NCAA men's Final Four recap: UConn continues March Madness ...

The college basketball world will be focused on Houston, where the men's Final Four tipped off Saturday.

The Cinderellas have taken over the sport in the last two weeks and now four teams who each surprised during the tournament are ready to play after leaving busted brackets along the way.

Florida Atlantic, a school of about 25,000 students located in Boca Raton, Florida, made only its second NCAA Tournament appearance. The Owls blitzed through the East Region, but lost to San Diego State 72-71 after the Aztecs came back from a 14-point deficit and won the game on Lamont Butler's buzzer-beater.

In the second semifinal, UConn continued its March Madness domination, cruising past No. 5 Miami 72-59.

Follow along for live updates throughout the night:

UConn continues NCAA Tournament domination with win over Miami

Forward Adama Sanogo had a game-high 21 points and No. 4 Connecticut continued a historically dominant march through this NCAA men's basketball tournament with a 72-59 win against No. 5 Miami to reach Monday night's national championship game.

The Huskies will face No. 5 San Diego State, which beat No. 9 Florida Atlantic 72-71 in the first national semifinal on a last-second buzzer beater by guard Lamont Butler.

This has been an NCAA tournament for the ages for UConn, which has now beaten five teams by at least 13 points: No. 13 Iona (87-63), No. 5 Saint Mary's (70-55), No. 8 Arkansas (88-65), No. 3 Gonzaga (82-54) and the Hurricanes.

While the Aztecs are the first team in men's tournament history to win Elite Eight and Final Four games by one point apiece, UConn was only the eighth team to reach the semifinals having defeated four opponents by 15 or more points.

This one, like the wins against Arkansas and Gonzaga, saw the Huskies in almost wire-to-wire control.

— Paul Myerberg

Miami's Nijel Pack on bench with broken shoe

Hurricanes sophomore guard Nijel Pack is on the bench with what CBS reports is a broken shoe. The team checked the locker room for a replacement and an assistant came to the bench with a pair of black sneakers. Pack looked them over before shaking his head and handing them back. The assistant ran back to the locker room as Jordan Hawkins made a pair of free throws to extend Connecticut's lead to 53-40.

Pack has eight points for the Hurricanes.

Pack returned to the court with about four minutes left in the game. SportsCenter reports that the UConn staff found a pair of shoes for him to wear.

The UConn Huskies take their largest lead of the game into the half, up 13 points over the Miami Hurricanes after Joey Calcaterra made a three-point shot at the buzzer. The Huskies go into the break up 37-24.

The Hurricanes tied the game at 19 with 8:23 on the clock, but UConn went on an 8-0 run to take back the lead. Miami was held to only nine field goals in the first half.

Huskies junior forward Adama Sanogo is the game's leading scorer with 13 points. Senior guard Jordan Miller has seven points for Miami.

Connecticut star guard Jordan Hawkins has not scored since opening the game with a 3-point bucket.

There is a small window where college basketball intersects with Major League Baseball and Saturday hit the sweet spot. The San Diego Padres were hosting the Colorado Rockies at Petco Park and the starting lineups were being announced right as Lamont Butler won San Diego State's Final Four game with a buzzer-beater. The game was being broadcast on the stadium's video boards and the crowd cheered loudly as their hometown team advanced to its first national championship game.

The Miami Hurricanes didn't stay down for long as they erased a 10-point deficit in five minutes of play. Nijel Pack scored a three-point shot with 8:23 in the first half to tie the game at 19 and slow down the Connecticut Huskies' momentum.

The Hurricanes went on a 15-5 run kicked off by a trey from star guard Isaiah Wong.

The Connecticut Huskies wasted no time in asserting themselves over the Miami Hurricanes. Six minutes into the game, Tristen Newton made a 3-point shot to put the Huskies up 14-4. Adama Sanogo had two buckets from behind the arc to build UConn's lead. Miami is shooting 2-of-14 from the field, for a shooting percentage of 0.143.

UConn sophomore guard Jordan Hawkins is set to start after battling a stomach bug this week, CBS' Tracy Wolfson reported prior to the team's Final Four game against the Miami Hurricanes. He didn't practice Friday and received "round the clock treatment." He was participating in shootaround prior to tipoff Saturday night.

Hawkins averaged 16.3 points for the Huskies during the regular season and is averaging 17.3 points in the NCAA tournament. He had 24 points in the Sweet 16 win against the Arkansas Razorbacks.

He scored the first points of the game, a three-point shot.

The San Diego State Aztecs beat the Florida Atlantic Owls 72-71 Saturday in Houston to advance to their first national championship game.

Lamont Butler made the game-winning shot at the buzzer after San Diego State trailed the entire second half.

"The plan was just to get downhill, they cut me off a little bit, I looked back, there was two seconds left, so I got to a shot that I was comfortable with," Butler said on ESPN after the game, "and I hit it. I'm happy."

The Aztecs were down by as many as 14 points and tied the game at 65 with 4:05 on the clock. The Owls answered with a jumpshot from Giancarlo Rosad, but couldn't quite pull away comfortably. It's the fifth-largest comeback in Final Four history.

Florida Atlantic's sophomore guard Alijah Martin was the game's leading scorer with 26 points. Aztecs senior guard Matt Bradley had 21 points.

After being down by as many as 14 points, the San Diego Aztecs tied the game at 65 points with 4:26 left on the clock in Final Four action. The team came within two of the Florida Atlantic Owls multiple times, but senior forward Aguek Arop made the jumper that finally leveled the score. San Diego has 11 offensive rebounds compared with Florida Atlantic's seven, which is helping the Aztecs in their comeback.

The Florida Atlantic Owls have maintained their lead through the second half, but not without a fight from the San Diego State Aztecs. Brian Dutcher's team is within two after going on a 16-4 run, capped off by a pair of free throws from Matt Bradley. The senior guard had a key three-point shot in the run. The Aztecs are down 60-58 with 9:05 on the clock.

San Diego State also had a short 5-0 run to start the period that shook the Owls' momentum.

Women's Final Four does big ratings for ESPN

With South Carolina's Aliyah Boston and Iowa's Caitlin Clark facing off in the women's Final Four on Friday night, ratings were expected to be high.

They were record-setting for ESPN, the network announced Saturday.

ESPN, which broadcast both NCAA Tournament semifinal games, said the LSU-Virginia Tech early game averaged 3.4 million viewers with a peak of 5 million across network platforms. That was up 57% from last year's early game.

Iowa-South Carolina averaged 5.5 million with a peak of 6.6 million, up 72% from last year's late game.

Both games drew record audiences for a college basketball game – men's or women's – on ESPN+, the network said.

— Mike Brehm

The Florida Atlantic Owls are up 40-33 over the San Diego State Aztecs at the half. The Owls' lead was as large as 10, but Keshad Johnson made a 3-point shot with 39 seconds on the clock to keep the difference single digits.

"We've been able to open up some gaps and drive those gaps," Owls head coach Dusty May said on the CBS broadcast. He said his message to the team in the locker room will be to keep playing, "frame by frame, possession by possession."

San Diego State is shooting 13-of-29 from the field, but has gone 5-of-11 from beyond the arc.

Aztecs senior guard Matt Bradley is the game's leading scorer with 11 points. He's made three treys. For the Owls, freshman guard Nicholas Boyd has nine points.

Florida Atlantic and San Diego State are playing in their first Final Four game. The Owls made a statement first, going up 5-0 with a three-point bucket from Nicholas Boyd and a jumpshot from Johnell Davis. The Aztecs crept ahead with back-to-back baskets from Matt Bradley, but Florida Atlantic took the lead again with a 16-3 run. The Owls are up 21-17 halfway through the first half.

When does Men's NCAA Tournament Final Four start?

The first national semifinal between Florida Atlantic and San Diego State tips off at 6:09 p.m. ET on Saturday.

The second game between UConn and Miami will begin 30 minutes after the first game finishes, at approximately 8:49 p.m. ET.

The winners of the two semifinals will meet in the men's national championship game, which will be played on Monday, April 3, starting at 9:20 p.m. ET.

Miami coach Jim Larranaga has elite March Madness dance moves

The Miami Hurricanes football team of the 1980s won three national championships and was known for its dance moves, flips, touchdown celebrations and sack celebrations.

The men's basketball team carries on the legacy as this season, head coach Jim Larrañaga has led his players to the program's first Final Four. Since taking over the Hurricanes in 2011, he has led Miami to four Sweet 16 appearances and back-to-back Elite Eight berths, including this year's run.

All along the way, he has shimmied and two-stepped along with his team in each victory celebration, delighting fans across the country.

"It's really about March Madness is the big dance," Larrañaga said on CBS' Final Four Show. "You have to have fun. And everybody loves dancing."

- Victoria Hernandez

BIG DANCE:Jim Larrañaga has some elite March Madness dance moves

Final Four predictions

The NCAA men's tournament field has been whittled from 68 to four in a matter of two weeks of postseason games. The remaining quartet arrives in Houston with just one of the top 16 seeds remaining. That school, No. 4 Connecticut, will be joined by three first-time Final Four participants – No. 5 seeds San Diego State and Miami (Florida) and No. 9 Florida Atlantic.

Here's who the USA TODAY Sports has to win:

FAU vs. San Diego State

Dan Wolken: FAU

Paul Myerberg: SDSU

Eddie Timanus: SDSU

Erick Smith: SDSU

Miami vs. UConn

Wolken: UConn

Myerberg: UConn

Timanus: Miami

Smith: UConn

Will Florida Atlantic stay together after Final Four?

In the era of the transfer portal, the most pressing concern for FAU is retaining a talented but overlooked roster put on national display during four successive NCAA men's tournament wins.

"Without a doubt, it's going to be fluid every single day," coach Dusty May said. "And until the ball is tipped up next season, you may not know truly who your roster is going to be, and it's part of it. Luckily, I'm still relatively young and have a lot of energy, because I don't think there's going to be a day where you can just relax and not fear your phone buzzing."

– Paul Myerberg

How Michigan's Fab Five legacy runs through San Diego State

San Diego State's Final Four run traces back to the glory and heartache of the Fab Five era at Michigan, where current Aztecs head coach Brian Dutcher was an assistant under Steve Fisher.

“I’ve heard from all five of them,” Dutcher told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday. “They texted me 'Good luck,' 'Congratulations,' 'Go get ‘em.' "

– Brent Schrotenboer

Connecticut's Sanogo manages fasting for Ramadan while leading team's Final Four run

HOUSTON — Nine minutes before Saturday’s second national semifinal is scheduled to tip off, Connecticut center Adama Sanogo is going to eat.

It won’t be much. Maybe just some oranges and coconut water, but he will get something in his stomach. And that’s going to be a lot better than what Sanogo had to deal with last weekend at the West Regional in Las Vegas.

