. I’ve never been prouder of a team like tonight.”

The game came down to the wire, and Arkansas took a 67-65 lead with 47 seconds left on a putback layup by Kamani Johnson. Jalen Wilson of Kansas made two free throws to tie it at 67, but then his teammate Kevin McCullar Jr. fouled out on the other end.

Ricky Council IV then made three of four free throws to push Arkansas ahead for good, following a back-and-forth trade of free throws and tightly contested shots. Council finished with 11 of the last 15 points for Arkansas, including 7 of the last 9.

Kansas, which led by 8 at halftime, lost for the first time this season after leading at the break.

Davonte Davis, who scored 21 of his game-high 25 points in the second half for the Razorbacks, fouled out with 1:56 remaining. He was emotional after the win.

“I’m glad we came out with the win,” he said as he teared up during a television interview. “We put in the work. This team has struggled, and we figured it out.”

Musselman said of Davis: “I love this kid so much, I feel like he’s my son.”

“I love you too, Coach,” Davis replied.

Self, 60, missed the Big 12 Tournament after undergoing a heart procedure last week after he complained of chest pains. The Hall of Fame coach was released Sunday from a hospital, where he was recovering from a procedure to treat blocked arteries in his heart. He had been with the team during its time in Des Moines and was still recovering, the school announced, with hopes that he might coach later in the tournament.

“He’s been at our last three practices, so his energy’s a lot better and he’s feeling a lot better,” assistant coach Norm Roberts, who coached the team on an interim basis, told CBS before the game.

Kansas point guard Dajuan Harris Jr. suffered a sprained ankle in the first half when he landed awkwardly, but started the second half and finished with 12 points.

Wilson, the Big 12 player of the year, led Kansas with 20 points.

— ADAM ZAGORIA

Princeton follows up its NCAA surprise with a stroll to Sweet 16

SACRAMENTO — Blake Peters, a sophomore guard for Princeton, plays Spanish classical guitar, speaks fluent Mandarin and, it turns out, is tough as nails when his Tigers have a chance to advance to the Sweet 16.

After playing only two minutes of the first half, Peters came off the bench to torch Missouri on Saturday, swishing five 3-pointers to stem every bit of momentum Missouri appeared to muster during Princeton’s 78-63 win in the NCAA men’s tournament.

Peters finished with a season-high 17 points, teammate Ryan Langborg had a game-high 22, and the Tigers did not have to work to the game’s final horn, unlike during their astounding unseating of second-seeded Arizona on Thursday.

Instead, as Princeton put the final flourishes on its commanding performance, the chant coming from the Tigers’ cheering section in Golden 1 Center was loud and clear: “Sweet 16! Sweet 16!”

“Blake Peters has been making shots coming off the bench for us for weeks,” Princeton coach Mitch Henderson said. “This is a very, very confident group.” He added: “They just grit their teeth and do it.”

From underdogs seeded 15th to the bullies on the block in two days, Princeton dominated No. 7 seed Missouri for most of the 40 minutes played in their second-round game. The school advances to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1967.

The rare opportunity was made real by dazzling shooting, especially in comparison with the struggles Princeton overcame against Arizona. The Tigers tripled their 3-point output from that game — making 12 total against Missouri, compared with four against Arizona — and played with poise and presence throughout the game.

Princeton outrebounded (44-30) and outshot (44% to 41%) Missouri. Princeton matched its 3-point total from the Arizona game well within the confines of the first half.

Their steady backbone again was Tosan Evbuomwan, a senior forward from Newcastle, England. Though he finished with what seemed in the box score like a mediocre statistical line, many of his passes set up the passes that did go for assists, exemplifying his fluidity and presence.

“Tosan’s passing, you won’t see that again at Princeton for 50 years,” Henderson said. He added: “The first week of practice — and Ryan and Blake, no offense — but it was like a brilliant, blinding light from heaven.”

It was Princeton associate head coach Brett MacConnell who traveled to England to make the initial contact with Evbuomwan, and that story has cemented itself into legend at the school.

While closing in on the small gym where he would see Evbuomwan for the first time, MacConnell sideswiped a parked car and knocked off the rearview mirror of his rental car. Then, Evbuomwan’s team got blown out and he had an off night.

