— Iowa 73, Florida 72
Gators become the first #1-seed knocked out of the tournament.
Florida led 65-61 with 5:38 left in the game.
Iowa shot 70.4% inside the arc.
Hawkeyes move on to play Nebraska in the Sweet 16.
— St John’s 67, Kansas 65
St John’s led by 14 with 8:08 left, needed last-second hoop to win.
Red Storm was +8 (16-8) in turnovers.
St John’s was 11-35 on the arc, 14-34 inside arc.
St John’s plays Duke in the Sweet 16 Friday.
— Purdue 79, Miami 69
Miami led 40-38 at halftime.
Boilermakers were 21-22 on foul line, Miami 8-10.
Purdue shot 8-14 on arc, scored 1.20 ppp
Purdue has won 7 in a row; they play Texas in the Sweet 16.
— Tennessee 79, Virginia 72
Volunteers scored 1.21 ppp.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie scored 21 points, had six assists.
Volunteers were 19-25 on foul line, Virginia 6-11.
Tennessee plays Iowa State in the Sweet 16.
— Iowa State 82, Kentucky 63
Cyclones outscored Kentucky 51-33 in second half.
Tamin Lipsey scored 26 points, had 10 assists.
Iowa State shot 57.6% inside arc, scored 1.18 ppp
Cyclones play Tennessee in Sweet 16 Friday.
— UConn 73, UCLA 57
Big man Karaban scored a career-high 27 points.
UCLA led by 6 midway thru first half.
UConn shot 60% inside arc, outscored Bruins 35-24 in 2nd half.
Huskies play Michigan State in Sweet 16 Friday.
—Arizona 78, Utah State 66
Wildcats were 27-39 on foul line, Utah State 8-11
Arizona won despite shooting 38.5% inside arc.
Arizona never trailed, had 54-26 edge on the boards.
Wildcats play Arkansas in Sweet 16 Thursday.
— Alabama 90, Texas Tech 65
Crimson Tide led 49-25 at half; Tech had nothing in this game.
Alabama was 19-42 on arc; Red Raiders were 4-25.
Tech wound up losing four of their last five games.
Alabama-Michigan play in Sweet 16 Friday.
— Famous birthdays, March 23
Bucky Pope, 85
Barbara Rhoades, 80
Pat Bourque, 79
Ron Jaworski, 75
Jason Kidd, 53
Mark Buehrle, 47
Maurice Jones-Drew, 41
Dellin Betances, 38
Gordon Hayward, 36
Clayton Tune, 25
— Conference breakdown, against the spread:
Big XII- 7-3F/3-1U= 10-4 ATS
Big 18- 9-4F/1-1U= 10-5 ATS
SEC- 6-4F/5-3U= 11-7 ATS
ACC- 2-6F/0-4U= 2-10 ATS
Big East- 2-2F/0-1U= 2-3 ATS
WCC- 0-3F/0-1U= 0-4 ATS
Favorites were 26-22 ATS this weekend.
— Good news/bad news for three college teams this month:
Good news: Siena, South Florida, Troy State all made the NCAA Tournament.
Bad news: This weekend, the coaches for those three teams all bolted for higher paying jobs.
Scott Cross goes from Troy to Georgia Tech
Bryan Hodgson goes from South Florida to Providence
Gerry McNamara goes from Siena to Syracuse.
Also, Ark-Little Rock hired Travis Ford, who last coached at Saint Louis in 2024.
— Boise State has played in most NCAA tourney games (10), without ever winning one.
— Was chatting with a guy who had posted that he had a certain pitcher on 14 of his fantasy baseball teams. I asked him how many leagues was he in— he said he had 26 different teams.
I’m in one fantasy league, a dynasty league that we’ve had for 21 years. Can’t even conceive of keeping track of 26 different leagues.
— Phillies signed P Cristopher Sanchez to a six-year contract worth $103M; that contract starts in 2027. Sanchez will earn $3.5M this coming season. Sanchez went 13-5 with a 2.50 ERA in 32 starts last year.
— Odd Note of the Day: Orioles OF Tyler O’Neill has hit a home run on Opening Day the last six years in a row, which is a record.
— Houston is going to be a busy place next weekend.
Angels @ Astros start the baseball season
Sweet 16 and Elite 8 in South Region take place in Houston
PGA Tour has their event in Houston this coming week.