“I’m not trying to think about it,” he said. “The more you’re thinking about it, the more it’s hard to do it.”

Sanogo, a native of Mali who has arguably been UConn’s best player during the NCAA men’s tournament, is Muslim and currently observing Ramadan, a month where he is not allowed to eat or drink from sunrise to sunset.

- Dan Wolken

SDSU assistant Mark Fisher, living with ALS, is helping Aztecs at Final Four

The assistant confined to a wheelchair helps explain the makeup of the men’s Final Four.

More specifically, to understand how fifth-seeded San Diego State earned the school’s first trip to the Final Four where it will be playing Saturday against Florida Atlantic in Houston, it helps to know Mark Fisher, who serves as an assistant to Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher.

He is the son of Steve Fisher, the retired basketball coach who won a national championship with Michigan in 1989 and took the school back to the Final Four in 1992 and 1993 with the celebrated "Fab Five."

More importantly, Mark Fisher, 44, has no use of his arms and legs.

But before tip-off here is some essential reading to get you ready.

– Josh Peter

From FAU's nasty locker rooms to the Final Four

HOUSTON — In May of 2008, Craig Angelos was looking for something that would give Florida Atlantic basketball a spark. So he drove two miles from campus and went to church.

The purpose of the trip wasn’t prayer, even though the program could have used some. Angelos, then FAU’s athletics director, had gone to meet with Mike Jarvis, the former George Washington and St. John’s coach who had moved to Boca Raton and become an influential member at Spanish River Church. They did the interview right there in the pastor's office.

“He was a great coach, but I also thought, he’s part of this 6,000-member church right by FAU,” said Angelos, now a senior deputy athletics director at Long Island University. “So if we have any of his friends come to games, maybe 100 or 200 or even 1,000 because they want to support their fellow church member, that’s a huge plus. In Boca, you need a guy who can do more than just coach.”

– Dan Wolken

Will Miami's Norchard Omier play football?

HOUSTON — The University of Miami birthed one of the great basketball-to-football conversions of all time when Jimmy Graham, a four-year basketball role player for the Hurricanes, picked up football as a graduate student in 2009.

NFL scouts saw enough of Graham’s size, speed and athleticism in that one year of college football to make him a third-round draft pick. He went on to catch 713 passes in the NFL, make five Pro Bowls and become one of the best tight ends of his generation.

People who watch Miami for the first time Saturday when they play Connecticut in the Final Four may get flashbacks when they see center Norchad Omier, a 6-foot-7 block of steel whose physical profile suggests he could be a big-time NFL prospect.

- Dan Wolken

Here are some stories to get you ready before tip-off.

WHO IS TAKING THE TITLE?: See USA TODAY staff's Final Four staff predictions

EXPECTING SURPRISES: Five bold predictions for the men's NCAA Tournament's Final Four

ANOTHER RUN?: Three ways Florida Atlantic's team can stay together

30 YEARS LATER: Fab Five legacy lives with San Diego State at Final Four

March Madness bracket Elite 8 updates: UConn, FAU reach Final Four

March Madness, indeed! The men's NCAA Tournament has included all the mayhem expected during this time of year – with bracket-busting commonplace.

"The No. 1 overall seed doesn't guarantee you're going to win," Alabama coach Nate Oats said on the TBS broadcast after his team was upset.

After Friday's action, the Elite Eight was officially set, and it didn't feature a No. 1 seed for the first time in history, the Sweet 16 seeing No. 1 overall Alabama and No.1 Houston fall to No. 5 San Diego State and No. 5 Miami (Florida), respectively. Additionally, No. 6 Creighton and No. 2 Texas clinched spots into the weekend.

The Elite Eight began Saturday with No. 9 Florida Atlantic's victory over No. 3 Kansas State. Then, No. 4 UConn dominated No. 3 Gonzaga.

NCAA TOURNAMENT BRACKETS:See who's alive as March Madness continues

Here's everything you need to know to be ready for the action:

No. 4 UConn dominates No. 3 Gonzaga to reach first Final Four since 2014

The Connecticut Huskies are headed to the Final Four for the first time since 2014 after demolishing the Gonzaga Bulldogs, 82-54, Saturday in the West Regional final.

No. 4 seed Connecticut shut down No. 3 Gonzaga with its smothering defense in an Elite Eight matchup at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Gonzaga entered the game with the top-scoring offense in the country with 87 points per game. But the Bulldogs scored only 32 points in the first half, and things got even worse in the second half.

Sophomore guard Jordan Hawkins led Connecticut with 20 points.

Connecticut has won each of its four Tournament games by at least 15 points and moves into the Final Four for the first time under head coach Dan Hurley.

The Huskies had not won an NCAA Tournament game during the first four seasons of Hurley’s tenure. But in Year 5 they will play the Miami-Texas winner in a semifinal game at the Final Four in Houston.

On Saturday, Gonzaga star forward Drew Timme scored 12 in what is expected to be his last game for the Bulldogs. Last month he told The Athletic, “I’ve done my four years. I’m a senior, and I’m moving on.’’

In its first three games of the tournament, Connecticut won by an average of 20.3 points. Those lopsided victories over No. 13 seed Iona, No. 5 seed St. Mary’s and No. 8 seed Arkansas were a testament to the Huskies' talent as they rolled into the Elite Eight and then past Gonzaga.

For Gonzaga, the loss ended its hopes of reaching the Final Four for the second time in three seasons.

– Josh Peter

Drew Timme picks up fourth foul early in second half vs. UConn

As Connecticut pulled away in the second half, Gonzaga star Drew Timme found himself in an unfortunate place.

The bench.

Timme headed there with 17:39 left to play and Connecticut leading by 10 points after he picked up his fourth foul in the Elite Eight match. One more foul and he’ll be on the bench for good.

But Gonzaga coach Mark Few put Timme back in the game about three minutes later – out of desperation. When Timme reentered the game, Gonzaga trailed 58-37.

Timme, a senior forward and Gonzaga’s all-time leading scorer, had led the Bulldogs against the Huskies with 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting before Few pulled him from the game after the fourth foul.

– Josh Peter

UConn leads Gonzaga after fierce first half

The No. 4 UConn Huskies lead the No. 3 Gonzaga Bulldogs 39-32 at the half of their Elite Eight game in Las Vegas.

After the Huskies went up 9-2 early, the Bulldogs crept back and took a 25-14 lead with 5:24 on the clock. But UConn utilized a well-balanced offense and took advantage of Gonzaga’s poor backcourt performance (only making one 3-point shot) to get back in front.

Juniors Andre Jackson Jr. and Adama Sonogo teamed up for a pair of plays down the stretch, including an exciting dunk, which the former is becoming known for. Sonogo already has a career-high five assists.

Freshman forward Alex Karaban leads the Huskies with 10 points. For the Bulldogs, senior forward Drew Timme and junior guard Julian Strawther each have nine points.

Florida Atlantic celebrates first trip to Final Four

The Florida Atlantic Owls are soaring high after beating the Kansas State Wildcats to earn their first Final Four berth.

Players jumped around elated after the team was handed the trophy. Still in uniform as his teammates donned their championship T-shirts, sophomore center Vladislav Goldin let out a yell. He recorded a double-double en route to the victory.

The Owls cut down the net with joy beaming from their faces at Madison Square Garden, one of basketball’s most hallowed grounds.

– Victoria Hernandez

No. 9 Florida Atlantic takes down No. 3 Kansas State to reach Final Four

The Florida Atlantic Owls continued their fairy-tale run, earning a spot in the Final Four with a 79-76 victory over Kansas State Saturday in the East Regional final.

Florida Atlantic senior Michael Forrest made four clutch free throws in the final 18 seconds to help lift the ninth-seeded Owls past the third-seeded Wildcats.

Vladislav Golden, Florida Atlantic’s 7-foot-1 center, had 14 points and 13 rebounds.

Markquis Nowell, Kansas State’s dynamic point guard, had 30 points and 12 assists.

Florida Atlantic trailed 63-57 when Nowell made a 3-pointer with 8:39 left to play. Then the Owls staged their comeback.

Florida Atlantic (35-3) will play the San Diego State-Creighton winner in a semifinal game at the Final Four in Houston.

The ninth-seeded Owls are making just their second appearance in the NCAA Tournament and had not won a Tournament game until this year. But they have been unstoppable, beating No. 8 Memphis, No. 15 Fairleigh Dickinson and then No. 4 Tennessee before upsetting Kansas State.

For Kansas State (26-10), the loss ended an unexpectedly stellar season. The Wildcats were picked last in the Big 12 preseason poll but finished third in the regular season before embarking on their postseason run.

In the Tournament, the Wildcats beat No. 14 Montana State, No. 6 Kentucky No. 7 Michigan State before falling one game shy of reaching the Final Four for the first time since 1964.

Florida Atlantic made its first Tournament appearance in 2002. The Owls, seeded No. 15 that year, lost to No. 2 seed Alabama, 86-78.

– Josh Peter

Half: No. 9 FAU 42, No. 3 Kansas State 38

Despite turning the ball over a dozen times, Florida Atlantic entered halftime with a four-point lead on Kansas State. The Owls maintained a slight lead by controlling the glass, outrebounding the Wildcats 22-9.

Vladislav Goldin is closing in on a double-double with eight points and eight rebounds, including four offensive rebounds. Alijah Martin added nine points.

Markquis Nowell leads Kansas State with 15 points and seven assists.

Half of the Elite Eight is set after a series of regional semifinals highlighted by perhaps the best game of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

That would be No. 3 Kansas State's 98-93 overtime win against Michigan State that included a historic performance by senior point guard Markquis Nowell, who dished out a tournament-record 19 assists.

Also on Thursday, No. 4 Connecticut ran all over No. 8 Arkansas to reach the Elite Eight for the first time since winning the 2014 national championship; No. 9 Florida Atlantic pulled away from No. 4 Tennessee by leaning into the Volunteers' physical style; and No. 3 Gonzaga traded late buckets with No. 2 UCLA and pulled out a last-second win.

– Paul Myerberg

Parity creating ultimate March Madness chaos

In a span of mere minutes Friday night, two programs that have had lots of good seasons but rarely seemed like they’re on the cusp of anything significant, evicted the last two No. 1 seeds left, from this NCAA men's tournament.

And with those back-to-back results, this is officially the maddest March of them all.

For the first time in the history of the tournament, we don’t have a No. 1 seed in the Elite Eight.

— Dan Wolken

March Madness strikes again: No. 1 overall Alabama goes home

Oh, how the mighty fell on Friday.

Alabama, the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA men's tournament, buckled late in a 71-64 loss to fifth-seeded San Diego State and were eliminated in the Sweet 16 of the South Regional.

The Crimson Tide squandered a nine-point lead in the second half as its quest for the first national championship in school history came to an abrupt end.