“I wasn’t expecting much, honestly, after that performance,” Evbuomwan said. “But yeah, things worked out. And I’m here and I’ve had a great time these past four years.”

Princeton’s players, wearing bow-tie patches on their uniforms to honor the late Hall of Fame coach Pete Carril, whose spirit the Tigers still carry, opened a 14-point lead at one point in the first half and continually blunted Missouri’s full-court pressure.

Then, in the second half, just when Missouri threatened, Peters took over. His first four 3-pointers of the second half helped Princeton push its lead to 62-45.

Peters, who is in his second season at Princeton, did not see much court time as a freshman. Accordingly, looking to improve and hoping for more playing time, he went to Israel last summer and helped the U.S. team win a gold medal at the Maccabiah Games.

By the time he was finished with Missouri, the other Tigers looked dispirited, and the Princeton cheering section began sensing the finish.

Even the giant overhead scoreboard that showed the end of Arkansas’ upset of Kansas during a timeout provided a very brief respite for Missouri. Though the Missouri cheering section gave Kansas’ loss a standing ovation, it was back to reality as soon as the timeout in Golden 1 Arena ended, and soon enough, Missouri’s cheering section again was seated with little more to celebrate.

The Princeton players, of course, were plenty festive.

“Coming into this tournament, this is what we all wanted,” Langborg said. “We’re not done yet. We’ve got a bunch of games left, hopefully.”

The next one will arrive this week, against the winner of Sunday’s Creighton-Baylor game. Princeton has won six in a row and hasn’t lost since Feb. 18. And on their trips home, Arizona and Missouri understand why.

— SCOTT MILLER

UConn women race past No. 15 seed Vermont

STORRS, Connecticut — If there was any doubt that the University of Connecticut was on stable footing heading into this year’s women’s NCAA Tournament, its 95-52 defeat over Vermont on Saturday took care of those concerns.

After a tumultuous and injury-filled regular season, the second-seeded Huskies lived up to their dominant reputation on their home court, outscoring and outrunning the No. 15-seeded Catamounts at nearly every turn. Aaliyah Edwards, a 6-foot-3 junior forward, led the Huskies with 28 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

“We didn’t have an answer for her,” Vermont coach Alisa Kresge said of Edwards. “She’s just a worker. She works so hard; she never gives up. She’s really talented, and that was quite a mismatch for us.”

UConn forward Dorka Juhasz recorded a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Azzi Fudd made her first start since Dec. 4 after repeat knee injuries over the year (she kept a brace and knee sleeve on for good measure), while teammate Paige Bueckers, a junior forward who is out for the season with her own knee injury, cheered from the sidelines.

All 10 of UConn’s players scored, in one of the highest-scoring games of the tournament so far. The Huskies scored 53 points in the first half and kept the Catamounts to 20 points, forcing Vermont to take quick shots that failed to land while clearing the paint on offensive drives.

Vermont was led by sophomore guard Catherine Gilwee, with 14 points and five assists. The Catamounts entered the tournament with a 25-6 record, riding a 17-game winning streak; they beat Albany in the America East championship a week ago to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010.

UConn will face Baylor on Monday.

— REMY TUMIN

Houston rallies past Auburn, in Alabama

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — When Houston’s players surmised that Legacy Arena would be filled 90% Saturday night with fans of Auburn, whose campus lies just 110 miles to the southeast, Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson laughed.

“Ninety percent? I’m hoping 90” percent, he said — and not more.

Houston is trying to become the first men’s team in more than a decade to play in a Final Four in its hometown, but even though the Cougars have a No. 1 seed, their path home for a championship is hardly a stroll along a primrose path.

After the Cougars struggled to stave off 16th-seeded Northern Kentucky in the first round, they had to rally from a 10-point halftime deficit Saturday night to defeat ninth-seeded Auburn 81-64 in a decidedly hostile neutral-court environment.

Houston’s victory and Alabama’s win later Saturday ensured that two top seeds would advance to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, after Purdue was shocked by Fairleigh Dickinson on Friday night and Kansas was upset by Arkansas on Saturday. Never have fewer than two top seeds failed to reach the men’s Sweet 16.

