— Purdue 79, Texas 77
Purdue scored game-winning hoop on a tip-in with 0:00.7 left.
Purdue shot 61.9% inside arc, scored 1.30 ppp
Tramon Mark scored 29 points, had no assists for Texas.
— Iowa 77, Nebraska 71
Nebraska led by 10 in first half, 46-43 at halftime.
Bennett Stirtz played 40:00 for 11th time in last 15 games.
Iowa coach McCollum has won 4 national titles, at the D-II level.
Since 2011, #9-seeds are 5-0 ATS in Sweet 16 games.
Iowa was only the second #9-seed in the last seven years to make the Sweet 16.
— Arizona 109, Arkansas 88
Arizona led 54-43 at halftime.
Wildcats are in Elite 8 for first time since 2015.
Arizona shot 64% from floor, was 30-39 on foul line.
— Illinois 65, Houston 55
Illinois led 24-22 at halftime.
Illini was 12-21 on foul line, Houston 2-2
Making win more impressive is fact that game was in Houston.
— Will Wade has bolted NC State and will go back to LSU to coach.
This is his career path:
2013-15- Chattanooga
2016-18- VCU
2017-22- LSU (108-54/56-33 in SEC/3-3 in NCAA’s)
2023-25- McNeese State
2025-26- NC State
2026-???— back to LSU
— South Florida hired Chris Mack as its new coach, after Mack was 45-20 in two years at the College of Charleston. He previously coached at Xavier, Louisville.
— Butler hired Ronald Nored as their new coach; Nored played for Butler back when Brad Stevens was the coach, and led the Bulldogs to consecutive Final Fours. For the last three years, he’s been an assistant coach with the Atlanta Hawks.
— Boston College named UConn assistant Luke Murray its new basketball coach; you’ve probably heard of his dad, the great comic actor Bill Murray.
Boston College hasn’t been in the NCAA’s since 2009.
— Famous birthdays, March 27th:
Dick Ruthven, 75
Cliff Stoudt, 71
Randall Cunningham, 63
Quentin Tarantino, 63
Pauley Perrette, 57
Jake Odorizzi, 36
Buster Posey, 39
Brandon Nimmo, 33
Brycen Hopkins, 29
Tyler Kolek, 25
— Fantasy baseball is big business; there was a ballroom in Las Vegas last week, with seven different fantasy drafts going on at the same time. Big money leagues, from what I read.
— Red Sox 3, Reds 0
Garrett Crochet threw six shutout innings.
Game was scoreless after six innings.
Marcelp Mayer didn’t start, but was 2-2, scored twice.
— Mets 11, Pirates 7
Carson Benge homered in his first MLB game.
Francisco Lindor walked three times, scored three runs.
Pirates’ CF Oneil Cruz misplayed two fly balls in first inning, leading to five runs; he wasn’t wearing sunglasses, and didn’t wear them after that, either. Oy.
— Diamondbacks don’t have any lefties in their bullpen; unusual.
— Nationals 10, Cubs 4
Washington scored six runs in 4th inning, took at 7-2 lead.
Joey Wiemer went 3-for-5 with a home run.
Nationals bullpen got 16 outs, only gave up a run.
— Cardinals 9, Rays 7
Game was 1-1 after five innings.
Tampa’s bullpen gave up eight runs in three innings.
Alec Burleson went 3-for-4, hit a home run.
— Tigers 8, Padres 2
Detroit scored four runs in first inning, led 6-0 in third inning.
Rookie 3B McGonigle was 4-for-5, scored twice in his MLB debut.
This is one of seven interleague series this weekend.