— Josh Peter

1 and done: Houston is out

Fifth-seeded Miami did more than upset top-seeded Houston in a Sweet 16 matchup Friday.

The Hurricanes walloped the Cougars 89-75 in the men’s NCAA Tournament that ended Houston’s hopes of playing for the school’s first national championship in its hometown.

And it means there will be no No. 1 seed in the Elite Eight for the first time.

— Josh Peter

March Madness Sweet 16 game picks, predictions for NCAA ...

We are down to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament and there are some surprise participants still in the March Madness field.

The biggest surprise? No. 15 seed Princeton, which upset No. 2 seed Arizona and No. 7 seed Missouri to make the regional semifinals.

Other surprises include No. 8 seed Arkansas, which stunned No. 1 Kansas in the second round, and No. 9 seed Florida Atlantic, which is in the Sweet 16 thanks to wins over No. 8 seed Memphis and No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson.

Will we see more upsets in Thursday and Friday's games?

Check out the schedule for the Sweet 16, as well as our picks and predictions for the games. All times MST.

March Madness Sweet 16 game picks, odds: Michigan State vs. Kansas State | Arkansas vs. UConn | Florida Atlantic vs. Tennessee | Gonzaga vs. UCLA | San Diego State vs. Alabama | Miami vs. Houston | Princeton vs. Creighton | Xavier vs. Texas

Thursday's March Madness Sweet 16 games

No. 3 Kansas State vs. No. 7 Michigan State, 3:30 p.m., TBS

Michigan State has impressed in wins over USC and Marquette, the No. 2 seed that it upset 69-60, and the Spartans are actually favored in this game. Kansas State, however, looked good against Kentucky and is battle tested after a grueling Big 12 schedule. We're going with the Wildcats to advance to the Elite 8.

Prediction: Kansas State 70, Michigan State 67

No. 4 UConn vs. No. 8 Arkansas, 4:15 p.m., CBS

We admit it, we did not think Arkansas would upset Kansas in the second round. Can the Razorbacks upset UConn in the Sweet 16? Anything is possible when Eric Musselman is your coach. UConn cruised in its first two matchups, but Arkansas will keep it close against the Huskies and rally for the victory late.

Prediction: Arkansas 75, UConn 74

How to watch NCAA Tournament regional semifinal games: Michigan State vs. Kansas State | Arkansas vs. UConn | Florida Atlantic vs. Tennessee | Gonzaga vs. UCLA | San Diego State vs. Alabama | Miami vs. Houston | Princeton vs. Creighton | Xavier vs. Texas

No. 4 Tennessee vs. No. 9 Florida Atlantic, 6 p.m., TBS

As Memphis and Fairleigh Dickinson have found out, there is a reason Florida Atlantic went 31-3 before the NCAA Tournament. The Conference USA champions can play and even though the odds favor the Volunteers, something tells us that the Owls can keep dancing into the Elite 8.

Prediction: Florida Atlantic 67, Tennessee 62

No. 2 UCLA vs. No. 3 Gonzaga, 6:45 p.m., CBS

There's a reason this game has the lowest point spread of the regional semifinals. This game could go either way and we're expecting a thriller between two teams that could end up winning the Final Four. Since we have to pick one, we're going with the Pac-12's last hope, UCLA, in a thriller.

Prediction: UCLA 72, Gonzaga 71

NCAA Tournament schedule, TV:March Madness game times, channels, announcers, how to watch

Friday's March Madness Sweet 16 games

No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 5 San Diego State, 3:30 p.m., TBS

Alabama is currently the favorite to win the national championship and it's not hard to see why. The Crimson Tide have looked good in wins over Texas A&M-CC and Maryland, but San Diego State is a big step up in competition. Not a big enough step up, however, to upset Alabama. Nate Oats' team will be too tough for the Aztecs late.

Prediction: Alabama 78, San Diego State 70

No. 1 Houston vs. No. 5 Miami, 4:15 p.m., CBS

We debated pulling the trigger on the upset here, and we do think that Miami's pace can cause fits for the Cougars, but Houston is just too solid all around. The Hurricanes will test Houston, but they'll run out of gas late as Houston gets closer to the Final Four.

Prediction: Houston 74, Miami 68

No. 6 Creighton vs. No. 15 Princeton, 6 p.m., TBS

Princeton has impressed in its first two games to reach the Sweet 16 and we don't think the Tigers are done yet. Creighton is playing well, but the scrappy Princeton team is just finding ways to win, despite not shooting well in the tournament. Imagine if its players find their stroke against the Bluejays.

Prediction: Princeton 65, Creighton 61

No. 2 Texas vs. No. 3 Xavier, 6:45 p.m., CBS

Sean Miller's team had to beat No. 14 Kennesaw State and No. 11 seed Pittsburgh to make this game. Texas is on an entirely different level than those teams and had a bit of a wake-up call against Penn State. We've got to go with the Longhorns ending the Musketeers' run in the Sweet 16.

Prediction: Texas 80, Xavier 73

NCAA Tournament odds:2023 March Madness point spreads, money lines, over/unders for games

March Madness odds:Alabama, Houston, UCLA, UConn 2023 men's NCAA Tournament favorites

Reach Jeremy Cluff at jeremy.cluff@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jeremy_Cluff.

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March Madness Elite 8 men's recap: Miami, SDSU earn Final Four ...

The Miami, San Diego State and Florida Atlantic men's basketball teams are in the Final Four for the first time.

No. 5 San Diego State rallied to beat No. 6 Creighton in the first of two Elite Eight games on Sunday after each program advanced out of the Sweet 16 for the first time. Darrion Trammell's free throw with 1.2 seconds to play lifted the Aztecs to a 57-56 win. San Diego State will play Florida Atlantic on Saturday night.

No. 5 Miami defeated No. 2 Texas after staging a huge second-half rally. Miami will face UConn, which routed Gonzaga 82-54, in the Final Four.

Brackets:See how the men's and women's NCAA Tournaments have played out

Follow along for Sunday's NCAA men's tournament action:

The No. 5 Miami Hurricanes defeated the No. 2 Texas Longhorns, 88-81, in Kansas City to earn their first trip to the Final Four. The Hurricanes were down as many as 13, but came back in the second half to rally and win the game.

Senior guard Jordan Miller led Miami with 27 points and shot a perfect 7-of-7 from the field along with 13-13 in free throws. The only other player to go perfect from the floor and the charity stripe was Duke's Christian Laettner in a 1992 game against Kentucky.

"No one wanted to go home. We played, we came together, we stuck together, we showed really good perseverance and the will to just get there," Miller said after the game as his teammates stormed around him.

The Hurricanes were knocked out the tournament last year in the Elite Eight, so the win serves as a redemption for the team.

Head coach Jim Larrañaga took George Mason to its first Final Four in 2006, exactly 17 years ago from the day that he did so with the Hurricanes.

Senior guard Marcus Carr led the Longhorns with 17 points. Senior forward Timmy Allen and senior guard Sir'Jabari Rice added 16 and 15 points, respectively.

The Hurricanes and Longhorns are battling it out in the second half as Miami came back to take the lead after being down by as many as 13 points.

They went on a 13-2 run to take a 73-72, capped off by a free throw by Norchad Omier.

Texas answered back with a three-point shot from Tyrese Hunter to take a short lead before Isaiah Wong scored a jumper to tie the game at 75.

The teams have traded buckets with the score tied at 77 with 2:40 left in the game.

The Texas Longhorns carried their momentum from the end of the first half into the second half. Thirty seconds in, Marcus Carr found Dillon Mitchell for a monster dunk. The team had a 6-0 run to extend its lead beyond double digits and continued to dominate from beyond the arc, making nine three-point shots compared to Miami's two.

The Longhorns are up 62-49 with 14:04 on the clock.

Halftime: Texas 45, Miami 37

The first half between No. 5 Miami and No. 2 Texas flew by, as the teams combined for only nine called fouls and play pushed well past the automatic television stoppages.

Texas caught fire at the end of the first half and scored on seven of its last eight possessions. That didn't count a final one in which the Longhorns were fouled on a three-point attempt. Texas has shot lights out from beyond the arc, hitting 7-of-13 attempts (53.8%). Interestingly, Texas actually averages seven made three-pointers per game. The Longhorns have nearly half of their total points (21) coming from players off the bench.

Miami guard Jordan Miller is carrying the Hurricanes and hasn't missed any of his six shot attempts. He leads all scorers with 13 points. While the Hurricanes were aggressive in the first half in attacking the paint, many of their baskets have come from individual efforts, with the Hurricanes assisting on only six of their 16 field goals. The Longhorns, by comparison, have 14 assists on 17 field goals.

Miami, Texas locked in a back-and-forth battle

At different points in the first half, both No. 5 Miami and No. 2 Texas have had to weather shots from their opponents, only to respond. What has made this an interesting game is that both squads are doing it differently.

The Longhorns are doing it from deep and on the bench. Texas has converted 5-of-11 three-point attempts and has 13 bench points; that compares to the Hurricanes going just 1-of-2 from beyond the arc and having only two points off the bench.

Where Miami is dominating is in the paint. Eight of the 12 Hurricane field goals have been in the paint, and Miami is also pushing the tempo, trying to get numbers out on the break. Hurricanes guard Jordan Miller leads all players with 11 points, while Longhorns forward Timmy Allen has posted 10.

Texas leads 31-28, with 4:33 left to play in the half.

Miami aggressive, getting to the cup early, but Texas roars back

No. 5 Miami raced out to a seven-point lead by being aggressive and attacking the basket; each of the first six Hurricanes shots came inside the paint, with Miami converting four.

No. 2 Texas, however, scored seven unanswered in a minute-and-a-half of play to tie the game, 9-9, just more than five minutes into the game.

The Longhorns are edging Miami 5-2 on the boards and shooting 37.5% from the floor. The Hurricanes are isshooting 57.1%. Miami guard Jordan Miller leads all players in the early going with five points.

Bishop gets the start for injured Disu in Texas' matchup vs. Miami

Texas forward Christian Bishop will start only his second game of the season with the injury to Dylan Disu, who suffered a bone bruise on his left foot in the second round. Bishop, a 6-foot-8 senior, has started 86 of his 161 career games, but Sunday’s Elite Eight contest against No. 5 seed Miami marks only his second start this season.

Bishop certainly took care of his business in Friday’s win over Xavier, when he came off the bench and scored a game-high 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting and pulled down nine rebounds while playing 24 minutes after Disu played only two minutes in the Sweet 16 game. That performance mirrors his career stats; he’s made 61% of his shots and averaged almost 10 rebounds and more than 15 points per 40 minutes in his five college seasons.

Bishop transferred from Creighton before last season, and this season marks his first as a reserve since his freshman campaign with the Bluejays in 2018-19. Now he’ll seek to send No. 2 seed Texas into its fourth Final Four in school history.

