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Washington Post
31-03-2025
- Sport
- Washington Post
In an NCAA tournament of complaints, Duke and Alabama bring beauty
NEWARK — The pep bands disembarked all the way from Provo and Tuscaloosa and Tucson and Durham, and they took their places behind the baselines as ever, and they played as adeptly as ever, and they typified the March Madness fabric as ever, except that maybe they should have taken Thursday night off and hopped the trains to Manhattan and then Brooklyn for some college-aged revelry. Maybe they wouldn't have minded the redirection. It's just that what the East Region Sweet 16 seemed to need Thursday night — and what the Elite Eight bout between Duke and Alabama might need come Saturday night — would be symphonies. That's because after a sports nation really good at grousing spent the early week grousing about this NCAA tournament and its lack of Cinderellas and photo-finishes, Alabama and Duke and even their prey provided a different reason to tune in to men's college basketball. How about some beauty worthy of violins? What basketball beauty played in the hockey arena here. Even the statue of Martin Brodeur outdoors might have pivoted to appreciate. Four teams shot 131 for 259, or almost 50.6 percent. With Alabama's 113-88 win over BYU and then Duke's 100-93 win over Arizona, the Sweet 16 had its first twin 100-point games since the holy-mercy Mideast Region of 1970, when Artis Gilmore's Jacksonville Dolphins nudged Iowa, 104-103, and Adolph Rupp's latest wow of a Kentucky bested Notre Dame, 109-99. Come a Thursday all these decades later, neither game tested the buzzer, but both games vested the gorgeous. Even the box scores told of triumph over the harsh concept of putting a basketball through a hoop while other more-than-capable people try to prevent same. The star freshman from Maine, 6-foot-9 Cooper Flagg of Duke, so striking in person with his kinetic ease, played 36 minutes with 30 points and 9-for-19 shooting and 3-for-5 three-point shooting and 9-for-10 free throw shooting and seven assists and six rebounds and three blocks and one steal and one measly turnover. His coach, Jon Scheyer, previously an assistant to Mike Krzyzewski, called it 'one of the best tournament performances I've ever coached or been a part of.' The more entrenched Mark Sears of Alabama, a senior who piloted a Final Four berth last year, lent the earlier evening a gorgeous parade of splashes with his 11 for 18 overall and his 10 for 16 from downtown and his 34 points and his — maybe this part is the best — eight assists. His coach, Nate Oats, suggested Sears had played 'chess, not checkers,' given how six preceding games with 5-for-35 long-range shooting might have sent onlookers into a lull. Gaze at numbers. Alabama had 27 assists. Duke had 20. Duke shot 33 for 55 with offense so efficient it surely couldn't major in freshmen. (It did.) Alabama shot 35 for 66 with offense that surpassed and thus conjured one of the darling tournament moments of all time: Loyola Marymount. The Crimson Tide's unimaginable 25 for 51 from three-point range surpassed the durable record 21 three-point shots No. 11 seed Loyola Marymount made in its 1990 win over No. 3 seed Michigan by 149-115, one of the most astounding final scores in tournament history. By contrast, Duke, with otherworldly efficiency, shot a sublime 11 for 19 (57.9 percent) from distance. How so-so. 'They were a machine on offense,' Arizona Coach Tommy Lloyd said without the 'machine' part sounding clichéd. 