Houston seemed in grave danger after a first half in which Auburn, urged on by a rousing partisan crowd, carved up what had been billed as one of the nation’s top defenses, racing out to a 41-31 lead.

But after halftime, the Cougars ratcheted up their defensive pressure. They made sure that if Auburn got to the basket, it was going to have bumps and bruises to show for it, and that the Tigers would have to win the game at the free-throw line.

It was there that the game turned. The Tigers, a reasonably proficient free-throw shooting team, at 70%, failed miserably, clanking shot after shot off the rim.

Auburn managed only one field goal — a breakaway layup by Wendell Green Jr. — in a nearly 15-minute stretch, by which time Houston was comfortably ahead 70-57. The Tigers missed 11 consecutive shots at one point, and weren’t much better from the free-throw line, missing 10 of 13 free throws after Johni Broome had given them a 50-48 lead by making one.

That Houston lost forward J’Wan Roberts to fouls, and had three other starters finish with four fouls, turned out to be merely a footnote. Auburn made just 4 of 24 shots in the second half and missed all five of its 3-point attempts.

— BILLY WITZ

Duke lost as a bracket favorite

Duke’s loss to Tennessee in the men’s round of 32 on Saturday was by no means a stirring surprise, in the way that losses by Purdue, Virginia and Arizona shook up the tournament.

But in bracket competitions online, plenty of people felt the sting anyway, showing how popular Duke remains even in a year of somewhat lowered expectations.

Duke, a No. 5 seed, was among the most popular picks to win a championship in bracket contests hosted by ESPN and Yahoo, with more support than all the No. 4 seeds, including Tennessee, and all but one No. 3, the frequent tournament powerhouse Gonzaga.

The popularity of the Blue Devils came even as modelers, including the KenPom and Sagarin ratings, signaled more modest expectations, prompting a wide range of predictions — with plenty of fans believing that Duke could have an early exit, along with those who expected a deep run.

On Saturday against Tennessee, the Volunteers pulled away early in the second half, and the classic, almost expected push by the Blue Devils never materialized. The No. 5 seed this year was Duke’s lowest in the field since being slated as a No. 6 in 2007; the Blue Devils will miss the regional round of the tournament after a Final Four run a year ago in coach Mike Krzyzewski’s last season.

Duke made the NCAA Tournament for 26 straight years until 2021, when it was in danger of missing out on the March Madness festivities, then canceled its season during the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament because of a player’s positive coronavirus test.

— OSKAR GARCIA

No. 12 seed Florida Gulf Coast takes down a No. 5

VILLANOVA, Pennsylvania — When Sha Carter of Florida Gulf Coast lined up against the taller Bella Murekatete of Washington State for the opening tip, it seemed like the first moment of a mismatch. Carter didn’t attempt to corral the ball, and the Cougars raced to a lead.

Yet that impression flipped in a hurry, as the smaller Florida Gulf Coast team seized control midway through the first quarter and delivered a 74-63 win that showed why it was a popular pick to advance — even among oddsmakers — despite being a No. 12 seed against a No. 5.

Tishara Morehouse, the leading scorer this season for the Eagles entering the game, proved too quick for Washington State’s defenders. She used spin moves and crossovers for scores, tallying 16 points and helping set up Carter to score at will. Carter led the game with 24 points.

The loss was a disappointing finish to a remarkable season for Washington State, which had won four straight games coming into the tournament to capture the championship in the difficult Pac-12 Conference, after finishing seventh in the regular season.

It was the first Pac-12 Tournament title for the Cougars. But when the brackets came out, Florida Gulf Coast immediately stood out as a difficult matchup.

“They’re always underseeded,” Washington State coach Kamie Ethridge said Friday as her team prepared for the game.

Florida Gulf Coast has not lost since late January (an overtime defeat to Liberty), and extended its winning streak to 15 games with the victory.

The Eagles weren’t alone as a winning No. 12 seed Saturday: Toledo took down fifth-seeded Iowa State 80-73 and will move on to face No. 4 seed Tennessee. Florida Gulf Coast will play fourth-seeded Villanova on Monday.