— Thomas Jones, Austin American-Statesman

For the first time in program history, SDSU reaches Final Four

No. 5 San Diego State held a two-point lead with 34.2 seconds left in the game. All the Aztecs had to do was inbounds the ball successfully and convert free throws. Instead, an errant pass gifted No. 6 Creighton an easy layup under the basket to tie the game.

The Aztecs, however, recovered, and guard Darrion Trammell was fouled on his game-winning floater attempt down the left side of the lane as the clock ticked down. The foul call instantly set social media ablaze, debating the merits of a call like that in such a tense moment in the game, but Creighton guard Ryan Nembhard did place his left hand on Trammell's back as he took the shot.

With a trip to the Final Four on the line, Trammell missed the first free throw but drained the second. Creighton's desperation inbound heave caromed off of a scrum of players and did not leave enough time on the clock for the Bluejays to get a final shot.

San Diego State won, 57-56 and will face Florida Atlantic in Saturday's semifinals.

Finally, the Aztecs regain the lead

More than 30 minutes of game time elapsed before No. 5 San Diego State finally regained a lead three-quarters of the way through the second half. From then on, the Aztecs regained offensive efficiency, confidently converting pull-up jumpers off of pick-and-roll action.

What’s not helping No. 6 Creighton is the sheer volume of shots missed in the paint, as the Bluejays have four missed field goals in the paint in the second half.

The Aztecs hold a 52-50 lead with 3:30 to play, and a trip to the Final Four on the line.

Creighton goes cold, SDSU still can't quite get over hump

No. 6 Creighton went more than four minutes without a point midway through the second half, but No. 5 San Diego State simply cannot find enough consistency on the offensive end to erase the Bluejay lead.

Every time the Aztecs pull closer, they seem to get cold until Creighton is able to string together a basket or two. While both teams are struggling from three-point range — the two have combined to 5-of-26 (19.2%) — San Diego State is not backing away from more attempts, even if they’re not dropping. The Aztecs though, are putting forth plus effort on the offensive glass, and now hold an 11-8 edge over Creighton in that space.

San Diego State has done a tremendous job on Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner, who only has three points after intermission, in the second half.

The Bluejays hold a 45-41 lead with 7:40 left in the game.

Creighton holding steady, SDSU starts slow

Both offenses struggled from the floor to open the second half, though No. 5 San Diego State’s 6-2 mini-run closed the deficit before No. 6 Creighton’s consecutive trips to the free throw line (including an and-one on the second possession) kept the Bluejays ahead.

The Aztecs have clogged the lane with a 2-3 zone that has made it more difficult for Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner to receive the ball in the post. And San Diego State is actually picking up the slack on the offensive glass in the second half, but is struggling from the field, converting just 5-of-18 (27.8%) shots after halftime.

Creighton leads 43-39 with 11:30 to play in the game.

Aztec guard Lamont Butler leads all players with 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting.

Halftime: Creighton 33, San Diego State 28

No. 5 San Diego State has settled a touch on offense, in large part to the play of guard Lamont Butler, who paces the Aztecs at the half with nine points on 4-of-5 shooting.

There are some warning signs, however, for San Diego State: it is being outrebounded by a margin of 16-14, though minutes earlier, it was 13-7. The Aztecs and have assisted on only two of their 13 field goals. Another concern? San Diego State has taken just one trip to the line and missed that free throw.

Despite all that, the Aztecs are taking a five-point deficit into the second half after Creighton went 3:20 without a field goal in the middle of the first half.

The Bluejays did bounce back from their cold spell and are riding the play of Ryan Kalkbrenner (10 points), Baylor Scheierman (seven points) and Ryan Nembhard (seven points) combining for 72.7% of Creighton’s points.

San Diego State's bench is outscoring Creighton's 8-0.

Creighton building modest lead

No. 5 San Diego State went nearly two-and-a-half minutes without a field goal early in the first half, allowing No. 6 Creighton to start to build a modest lead. The Bluejays are moving the ball fairly well and getting everyone involved; by the midway point of the first half, all five starters had scored. In fact, all starters have combined for 9-of-17 (52.9%) shooting from the floor.

One area where the Aztecs are performing well, however, is on perimeter defense. San Diego State has held Creighton to 1-of-6 shooting from three-point range. The Aztecs, though, need to play with more composure, having committed four turnovers and four player fouls.

The Bluejays are up 22-16, with 7:40 left to play in the first half.

Siblings face off for Final Four spot

Not only are San Diego State and Creighton playing for a spot in the Final Four, but a pair of brothers are playing for bragging rights against another once again.

Creighton sophomore forward Arthur Kaluma and San Diego State senior guard Adam Seiko are meeting against each other in the Elite Eight matchup, the second straight year they will do so in the tournament. Last year, Kaluma and Creighton won their first round matchup against the Aztecs in overtime, 72-69.

Before the Sweet 16, Seiko said it would be a “surreal feeling” if the two teams met with a Final Four berth on the line.

“Something I can’t even put into words, really,” Seiko said.

The siblings' mother, Saira Eva Ariko, is in attendance for the game in Louisville.

— Jordan Mendoza

Offenses finding footing early on in Creighton-SDSU

The perimeter shooting from both teams slagged to start the game between No. 6 Creighton and No. 5 San Diego State, with both teams putting up an airball on three-point attempts on consecutive possessions. But the importance of post play and rebounding already showed its weight, as Creighton forward Arthur Kaluma's offensive board two minutes into the game led to center Ryan Kalkbrenner's flush on an alley-oop feed from guard Trey Alexander.

Both squads have combined to go 1-of-5 from beyond the arc. Kalkbrenner leads the way early with six points on 3-of-5 shooting. Creighton holds an 8-7 lead with 14:05 left to play in the first half.

Sunday's Elite Eight slate

No. 5 San Diego State vs. No. 6 Creighton: San Diego State's defense is off the charts – just ask Alabama. The Aztecs held the top overall seed to 32.4% shooting and completely bottled up future lottery pick Brandon Miller, who finished with just nine points on 3 of 19 shooting, including just one make in 10 attempts from deep. But Creighton could put this defense to the test. The Bluejays have scored at least 80 points in five of the past seven games and are shooting 50.6% from the field in tournament play.

No. 2 Texas vs. No. 5 Miami: After some early struggles, Miami's backcourt has taken over games to help the Hurricanes earn a second trip in a row to the regional finals. Nijel Pack has been on point since the start of tournament play, averaging a team-best 19.7 points per game and dropping a season-high 26 points to lead Miami into the Elite Eight. Texas has gone 22-7 since Rodney Terry replaced Chris Beard in December and is in the Elite Eight for the first time since 2008 and just the second time since the tournament expanded from eight teams in 1951. Under Terry, the Longhorns have fought through off-court drama and injuries to peak at the right time.

— Paul Myerberg

Bluejays, Aztecs have familiarity

While in different regions of the country, Creighton and San Diego State are not unfamiliar with each other.

Months ago, the Bluejays and Aztecs shared a chartered flight to the Maui Invitational. Creighton coach Greg McDermott said he sat across from San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher and talked about wanting to face off in the championship because "we would be OK with one of us winning and one of us losing."

Little did they know their meeting this season would be on a bigger stage.

— Paul Myerberg

Texas' Dylan Disu dealing with injury

Dylan Disu, Texas' best player this postseason, played less than two minutes in the Longhorns' Sweet 16 win against Xavier with what team officials called a bone bruise in his left foot. He's officially day-to-day.

He spent most of the game with a walking boot on his left foot. Team officials said he suffered the bone bruise in the win over Penn State in the second round last Saturday. He practiced some but aggravated the injury late in the week.

— Thomas Jones, Austin American-Statesman

Florida Atlantic most-surprising Final Four team ever?

It has become more and more common in recent years for an overlooked, out-of-nowhere tournament team to get hot at the right time and march all the way to the Final Four. Of the nine teams to reach the national semifinals as a No. 9 seed or higher, six have occurred since 2013.

The Owls' run to Houston is among the most unexpected Final Four teams since the tournament expanded that same season. There are eight teams that have shocked the nation most by advancing from off the radar to the national semifinals.

— Paul Myerberg

UConn is now the team to beat -- and Huskies know it

Parity in college basketball, huh? UConn didn’t get the memo.

All those close calls, all those middling years in the wilderness of the American Athletic Conference suddenly seem far away in the rear-view mirror. In his fifth season at UConn, Dan Hurley doesn’t just have the Huskies back in the Final Four, he has them playing in a way that should earn them the school’s fifth national title.

— Dan Wolken

Kansas State coach Jerome Tang shares message with FAU after game

Florida Atlantic may have eliminated his Kansas State team, but Wildcats coach Jerome Tang had nothing but praise for the Owls – and delivered his classy message in person in the celebratory FAU locker room.

“Your toughness, your togetherness, your ability to make plays for each other, the way you communicate with each other – nobody can beat ya’ll,” the first-year K-State coach told the Owls. “Just stay together, don’t get distracted between now and (the Final Four). Stay locked in, keep doing what you’re doing.”

"Ya’ll the toughest son-of-a-guns we’ve played all year long," Tang added. "Just proud of ya and rooting for ya."

Tang’s first year in Manhattan, Kansas, was a tremendous success after little was expected of the Wildcats in the preseason. They nearly made their first Final Four since 1964, falling to Florida Atlantic 79-76. The Owls are making their first Final Four appearance and will play the winner of Sunday’s game between Creighton and San Diego State.

— Jace Evans

Parity creating ultimate March Madness chaos

In a span of mere minutes Friday night, two programs that have had lots of good seasons but rarely seemed like they’re on the cusp of anything significant, evicted the last two No. 1 seeds left, from this NCAA men's tournament.

And with those back-to-back results, this is officially the maddest March of them all.

— Dan Wolken

IU basketball, Kent State have March Madness history, ties beyond ...

BLOOMINGTON – Some things, time never fully forgets.

Indiana earned the No. 4 seed in the Midwest region Sunday, when the NCAA tournament selection committee’s full and final bracket was announced. The Hoosiers open play Friday in Albany, N.Y., against No. 13 Kent State.

They have history with the Golden Flashes, who eliminated IU from the same tournament in San Diego in 2001, before Indiana exacted revenge a year later in Lexington, Ky., on its way to its most-recent Final Four.

But, more recently and more pointedly, Indiana has history — ancient yet somehow not at all — with the man now running the Kent State sideline.

Rob Senderoff, who’s won 247 games across 12 seasons in Kent, served for parts of two seasons as an assistant at IU, between 2006-07. Senderoff was an assistant under Kelvin Sampson, and a central figure in the recruiting scandal that eventually cost both him and his boss their jobs, and left Indiana grappling with a messy set of NCAA sanctions it took the Hoosiers three years to fully recover from.