'That was a fun game,' Oats said of his game earlier, 'if you like offense.' People do! And so the match between two programs making second straight Elite Eight appearances does look sumptuous. That's even if it won't include the eternal Caleb Love, the Arizona guard and former North Carolina guard who closed out a five-season career frequenting the heights with a good-grief 35 points on 11 for 21 and 5 for 11 from yonder. That seemed almost subdued given the multi-man deluge Duke (34-3) presented in its 30th win in its past 31, with its mighty accoutrements such as Sion James's 5 for 6 and 16 points or big man Khaman Maluach's 6 for 8 and six rebounds and four blocks and 13 points or Kon Knueppel's 5 for 7 and four rebounds and 20 points. It felt as if the stars had entered the building when they entered at 9:33 p.m. with all their buzz in a land that loves stars, with the biggest star named Flagg. 'His shooting has gotten so much better,' Lloyd said, four months after the teams played in November, a 69-55 Duke win. 'He makes 3 of 5 from three today, 9 of 10 from the free throw line. And just his ability to play-make. They've done a great job. They're a team that they come down, they have a plan, they know what they want to get, and they're able to get it consistently, which is hard to do. We're not a bad defensive team, but they make you feel like it for long stretches today. They've done a really good job creating certainty, and all their young guys have gotten better. Their vets like [Tyrese] Proctor, Sion James — he's impressive — have gotten better.' In their midst, Flagg operates. At barely 18, he seems supernaturally comfortable in his skin and frame. He wows with spins and assists and know-how while never tipping over into inefficiency. He takes a rebound pass from Mason Gillis and takes a few giant steps and jacks a 25-foot three just before halftime, causing momentum. He wriggles unforeseeably through two defenders to make a lob to Maluach. He staggers out of a near-interception with the ball and makes another lob to Maluach. He pairs all of that with unprepossessing quotations such as, 'They put me in some really good spots tonight.' Scheyer says of it all: 'What I've wanted from him is not to defer. I've just wanted him to fully be him, and I thought he was that. He was in his element tonight. He was him. He had just a great personality. He was loose, talking, competitive, the whole thing. So, yeah, he impresses me all the time.' Duke led by 19 with 13:12 left, then led by five with 1:33 left, then held nerve with 23-for-27 free throw shooting et al, so that Scheyer said, 'You know, they're not afraid, and you hope to recruit that, but until they get here you don't really know.' With Sears and his 10 for 16 and Aden Holloway and his 6 for 13, Alabama's 25 threes roared past Loyola Marymount's 35-year record even if Sears's 10 couldn't quite get to the single-game 11 still standing as a March Madness record for Loyola Marymount's Jeff Fryer. 'Yeah,' Sears said in classic launcher dialect, 'even when I was shooting 14 percent my confidence was still high.' Of course, teammate Chris Youngblood said: 'To be honest with you, before y'all talking about 14 percent [in the past six games], I had no idea he was shooting 14 percent because I never really pay attention to — Mark is an incredible player. All I know is when he gets the ball, the defense is collapsing on him, so it doesn't feel like he's shooting 14 percent.' Come pretty Thursday, Sears saw a bucket 'as big as an ocean' even when a pond would have done. The whole thing had Oats remembering watching Loyola Marymount in 1990, and 'Bo Kimble shooting left-handed free throws in honor of Hank' Gathers, the star who had died just before that tournament. And it wound up a night of gorgeous basketball with Oats saying of his players: 'They're supposed to be off their legs as soon as the media gets out of the locker room. Let's get them back to the hotel. Let's get them off their legs. Let's get the recovery started.' That's a prudent idea because who knows what beauty awaits Saturday. It might even call for the bands to keep on reveling in Brooklyn.