— KRIS RHIM

A Cinderella run ends for No. 13 seed Furman

There is an implicit but unspoken deal between underdogs and the month of March: Most dreams come with rapid expiration dates. And two days after the biggest victory in school history, No. 13 seed Furman’s sell-by date arrived with a 75-52 rout at the hands of fifth-seeded San Diego State in the men’s NCAA Tournament.

Where the Paladins were able to exploit Virginia’s weaknesses in a 68-67 upset Thursday, they were overwhelmed by the Aztecs in almost every aspect of Saturday’s game. Known for its strong defense, San Diego State held Furman, which had averaged 81.7 points this season before the loss, to its lowest single-game total of 2022-23.

Furman shot just 32% from the field (while the Aztecs hit 50% of their shots) and 23.1% from 3-point range. For the season, Furman had shot 48% overall and 34% from 3-point territory.

Furman never led after the midpoint of the first half, and Jalen Slawson, the Southern Conference player of the year, was in foul trouble for much of the second half before fouling out with only 8 points.

“They kept us from driving, kept the ball out of the paint, kept a really strong floor and played really hard,” Slawson said.

It was a complete and impressive performance by the Aztecs, who move on to their first Sweet 16 appearance since 2014, where they will play Alabama on Friday.

The Paladins, meanwhile, will take home indelible memories and stories they will tell friends and families for the rest of their lives.

“It’s an unbelievable story,” Furman coach Bob Richey said, “and I couldn’t be more proud of our team, at a time where I’m extremely disappointed that we didn’t advance. But it’s really hard to not pull the lens back a little bit and still see what that group was able to accomplish.

“For that, I’ll be forever grateful.”

— SCOTT MILLER

Baylor manages comeback for the record books

In a stunning reversal, Baylor turned an 18-point deficit Saturday into a bid for the women’s Sweet 16.

No. 10 seed Alabama kept the seventh-seeded Bears to just 4 points in the first quarter. But as Baylor’s 3-pointers started rolling in, the tide began to shift, and the team outscored Alabama in the three remaining quarters and won the game 78-74.

The comeback was tied for the third-largest in women’s NCAA Tournament history, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Guard Ja’Mee Asberry led Baylor with 26 points, 21 of which came on 3-pointers.

“We were really bad in the first quarter and really good after that — they came out punching,” Baylor coach Nicki Collen said after the game.

Alabama guard Brittany Davis led the Crimson Tide with 33 points, including seven 3-pointers. Davis said Alabama started to get “tired” and “lazy” in the second half of the game; the team committed 19 turnovers, allowing Baylor to slip through its early grip.

“You can’t quit being aggressive this time of year,” Alabama coach Kristy Curry said.

Baylor will face second-seeded Connecticut on Monday.

— REMY TUMIN

Women’s No. 1 seeds prove hard to beat

Indiana’s rout of Tennessee Tech put all four No. 1s in the NCAA women’s tournament into the second round, and perhaps highlighted a reality that has shifted in recent years:

Although a 16-over-1 March Madness upset is exceedingly rare, it’s probably even harder to pull off in the women’s tournament right now than in the men’s.

One night after the Fairleigh Dickinson men delivered the stunner of these festivities over No. 1 seed Purdue, the Indiana women romped past Tennessee Tech by 30 points, 77-47, joining fellow No. 1s South Carolina, Virginia Tech and Stanford in the second round. All four of those teams, playing with home-court advantage, won with ease to start their tournament run, with Virginia Tech winning by the tightest margin at 25 points over Chattanooga.

On Saturday, the Hoosiers pulled away in the second quarter, outscoring Tennessee Tech 21-9 in the period, and shot a breezy 58% for the game as their lead grew and grew. Sydney Parrish led with 19 points.

The men’s tournament had gone without a No. 16 defeating a No. 1 before 2018, but it has now happened twice in the past five tournaments. A similar upset has only occurred once in the women’s tournament since it expanded to 64 teams, when No. 16 seed Harvard beat top-seeded Stanford in 1998.

In that game, Harvard came in feeling like it deserved a higher seed, while Stanford lost two key players, Vanessa Nygaard and Kristin Folkl, to severe knee injuries in the week leading up to the game.

To beat a No. 1 women’s team playing at home, or even a No. 2 — which has never lost to a No. 15 — it may take a similar series of circumstances.

— OSKAR GARCIA