March Madness:IU gets No. 4 seed, will play No. 13 Kent State in Albany

Should Indiana defeat Kent State, and then the winner of No. 5 Miami vs. No. 12 Drake, the team most likely to be waiting in the Sweet 16 in Kansas City would be … Sampson’s No. 1-seeded Houston.

It will feel like ancient history in Bloomington, a decade and a half removed from the program’s most-serious recruiting scandal ever. IU has hired three different head coaches since it relieved Sampson of his duties in February 2008. Mike Woodson, the Hoosiers’ current head man and a legendary former player in Bloomington, said Sunday night he only interacted briefly with Sampson when asked early in Sampson’s tenure to speak to the team that year.

As for Senderoff, Woodson said simply, “I’m sure I probably met him when he was here, in passing.”

He’ll meet Senderoff’s team Friday. The Golden Flashes (28-6) made the NCAA tournament field by virtue of winning the Mid-American Conference tournament. This marks Kent State’s seventh postseason appearance under Senderoff, and its second trip to the NCAA tournament.

Kent State boasts a top-40 defense nationally, per KenPom, and the most-efficient in the MAC in league games this year. The Golden Flashes are particularly stingy in defending the 3-point line, and they’re 20th nationally in opponent turnover rate.

Insider:With all its strengths and flaws, IU down to its last chance to make this season special

All their best wins this season came in conference, but they acquitted themselves well in a clutch of high-major losses. Kent State lost true road games at Houston and at Gonzaga by just five and seven points, respectively, and they fell by just two in a road defeat at fellow NCAA tournament participant Charleston during nonconference play as well.

Those will be the bullet points that concern Indiana’s players, and to a great extent Woodson. The lingering specter of a program melted down does not cast its shadow over them anymore.

Will they over the coach now preparing his team to face Woodson, Trayce Jackson-Davis and company? That’s for Senderoff to say.

His role in what unfolded into a scandal dramatically altering the trajectory of a program primarily involved regulations in place at the time governing phone contact with recruits. Sampson had brought sanctions with him from Oklahoma for similar infractions, and was then found to have run afoul of those sanctions in particular around more than 100 separate recruiting phone calls.

Senderoff placed some of those calls and then transferred them to Sampson’s phone. He was relieved of his duties before Sampson eventually was as well.

The NCAA has since rescinded virtually all the rules broken during that episode. To his credit, Senderoff has not shied from talking about his role in the entire episode, and he sat with IndyStar for a lengthy interview at the expiration of the ensuing sanctions nearly a decade ago.

“Why the NCAA changed those rules, I don’t know,” Senderoff told IndyStar in 2013. “Should they have been rules in the first place? I don’t know. That’s above my pay grade. It’s just like the speed limit. You’re supposed to follow the speed limit. … The person driving the car doesn’t get to make that decision. I shouldn’t have transferred those calls to coach Sampson, and I wish I hadn’t.”

Since, he’s built himself a solid career at Kent State. And, after spending most of six years coaching in the NBA, Sampson has returned high-level success in college. Since taking over at Houston in 2014, he’s won 230 games and at least a share of four conference titles. The Cougars have been invited to each of the last five NCAA tournaments, with runs to the Sweet Sixteen (2019), Final Four (2021) and Elite Eight (2022) on their ledger.

Sampson even coached a game in Bloomington during that 2021 run, when Houston appeared in the tournament hosted entirely within the state of Indiana.

Perhaps he will revisit a few more old memories in two weeks’ time, if both IU and Houston advance to a second-weekend matchup in Kansas City. Before then, his former assistant — with whom Sampson is still close — will travel through his own past, for better or worse, as he prepares for Friday’s round-of-64 matchup.

All of it, a reminder: The things we leave behind never truly leave us.

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.

Arizona State advances to face TCU in first round of NCAA ...

DAYTON, Ohio - Any doubt as to whether the Arizona State Sun Devils were deserving of an NCAA Tournament berth was put to rest in a hurry.

The Sun Devils (23-12 ) disposed of Mountain West representative Nevada 98-73 in a First Four showdown at the University of Dayton Arena on Wednesday night. Now it's on to Denver where the Sun Devils will face TCU at the Ball Center at 7:05 p.m. Friday.

It will be difficult for the Sun Devils to top their most recent performance, one in which they shot 63.6% (35-for-55), the best field goal percentage in 133 NCAA tournament games played at the arena. That bettered the previous mark of 63.3% by LaSalle (31-for-49) vs. Boise State on March 20, 2013.

"It was a complete performance for us," ASU head coach Bobby Hurley said. "You want to be playing this way at this time of year. That's what it's all about. I truly believe that our schedule and the games we've been in, especially late in the season, prepares you for these type of games. And it was across the board, just everyone contributed. Our defense was outstanding in the first half."

Players admitted they maybe felt a little disrespected by being relegated to the play-in game but are taking it in stride and look forward to their shot against one of the Big 12's best.

Up next:Arizona State vs. TCU basketball picks, predictions, odds: Who wins March Madness game?

"Personally I definitely had a chip on my shoulder, but at the end of the day, that's just the mentality that I have," Desmond Cambridge Jr. said. "I try to find things to keep me motivated. But I'm just happy to be here, so I'm not going to say I'm not grateful for the opportunity. But yeah, I did kind of feel disrespected that we're in this First Four. But at the end of the day, I'm grateful, and we came and did what we were supposed to do, so next game.

D.J. Horne, who led all scorers with 20 points, agreed.

"I kind of felt like it was a little disrespect, but just happy to be here, happy for our opportunity, and I'm just glad that we won the game. Ready for the next one," he said.

The only lead Nevada had was 3-0. ASU led after 20 minutes 53-26, with the 53 points marking the most in half by ASU this season. The previous best was 50 in the second half against San Diego while the previous high in a first half was 46 which the Sun Devils did twice.

The 53 points also marked the second-most in a half in school history in a tournament game behind the 54 the Sun Devils scored against Arkansas in 1991 in a 97-90 loss.

The biggest ASU lead was 30 points at 56-26 in the opening seconds of the second half. Nevada was not able to get closer than 19 points.

Rewind:Arizona State dominates Nevada to reach NCAA tournament

Neal a huge factor

Jamiya Neal has turned out to be a key factor, getting significantly more playing time with true freshman Austin Nunez out with a concussion since Feb. 18. Nunez had been one of the team's best shooters and on-ball defenders.

The sophomore guard has scored 61 points in the last seven games with 18 rebounds, 12 assists, three blocks and eight steals.

He had a season-high 16 against the Wolf Pack, 10 of those coming in the first half. He also had four rebounds, three steals and two assists.

Hurley said Nunez has been a full participant in practice the last two days. He was dressed and warmed up with the team for the first time since being injured. Hurley said he is hopeful Nunez can play on Friday.

Duo had extra motivation

The biggest storyline of the night was the presence of two former Nevada players in the ASU starting lineup in Cambridge Jr. and Warren Washington, both of whom came to Tempe over the summer. Cambridge has been ASU's leading scorer with a knack for making clutch shots while Washington is the team's leading rebounder.

Cambridge ended up with 17 points and six assists while Washington managed nine points, five rebounds, four assists and a block.

"It was cool. You know, but at the end of the day, I didn't care who we were playing today. I'm just out here to play basketball. Yeah, that's all I have to say on that," Cambridge said.

Hurley wins coaching matchup

The coaching matchup was an intriguing one pitting two who won national championships as players, Hurley getting two at Duke and Nevada's Steve Alford winning one at Indiana in 1987.

The two also coached against each other earlier when Alford was at UCLA from 2013 to 2018. He is rounding out his fourth year at Nevada.

"I know he's a competitor and he's a winner and he's been a winner his whole life, so you know you're going to get his best shot," Hurley said of Alford. "His team is going to be ready and prepared. I don't think it was a matter of them not playing well, I think it was us playing exceptional. I thought that was the story, especially early in the game."

Fatigue factor

The Sun Devils have played seven straight road games stretching back to their last three games of the regular season. Then it was three at the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas. The quick turnaround from that last game in Las Vegas on Friday to the one against the Wolf Pack and counting the next on Friday against TCU will make five in nine days.

Players say they are not concerned because getting the opportunity to play on the big stage is enough to keep them going.

"No, not really worried," Horne said. "Especially when you're on this stage, I feel like you have to get up for every game, and if you're not, what kind of basketball player are you? But we're going to do a good job at resting and everything and get on the flight after this, so we'll be ready to play next game."

Hurley said having a game that starts at 7:05 p.m. helps. When his team last played in the First Four it had to go from Dayton to Tulsa, Oklahoma and had an afternoon game which it lost in lopsided fashion. So he is thankful for a few extra hours.

"I'm appreciative that the NCAA allows the game to take place at the very end of the night on Friday because the last time we were in here and won, it was I believe an afternoon game, and just wasn't enough time really for us to physically bounce back," he said. "Every hour counts, and that'll be the focus the next 36 hours."

Basketball state of mind:3 Arizona colleges in March Madness, Suns mania, preps evolution

What is next

Arizona State advances to face No. 6 seed TCU (21-12, 9-9 in Big 12) on Friday at Ball Center in Denver. TCU was the fifth-place finisher in the Big 12 behind Kansas, Texas, Kansas State and Baylor. The Horned Frogs are ranked No. 22 nationally.

TCU has already played two Pac-12 teams, both early in the season. It defeated Cal 59-48 on Nov. 25 in a neutral site tournament and Utah 75-71 on Dec. 21 in Salt Lake City.

"I have a lot of respect for them and the season they've had," Hurley said of his next opponent. "The league was rated one of the best in the country this year. I talked about us being battle tested. Well, so were they. I think they play elite competition."

2021 NCAA basketball tournament dates, schedule, COVID-19, fans ...

"The only possible place for March Madness in a pandemic is right here. Are we ready for this moment? We'll see."

IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel wrote that when the NCAA officially announced in January the 2021 NCAA men's basketball tournament — all of it, not just the Final Four — would be coming to Indianapolis and Central Indiana.

Well, we're here. It's March. Here's what's coming our way.

How many games will be played in Indiana?

Between NCAA Division I (67 games), IHSAA (60), Big Ten men's and women's (24), NCAA Division II in Evansville (7), Horizon League men's and women's (6) and Indiana Pacers (5) there will be 169 competitive basketball games played in Indiana during a 33-day span, beginning March 4 with the Pacers vs. Nuggets and ending April 5 with the NCAA national championship.

Scroll to the bottom of this article (or click here) for the full schedule.

'COULD WE DO THIS'?How Indianapolis plans to pull off a 'once-in-a-lifetime' NCAA tournament

BRACKETOLOGY:Illinois surges in as new No. 1 seed, replacing Ohio State

Where will the games be played?