Miami Herald
28-03-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
NCAA Tournament roundup: Alabama rides historic shooting to down BYU
Mark Sears led a historic 3-point barrage with 10-of-16 accuracy from deep, racking up 34 points to power No. 2 seed Alabama to a 113-88 victory over No. 6 seed BYU in an East Region Sweet 16 matchup Thursday in Newark, N.J. Alabama (28-8) made 25 3-pointers on 51 attempts, breaking NCAA Tournament records with both marks. The Crimson Tide are looking for their second straight Final Four berth. Sears added eight assists and came one 3-pointer shy of tying the individual tournament record (Jeff Fryer, 1990 Loyola Marymount). Aden Holloway joined in with 23 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the arc. Richie Saunders paced BYU (26-10) with 25 points and Egor Demin contributed 15 points and seven assists. The Cougars outscored the Crimson Tide 50-16 in the paint but went 6-for-30 (20 percent) on 3-point tries. No. 1 Duke 100, No. 4 Arizona 93 Freshman star Cooper Flagg tallied 30 points, seven assists, six rebounds and three blocks as the Blue Devils survived the Wildcats in Newark. The Blue Devils (34-3) made 13 consecutive shots from the floor, including their first nine of the second half, to leap ahead before fending off a valiant Arizona comeback spearheaded by Caleb Love's season-high 35 points. Kon Knueppel scored 20 points and Sion James 16 for Duke. Jaden Bradley contributed 15 and Henri Veesaar added 13 for the Wildcats (24-13), who couldn't keep up despite making 12 3-pointers. WEST No. 1 Florida 87, No. 4 Maryland 71 Will Richard scored 15 points to pace six players in double figures, and the Gators defeated the Terrapins in San Francisco. Alijah Martin added 14 points and Walter Clayton Jr. had 13 for Florida, which held a 29-3 advantage in bench scoring. The Gators (33-4) also outrebounded the Terrapins 42-20. Maryland freshman Derik Queen, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year and potential NBA draft lottery pick, scored 27 points for Maryland (27-9). Guard Ja'Kobi Gillespie added 17 points. No. 3 Texas Tech 85, No. 10 Arkansas 83 Darrion Williams' driving layup with seven seconds left in overtime completed a dramatic comeback for the Red Raiders and salvaged an otherwise off night for Williams against the Razorbacks in San Francisco. Williams also hit a 3-pointer from well beyond the top of the arc with nine seconds left in regulation to force the extra period. In the first half, he was only 2 of 12 from the floor. Christian Anderson led Texas Tech (28-8) with 22 points while JT Toppin added 20. Kevin Overton had 12 off the bench. Arkansas (22-14), which led 61-45 midway through the second half, got a game-high 30 points from Johnell Davis and 20 from Karter Knox. --Field Level Media Field Level Media 2023 - All Rights Reserved
Reuters
28-03-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
NCAA Tournament roundup: Alabama rides historic shooting to down BYU
March 28 - Mark Sears led a historic 3-point barrage with 10-of-16 accuracy from deep, racking up 34 points to power No. 2 seed Alabama to a 113-88 victory over No. 6 seed BYU in an East Region Sweet 16 matchup Thursday in Newark, N.J. Alabama (28-8) made 25 3-pointers on 51 attempts, breaking NCAA Tournament records with both marks. The Crimson Tide are looking for their second straight Final Four berth. Sears added eight assists and came one 3-pointer shy of tying the individual tournament record (Jeff Fryer, 1990 Loyola Marymount). Aden Holloway joined in with 23 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the arc. Richie Saunders paced BYU (26-10) with 25 points and Egor Demin contributed 15 points and seven assists. The Cougars outscored the Crimson Tide 50-16 in the paint but went 6-for-30 (20 percent) on 3-point tries. No. 1 Duke 100, No. 4 Arizona 93 Freshman star Cooper Flagg tallied 30 points, seven assists, six rebounds and three blocks as the Blue Devils survived the Wildcats in Newark. The Blue Devils (34-3) made 13 consecutive shots from the floor, including their first nine of the second half, to leap ahead before fending off a valiant Arizona comeback spearheaded by Caleb Love's season-high 35 points. on Knueppel scored 20 points and Sion James 16 for Duke. Jaden Bradley contributed 15 and Henri Veesaar added 13 for the Wildcats (24-13), who couldn't keep up despite making 12 3-pointers. WEST No. 1 Florida 87, No. 4 Maryland 71 Will Richard scored 15 points to pace six players in double figures, and the Gators defeated the Terrapins in San Francisco. Alijah Martin added 14 points and Walter Clayton Jr. had 13 for Florida, which held a 29-3 advantage in bench scoring. The Gators (33-4) also outrebounded the Terrapins 42-20. Maryland freshman Derik Queen, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year and potential NBA draft lottery pick, scored 27 points for Maryland (27-9). Guard Ja'Kobi Gillespie added 17 points. No. 3 Texas Tech 85, No. 10 Arkansas 83 Darrion Williams' driving layup with seven seconds left in overtime completed a dramatic comeback for the Red Raiders and salvaged an otherwise off night for Williams against the Razorbacks in San Francisco. Williams also hit a 3-pointer from well beyond the top of the arc with nine seconds left in regulation to force the extra period. In the first half, he was only 2 of 12 from the floor. Christian Anderson led Texas Tech (28-8) with 22 points while JT Toppin added 20. Kevin Overton had 12 off the bench. Arkansas (22-14), which led 61-45 midway through the second half, got a game-high 30 points from Johnell Davis and 20 from Karter Knox.