Mackey Arena: NCAA First Four, first round

Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall: NCAA First Four, first round.

Indiana Farmers Coliseum: Horizon League men's and women's semifinals/finals, NCAA first and second rounds.

Bankers Life Fieldhouse: Pacers, Big Ten women's tournament, NCAA first and second round, Sweet 16, IHSAA state finals

Hinkle Fieldhouse: NCAA first and second round, Sweet 16

More:These are the six Indiana venues the NCAA will use for March Madness

Lucas Oil Stadium: Big Ten men's tournament, NCAA first round, second round, Elite Eight, Final Four, national championship

Ford Center (Evansville): NCAA Division II Elite Eight, semifinals, championship

IHSAA regional sites: Class 4A: Michigan City, Logansport, Southport, Seymour; 3A: South Bend Washington, New Castle, Greencastle, Washington; 2A: North Judson, Lapel, Greenfield-Central, Southridge; A: Triton, Frankfort; Martinsville, Loogootee.

IHSAA semistate sites: Lafayette Jeff, Elkhart, Seymour, Washington

Will fans be allowed?

Yes. The NCAA announced it will allow up to 25% of capacity for all rounds. That's the maximum.

► Indiana University is capping attendance to 500 for the First Four and first-round NCAA tournament games played at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

► Purdue says Mackey Arena will be capped at 12-13% (roughly 1,850)

► Butler will allow up to the 25% capacity for games at Hinkle Fieldhouse (roughly 2,275).

► For the Indiana Farmers Coliseum, 25% capacity is roughly 1,700 fans.

► For Bankers Life Fieldhouse, 25% capacity is roughly 4,500 fans

► For Lucas Oil Stadium, 25% capacity is roughly 17,500 fans,

► Pacers have been cleared by Marion County Health Department to allow up 4,500 fans, but the team is limiting tickets to 3,000 in February to "prioritize the health and safety of fans, players and staff."

► The attendance at IHSAA sectional sites this year is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Here is a closer look at the plans for sectionals involving local teams from the host athletic directors. For this past weekend's girls state finals, each school was allowed up to 1,000 fans in Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

► New restrictions taking effect March 1 include an increase in bar capacity from 25% to 50%, an increase in indoor restaurant capacity from 50% to 75%, and an extension of curfew for bars from midnight to 2 a.m.

How is COVID-19 in Indiana right now?

For the first time in months, nine of the state's 92 counties were shaded blue on the state's advisory-level map. The update means those blue counties will no longer face social gathering capacity restrictions, but they must obey social distancing and mask-wearing protocols.

This is the sixth consecutive week the Indiana Department of Health's color-coded map showed improvement and the first time since at least mid-December a county in Indiana will not face capacity restrictions.

Thirty-nine counties, including Marion County reported minimal spread — up from just 11 last week. Fifty counties on Feb. 24 reported moderate spread of the virus and three reported moderate to high spread.

Marion County will continue to face yellow restrictions, which allows for 50% capacity at social gatherings. Marion County is also under additional rules implemented by Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett and the county health department.

Teams in March Madness will stay in 'bubble'

The teams themselves will remain in a "semi-controlled environment," which for all intents and purposes is a bubble. They will take all of their meals in hotel rooms or specially designated areas. Each player will have their own hotel room and each team has its own floor.

Before arriving in Indianapolis, each individual must have seven consecutive negative COVID-19 tests. If any of the tests yield a positive result, the person will not be allowed to attend the tournament until he has completed a period of self-isolation.

On the day the teams arrive, players will undergo another COVID-19 test. Until participants have two consecutive tests in Indianapolis they will be required to remain in their rooms under “strict quarantine,” the health department said.

Each person on qualifying teams can invite six family members to watch, but these fans may have no in-person contact with the players during the tournament.

Who will feed the teams?

Roughly 2,500 student-athletes, coaches, trainers, officials and others essential to participating in the tournament are expected to come to Indianapolis for the games.

"There is an appetite in the NCAA — in an effort to help spread out the impact of this game in a positive way and to diversify the items served up to the teams — to allow restaurants outside of the hotels to bring meals to the teams' doorstep," Visit Indy's Chris Gahl said.

Visit Indy is helping to identify restaurants that can be on a "menu of sorts" for tournament teams to consider ordering food from during the duration of their participation in March Madness.

A process is underway to develop service standards for delivery, itemized packaging and the tracking of specific meals. The information would be compiled and given to teams so they would know how many hours in advance carryout meals need to be ordered and what restaurants would require.

Here is the list of upcoming basketball games in Indiana

Here's the schedule. Take a deep breath.

MARCH 4

8 p.m. — Indiana Pacers vs. Denver Nuggets, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

MARCH 8

11 a.m. — Horizon League women's tournament semifinal, Indiana Farmers Coliseum

2 p.m. — Horizon League women's tournament semifinal, Indiana Farmers Coliseum

6:30 p.m. — Horizon League men's tournament semifinal, Indiana Farmers Coliseum

9:30 p.m. — Horizon League men's tournament semifinal, Indiana Farmers Coliseum

MARCH 9

12 p.m. — Horizon League women's tournament final, Indiana Farmers Coliseum

5 p.m. — Big Ten women's tournament first round, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

7 p.m. — Horizon League men's tournament final, Indiana Farmers Coliseum

MARCH 10

11 a.m. — Big Ten women's tournament second round, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

1:30 p.m. — Big Ten women's tournament second round, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

6:30 p.m. — Big Ten men's tournament first round, Lucas Oil Stadium

6:30 p.m. —Big Ten women's tournament second round, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

9 p.m. — Big Ten men's tournament first round, Lucas Oil Stadium

9 p.m. — Big Ten women's tournament second round, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

MARCH 11

11 a .m. — Big Ten women's tournament quarterfinal, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

11:30 a.m. — Big Ten men's tournament second round, Lucas Oil Stadium

1:30 p.m. — Big Ten women's tournament quarterfinal, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

2 p.m. — Big Ten men's tournament second round, Lucas Oil Stadium

6:30 p.m. — Big Ten women's tournament quarterfinal, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

6:30 p.m. — Big Ten men's tournament second round, Lucas Oil Stadium

9 p.m. — Big Ten women's tournament quarterfinal, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

9 p.m. — Big Ten men's tournament second round, Lucas Oil Stadium

MARCH 12

11:30 a.m. — Big Ten men's tournament quarterfinal, Lucas Oil Stadium

2 p.m. — Big Ten women's tournament semifinal, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

2 p.m. — Big Ten men's tournament quarterfinal, Lucas Oil Stadium

4:30 p.m. — Big Ten women's tournament semifinal, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

6:30 p.m. — Big Ten men's tournament quarterfinal, Lucas Oil Stadium

9 p.m. — Big Ten men's tournament quarterfinal, Lucas Oil Stadium

MARCH 13

10 a.m. — IHSAA boys basketball regional semifinals, across the state

Noon — IHSAA boys basketball regional semifinals, across the state

1 p.m. — Big Ten men's tournament semifinal, Lucas Oil Stadium

2 p.m. — Big Ten women's tournament final, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

3:30 p.m. — Big Ten men's tournament semifinal, Lucas Oil Stadium

7:30 p.m. — IHSAA boys basketball regional finals, across the state

MARCH 14

3:30 p.m. — Big Ten men's tournament final, Lucas Oil Stadium

6 p.m. — NCAA tournament selection show

MARCH 17

7 p.m. — Indiana Pacers vs. Brooklyn Nets, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

MARCH 18

4 p.m. — NCAA tournament First Four, Assembly Hall/Mackey Arena

6 p.m. — NCAA tournament First Four, Assembly Hall/Mackey Arena

8 p.m. — NCAA tournament First Four, Assembly Hall/Mackey Arena

10 p.m. — NCAA tournament First Four, Assembly Hall/Mackey Arena

MARCH 19

Noon-10:30 p.m. — NCAA tournament first round (16 games at six venues)

MARCH 20

Noon-10:30 p.m. — NCAA tournament first round (16 games at six venues)

1 p.m. — IHSAA boys basketball semistate, Lafayette Jeff

1 p.m. — IHSAA boys basketball semistate, Seymour

4 p.m. — IHSAA boys basketball semistate, Washington

4 p.m. — IHSAA boys basketball semistate, Elkhart

4 p.m. — IHSAA boys basketball semistate, Lafayette Jeff

4 p.m. — IHSAA boys basketball semistate, Seymour

7 p.m. — IHSAA boys basketball semistate, Washington

7 p.m. — IHSAA boys basketball semistate, Elkhart

MARCH 21

Noon-10:30 p.m. — NCAA tournament second round (eight games at four venues)

MARCH 22

Noon-10:30 p.m. — NCAA tournament second round (eight games at four venues)

MARCH 24

1 p.m. — NCAA Division II men's tournament Elite Eight, Ford Center (Evansville)

4 p.m. — NCAA Division II men's tournament Elite Eight, Ford Center (Evansville)

7 p.m. — Indiana Pacers vs. Detroit Pistons, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

7 p.m. — NCAA Division II men's tournament Elite Eight, Ford Center (Evansville)

10 p.m. — NCAA Division II men's tournament Elite Eight, Ford Center (Evansville)

MARCH 25

6 p.m. — NCAA Division II men's tournament semifinals, Ford Center (Evansville)

9 p.m. — NCAA Division II men's tournament semifinals, Ford Center (Evansville)

MARCH 27

Noon — NCAA Division II men's tournament final, Ford Center (Evansville)

2 p.m. — NCAA tournament Sweet 16, Bankers Life Fieldhouse/Hinkle Fieldhouse

TBD — NCAA tournament Sweet 16, Bankers Life Fieldhouse/Hinkle Fieldhouse

7 p.m. — NCAA tournament Sweet 16, Bankers Life Fieldhouse/Hinkle Fieldhouse

TBD — NCAA tournament Sweet 16, Bankers Life Fieldhouse/Hinkle Fieldhouse

MARCH 28

1 p.m. — NCAA tournament Sweet 16, Bankers Life Fieldhouse/Hinkle Fieldhouse

TBD — NCAA tournament Sweet 16, Bankers Life Fieldhouse/Hinkle Fieldhouse

7 p.m. — NCAA tournament Sweet 16, Bankers Life Fieldhouse/Hinkle Fieldhouse

TBD — NCAA tournament Sweet 16, Bankers Life Fieldhouse/Hinkle Fieldhouse

MARCH 29

7 p.m. — NCAA tournament Elite Eight, Lucas Oil Stadium

10 p.m. — NCAA tournament Elite Eight, Lucas Oil Stadium

MARCH 30

6 p.m. — NCAA tournament Elite Eight, Lucas Oil Stadium

9 p.m. — NCAA tournament Elite Eight, Lucas Oil Stadium

MARCH 31

7 p.m. — Indiana Pacers vs. Miami Heat, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

APRIL 2

8 p.m. — Indiana Pacers vs. Charlotte Hornets, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

APRIL 3

10 a.m. — IHSAA boys basketball Class A state final, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

1:30 p.m. — IHSAA boys basketball Class 2A state final, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

5 p.m. — IHSAA boys basketball Class 3A state final, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

5 p.m. — NCAA tournament Final Four, Lucas Oil Stadium

8 p.m. — NCAA tournament Final Four, Lucas Oil Stadium

8:30 p.m. — IHSAA boys basketball Class 4A state final, Bankers Life Fieldhouse

APRIL 5

9 p.m. — NCAA tournament national championship, Lucas Oil Stadium

A bigger March Madness? Many obstacles stand in the way

RALPH D. RUSSO

AP

NEW YORK (AP) — The number was supposed to be 96.