USA Today
26-03-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
March Madness: Expert predictions for Florida-Maryland in 2025 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16
March Madness: Expert predictions for Florida-Maryland in 2025 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 The Florida Gators will take on the Maryland Terrapins in the NCAA Tournament's East Region Sweet 16 on Thursday evening as March Madness continues to roll along. The top-seeded UF squad has won seven in a row, including an SEC Tournament title plus victories over the 16th-seeded Norfolk State Spartans and the eighth-seeded — and two-time defending national champions — UConn Huskies in the first two rounds. This is the Orange and Blue's first visit to the second weekend of the Big Dance since 2017. The two schools have split their four all-time matchups. Florida won the first two in 1932 and 2002. Maryland took the more recent games in 2003 and 2021. The Gators come into this contest favored by seven points according to the oddsmakers, but anything can happen in the NCAA Tournament. Below is a look at how the Gators Wire staff sees the game going down in San Francisco on Thursday evening. 'Florida's got the edge' "I believe Florida has the edge heading into this Sweet 16 clash with Maryland. The Gators are clicking at the right time and I truly believe that gritty, hard-nosed battle against UConn in their last game showed that the Gators can win those types of ugly games. Maryland's a solid team, but they haven't faced a team like Florida that can really put you on your heels if you don't stay focused. "If the Gators can take care of the ball and keep pounding the glass, it's hard to see Maryland keeping up. Bottom line: Florida's depth and toughness should carry them through." — Aidan Gallardo Prediction: Florida 77, Maryland 70 'This game is going to be decided by the bench' "Both Florida and Maryland boast elite starting fives, so this game is going to be decided by the bench. Fortunately, the Gators have one of the deepest rosters in the country and like to outlast their opponent until the conditioning fails. When they see a moment, the Orange and Blue strike and put the game away, which is exactly what I expect to happen on Thursday. "The Terrapins play at about the same pace as the Gators, so there will be no Big East slowdown of the game as we saw against UConn. They also have a top-six defense, while Florida has a top-two offense. Something is going to have to give, and it will probably be Maryland's defense whenever the starters are catching their breath. Thomas Haugh legacy game incoming? Bet on it." — David Rosenberg Prediction: Florida 81, Maryland 74 'Will complacency be a problem again?' "The Gators have shown their mortality in the first two tournament games, letting their foot off the gas for the final 25 minutes of the first-round game and needing a late rally to prevail in the second round. While Florida still earned the win in those games, the team has not been clicking quite as well as during the SEC Tournament, but it is still the hottest team in the nation. "Will complacency be a problem again on Thursday? Do not count on it. Golden and Co. are in this for the big trophy." — Adam Dubbin Prediction: Florida 77, Maryland 67 Watch Florida vs Maryland in Sweet 16 The Gators will take on the Terrapins on Thursday, March 27, in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 in San Francisco at the Chase Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:39 p.m. ET and the game will be carried nationally on TBS. Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.