The last time the NCAA seriously considered expanding a plan emerged to add 16 more games and 32 more participants to grow that symmetrically satisfying 64-team bracket.

The backlash that followed from college sports administrators back in 2010 was strong enough to scrap the idea. was approved in 2011.

“At the end of the day, membership sentiment was that they were not unified in wanting to expand the tournament beyond 68,” recalled Greg Shaheen, the former NCAA vice president for championships.

For the first time in more than a decade, allowed to compete in an event that has become one of the crown jewels of American sports.

The mere suggestion of messing with , which generates hundreds of millions in revenue annually for the NCAA and its 1,100 member schools, is still met with skepticism by a lot of basketball fans and some within college sports.

Making significant changes in the near term will be difficult, if not impossible. There are logistical, financial and even political obstacles.

“That’s not to say we won’t give it it’s appropriate level of analysis and consideration, but there’s a lot of factors to be considered,” said Dan Gavitt, the NCAA vice president for basketball.

Chatter about started more than a year ago, when the NCAA assembled a committee to look into the how Division I, the highest level of college sports, operates.

After more than a year of work, the committee's included expanding fields for all NCAA championship — not just basketball —- with a high level of participation to accommodate 25% of competing schools.

The 25% recommendation is just that. Whether it is implemented will be a decision made on a sport-by-sport basis. Committee co-chair Greg Sankey, the Southeastern Conference commissioner, has tried to avoid being seen as pushing for expansion while also pointing out some of the reasons to do so.

“You have teams that have been the 11-seed in the First Four, make it to the Final Four, the Elite Eight, the Sweet 16,” Sankey said in January. “We’re excluding highly competitive teams, because of the structure. Now what does that expansion or those opportunities look like? I have ideas, but I’m not going to throw them out now since I don’t want to make headlines.”

Current selection protocols provide an automatic berth to the champions of all 32 Division I conferences, plus 36 at-large bids. Those are mostly scooped up by the six strongest and richest conferences: the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern.

The Big Six secured 31 of 36 at-large bids on Sunday.

Along with prestige and opportunities to advance, bids have monetary value. The NCAA distributes revenue to conferences based on tournament performance,

In 2023, a basketball unit will be worth approximately $2.04 million over the six-year period in which it is paid out. So if you’re the SEC or Big Ten, each with eight teams in the tourney, seeing all of them advance a round means more than $16 million.

Coaches, whose job security often depends on making the tournament, have typically supported a bigger field.

“Since I coached at Valparaiso University I always was in favor of tournament expansion, because I thought there’s enough quality teams,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said.

Drew's magic number is 128, which would add another full round to the tournament and include more than one-third of the 358 Division I basketball teams.

Tom Burnett, the former Southland Conference commissioner who also served a stint as the head of the men's basketball selection committee, said he was open-minded but cautious when the topic of tournament expansion would come up.

“If there were a practical expansion plan that addressed whatever needs to be addressed — except here’s where I draw the line: It can't expand because my team didn’t get in,” Burnett said. There will always be teams that feel slighted if they don't get in.

There is some concern outside the power conferences that expansion will result in even more at-large bids going to middle-of-the-pack teams from those leagues with strong mid-major teams still getting squeezed out.

“If you’ve got a seventh- or eighth-place team in over a regular-season champion in a conference, from our perspective, that’s not the way to expand,” said Northern Arizona athletic director Mike Marlow, whose team made an unlikely run to the Big Sky Tournament championship game before losing.

If the Lumberjacks (12-23) had beaten Montana State (25-9) to win the conference, the Bobcats — with 13 more wins than NAU — would be heading to the NIT instead of a first-round NCAA game against Kansas State on Friday.

A-10 Commissioner Bernadette McGlade said she's not concerned about expansion favoring certain conferences.

“I think that everybody has a fair opportunity to share in those additional opportunities. You just have to go after it, just like teams and schools are going after it now,” McGlade said.

McGlade stopped short of saying she supports expansion, but she enthusiastically supports doing a deep dive into the possibility.

Others are open-minded, but will enter the discussion more tentatively.

“Let’s be careful because it’s really, really good right now,” Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said. “So make sure whatever we do is additive, and not just doing something for the sake of expansion that might somehow take the tournament a step back.”

The calendar alone is likely to limit expansion options. Any plan that requires the NCAA Tournament to start earlier than it already does —- the First Four games tip-off Tuesday —- would also require conference tournaments to end sooner and maybe even the regular season.

“We already start the regular season in early November where historically some conferences have said it’s too early with all that’s going on with college football and the like,” Gavitt said.

Any expansion of the men's tournament will almost certainly need to be done to the women's tournament, too. The NCAA was slammed in 2021 for not providing a similar experience for the men's and women's teams. concluded the association had not done enough to invest and promote the women's tournament.

The women's field expanded from 64 to 68 last year. While the depth of competition in women's basketball has unquestionably improved, has it done so enough to justify a large and costly expansion?

But the same thing can be said for the men's tournament. More teams adds expenses for travel, lodging and possibly running additional sites.

Plus, it would almost certainly decrease the value of those performance units, money that is is often that don't play major college football.

“Cutting that by 10 or 11%, or whatever the different calculation could be, that’s actually really important. And it’s vital to the stability of Division I,” Shaheen said.

When Shaheen led the last expansion effort, the NCAA was heading toward the end of a media rights deal with CBS. A new format was part of negotiations for the next deal.

That's not the case now. The current $8.8 billion contract with CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery, part of an extension the NCAA signed in 2016, runs through 2032.

“What role would broadcast partners play?” Gavitt said. “We don’t do anything without respect and communication with our broadcast partners, who we value significantly.”

While CBS and WBD will not publicly insert themselves into any exploration of tournament expansion, their opinions are key and they hold the rights to any men's tournament games for nine more years. The NCAA cannot seek another partner for newly created games.

Contracts between the NCAA and the networks are not made public. But if the networks are under no obligation to pay up for more inventory — and nothing indicates they are —- then all this expansion talk might be nothing more than preparation of the next TV deal.

“It's a complicated thing,” Shaheen said.

___

AP College Basketball Writer John Marshall contributed.

___

AP March Madness coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness and bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

Anatomy of an upset: Ingredients for unforgettable NCAA ...

Nicole Auerbach

USA TODAY Sports

This is why we watch.

Productivity around the country grinds to a halt for two days each March — a 48-hour period many fans consider the best in sports each year — as we wait for our Cinderellas to emerge. We wait for the double-digit seed we knew nothing about that will captivate us and exhilarate us and have us screaming at our TVs as they pull off a most unlikely upset. We wait for another. A third, perhaps. These upsets never get old.

We're holding out hope that someday we'll witness the impossible, a No. 16 seed taking out a No. 1, the one thing that's never happened amid all the chaos and unpredictability of the NCAA tournament. But until then, we're comforted by teams like high-flying, dunk-happy Florida Gulf Coast, which last year beat No. 2 Georgetown and then became the first No. 15 seed to advance to the Sweet 16.

Since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, seven No. 15 seeds have beaten No. 2 seeds; it's happened three times in the past two years. Seventeen 14s have beaten 3s, including a most unlikely underdog — Harvard — taking out New Mexico last March.

We remember Kyle O'Quinn, the gregarious Norfolk State senior forever immortalized in March Madness lore because of a 15-2 upset over Missouri in 2012. His eyes wide in disbelief, his smile stretching from ear to ear — the image snapped just after the final buzzer encapsulated the unbridled joy of an improbable upset.

We remember C.J. McCollum's 30 points to push Lehigh past Duke in Greensboro. We remember Steph Curry before he was Steph Curry leading Davidson to an Elite Eight in 2008. We remember meeting Shaka Smart and learning what HAVOC meant during VCU's Final Four run in 2011. We remember Butler, both times. We remember the first 15 to take out a 2, Dick Tarrant's Richmond Spiders upsetting Jim Boeheim and Syracuse back in 1991. We remember names, faces, moments.

Parity has come up often in recent years, particularly because of teams like Butler, VCU and Wichita State. But it's shown up in major early-round upsets, too. Last March alone, three No. 12 seeds, one No. 13 seed, one No. 14 seed and one No. 15 seed all won their round-of-64 games.

"A while ago, you would see a lot of the guys who are (now) one-and-done stay longer," says former Norfolk State coach Anthony Evans, now at Florida International. "There was a clear gap between the levels. Nowadays, that isn't as big a gap. That experience isn't there. If a McDonald's All-American comes in or there's two on a team, they still don't have the experience that some of the other schools who have seniors who have been together for awhile have.

"That advantage is not always there."

How can we predict which teams will become this year's Cinderella? It's nearly impossible because so much depends on particular matchups. "Any time you're picked to be a Cinderella," ESPN analyst Fraschilla says, "you're almost never it." But with the help of the coaches and players who have made headlines in recent years, we've outlined some trends.

"I stressed to my players, it isn't necessarily the better team that wins," Tarrant says now. "It's the team that plays better basketball in that 40-minute time frame. If you can play real good ball between tipoff and the finish, you can beat much better teams who are bigger, stronger, faster."

Says Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, the victim of the first 15-2 upset in 1991: "It happens because, for the last 10, 15, 20 years, those smaller schools think they can win — even more so now. The pressure kind of goes to the favored team.

"It's difficult. You don't like it, but it happens."

The ingredients for an NCAA upset:

VETERAN PLAYERS

As Evans suggested, mid-major teams are generally full of three- and four-year players, making the ones that reach the NCAA tournament experienced squads with good chemistry and camaraderie. Lehigh and Norfolk State, which pulled off 15-2 upsets within hours of each other in 2012, both had lots of juniors and seniors. McCollum was a junior and two-time Patriot League Player of the Year. O'Quinn was a senior and MEAC Player of the Year.

"With experience comes games under your belt and all you've been through," says O'Quinn. "Going into the game, we obviously knew the odds were against us; that was the toughest part to deal with. Once you get over that aspect, you start thinking, 'Man, this could be my last college game.' I think for the seniors, which was a lot of us, we just said we had one last shot to get one last game. We didn't want it to be our last game."

Norfolk State and Florida Gulf Coast both won games in their program's first NCAA tournament appearance, but that's rare. Consider the cases of Lehigh, Harvard and Davidson. All three had been to the NCAA tournament in the year or two leading up to their big upsets, so a significant portion of their rosters were unfazed by the spotlight and not overwhelmed by the moment.

"(We) certainly talked about not wanting to just be satisfied by just being there," Harvard coach Tommy Amaker says. "We really talked about advancing."

Says longtime Davidson coach Bob McKillop: "The year before (2008), we had played Maryland. We had had a lead. I think we had like an eight-point lead in the 16-minute mark of the second half. We did not know how to respond to that. When we had the deficit against Gonzaga and against Georgetown (a year later), we knew how to respond.

"We had been there in that tournament setting before. That's one of the difficulties for teams that are not regular participants in the NCAA tournament. Those rosters do not get that kind of experience."

Teams in the 2014 NCAA tournament field that fit this mold include Manhattan, Harvard, North Dakota State and Western Michigan.

CONFIDENCE

There's a fine line between confident and cocky, but it's important to be right on the border if you're a low seed facing a perennial power or one of the best teams in the game that season.

"You have to be confident," VCU coach Shaka Smart says. "All the advantages of being an underdog and being overlooked and having nothing to lose — all that goes out the window if you don't have confidence. In the absence of confidence, anxiety creeps in."

Some of that confidence stems from experience; other pieces come from faith players have in one another or their coach. But it's vital during preparation for the game and its first few minutes.

"There's the mental approach of convincing your team you can win a game like that," says Fraschilla, who coached No. 13 Manhattan to an upset of No. 4 Oklahoma in 1995. Or, as Amaker puts it, it's important that your team answers each time your opponent goes on a run.

The flip side of an underdog having confidence is the favorite having too much. Or the higher seed looking ahead to a possible Sweet 16 or Elite Eight matchup. Unlike Norfolk State's regular-season opponents, Evans says, Missouri didn't double team O'Quinn. O'Quinn took advantage of the one-on-one coverage and dominated the paint, scoring 26 points and grabbing 14 rebounds.

"The higher seed may have a level of overconfidence," Smart says. "They may look at the name of the lower seed and not have the same level of respect. What happens is, and you see it happen in these games, like C.J. McCollum for instance. You get out there on the court, and it's like, 'Whoa, you guys are better than we thought.' It's too late at that point to all of the sudden respect the opponent as much as maybe you should have in advance."

Last season, New Mexico was a trendy pick for a Final Four run. At the very least, fans and analysts expected the Lobos to set up a date with sixth-seeded Arizona in the round of 32.

"Sometimes you can get teams to overlook you because of what's on the horizon," Amaker says. "I'm not saying they did that, but the matchup everyone thought was going to take place was New Mexico-Arizona. … I think some of those elements can play, even if it's a subconscious role in the psyche or mindset of teams. That could have been a piece of the puzzle for us."

An underdog 2014 NCAA tournament team that fits this mold is Stephen F. Austin, which hasn't lost since Nov. 23 and doesn't try to be something it's not.

A STAR PLAYER

Now, they're on NBA rosters. But they became household names because of dynamic NCAA tournament appearances.

"Having one great player that people don't realize how good they are (is key)," says Fraschilla, who mentions Wally Szczerbiak, who led Miami (Ohio) to the Sweet 16 in 1999 as a No. 10 seed.

Multiple players fit this mold in recent years. Curry at Davidson. McCollum at Lehigh. Kenneth Faried at Morehead State. O'Quinn at Norfolk State. If a double-digit seed has a guy like that, better watch out.

"When you have a player who can elevate his level of play, it helps any team in that type of environment," says Lehigh coach Brett Reed. "The floor was opened up for C.J. … He just rose to the moment."

Says McCollum: "I knew the only way we were going to be able to win was going to be if I took over the game and left my mark. I told my told my brother and parents going into the game, if I got 30 we'd win."

McCollum scored 30 in Lehigh's upset of Duke in 2012. Faried had 12 points and 17 rebounds in Morehead State's 13-over-4 upset of Louisville a year before. O'Quinn posted 26 points and 14 rebounds to lead Norfolk State past Missouri. Butler's Gordon Hayward carried the Bulldogs into the 2010 national championship game.

The best example: Steph Curry's 2008 NCAA tournament. He scored, in succession, 40 points against Gonzaga, 30 against Georgetown, 33 against Wisconsin and 25 against Kansas.

"Without doubt, Stephen Curry's presence was the first ingredient to our upsets," says McKillop, the Davidson coach. "He was as vital to pulling off those upsets as he was vital to leading us to the number of wins that we had during the season. I never talked to him about needing to step up. I talked to him very directly and clearly that the rhythm of the season must become the rhythm of the postseason."

Underdog teams with players that fit that mold in this year's NCAA tournament field include BYU with Tyler Haws, Louisiana-Lafayette with Elfrid Payton, Mercer with Langston Hall, Eastern Kentucky with Glenn Cosey and Weber State with Davion Berry.

CHALLENGING SCHEDULE/ROAD GAMES

Last season, Florida Gulf Coast played games at VCU, Duke and Iowa State, all tournament teams. The Eagles also hosted Miami, who would end up winning both the regular-season ACC title and the ACC tournament. FGCU was not in awe of the second-seeded Hoyas when it drew them in the round of 64.

"We played a lot of power conferences on their home floors, really, guarantee/buy games," says former Florida Gulf Coast coach Andy Enfield, now at USC. "Our players were excited and confident to have a chance to compete against a team like Georgetown, the Big East co-champ, on a neutral court. … They were able to seize the moment. It was their opportunity, and they were not overwhelmed by it."

Norfolk State had played Marquette twice during the 2011-12 regular season. Norfolk State was blown out on the road but lost by just two in the Paradise Jam tournament title game.

"That was definitely a confidence-builder," says Evans. "(Marquette and Missouri) were similar teams. I thought Marquette was a little more physical. When we were in conference, Coppin State was a lot like them. They played four guards, liked to get up and down the floor. There were some similarities. We felt we had a good matchup."

Take a look at the schedules of the mid-major teams that earn NCAA tournament bids. Even a surprising team headed to the First Four as a No. 16 seed, 13-19 Big West champ Cal Poly, has played Arizona, Oregon, Stanford, Pittsburgh and Delaware on the road.

Last season, VCU played Florida Gulf Coast, which went to the Sweet 16, and Wichita State, which reached the Final Four, in back-to-back games. Smart saw first-hand how important games like that are for potential Cinderellas.

"Experience, particularly in the backcourt and a tough-minded approach of teams that can go anywhere, play anyone," says Smart. "If you look at teams that have won on the road during the regular season and gone into hostile environments, those are maybe some of the indicators, clues of teams that might overachieve in March."

Mid-major teams in the 2014 NCAA tournament field that played grueling non-conference schedules include BYU, Cal Poly, New Mexico State, Tulsa and Wofford.

A UNIQUE STYLE OF PLAY

Enfield does not like to say that Florida Gulf Coast did anything out of the ordinary last year, even though the Eagles' fun, fast-paced, dunk-friendly offense gained its fair share of attention – including to the Harlem Globetrotters.

"We just spread the floor and tried to play uptempo basketball," Enfield says. "We also averaged nine steals a game. We tried to get our offense going with our defense. I guess you could say we had a style to our team, but I don't consider our style unusual. … At the mid-major level, our style enabled us to compete at a higher level because of certain strengths we had."

Smart and VCU agree. They've proven over the years – and certainly during their 2011 Final Four run – that their swarming HAVOC defense is extremely difficult for opponents to prepare for, especially on short turnarounds.

"Style of play differences have been good for us, when we play teams that just haven't seen ours," Smart says.

In fact, for teams and programs that play in a unique way, it can be almost easier to play in the NCAA tournament than it is to compete in conference play.

"When you play in your own conference, you play each team twice, and you're scouted so much by your fellow teams in your league," Enfield says. "Usually, they're able to make adjustments because they're just more familiar with your team. When you get to the NCAA tournament, everything happens so quickly."

That forces opponents to scramble and can leave the opportunity for an upset open.

Teams in the 2014 field that fit this mold include Manhattan with its motion offense, Weber State and its run-and-gun style, New Mexico State and the system it runs through 7-5 Sim Bhullar and Stephen F. Austin with its turnover-generating defense.

3-POINT SHOOTING

Start with 3-point shooting. You'll need to outscore an opponent that might be bigger and more athletic than you are. Some teams that pull off upsets are generally good perimeter-shooting teams, like last year's Harvard squad – "We thought that was a big piece for us, no matter who we played," Amaker says – and others get hot at the right time. Against Missouri, Norfolk State shot 52.6% from beyond the arc.

"We hit 10 3-point shots in that game," Evans says. "We hadn't done that all year long. Being able to knock down our perimeter shots kept us in the game. Everyone knew that Missouri was a high-scoring team, and we weren't. I thought if we stayed in the 70s, we would have a chance. I had no idea we would be able to score 86 points against them."

Beyond that, you have to take and make high-percentage shots.

"Teams that upset others don't shoot 32% and 29% from three," says Tarrant, the former Richmond coach. "After good shot selection, you have to stress team defense, because you have to stop people to win. They're going to make a run, but you have to put the stops on. Then, rebounding. Then, taking care of the ball and limiting turnovers. … "You're not going to out-rebound these monsters, but you can stay with them."

Teams qualified for the 2014 NCAA tournament that rank among the nation's top 35 teams in 3-point field goal percentage include Eastern Kentucky, Weber State, Harvard and Mercer. North Dakota State, meanwhile, is the nation's overall field-goal percentage leader.

A LITTLE BIT OF LUCK

Coaches always like to say, winning requires you to be good – and lucky. The same holds true in the NCAA tournament. From tip times to locations to simply a favorable matchup, underdogs can always use a bit of good fortune.

Davidson played its first two games in nearby Raleigh in 2008, bringing with it a good crowd. Butler played in the Final Four hosted by its hometown Indianapolis. Even what appears to be a disadvantage – Lehigh having to play Duke in Greensboro, N.C. – can turn into an advantage. Because Greensboro is also close to Chapel Hill, North Carolina also was sent to that early-round site. Tar Heels fans roared in support of the Mountain Hawks' upset bid.

"C.J. was maybe the best player on the floor," Amaker says. "The momentum that you can generate, that force of power that can be created in the arena itself, the pressure that builds on the higher-seeded team."

There are other minor factors to consider. Though a review of tipoff times showed major early-round upsets happen at all hours of the day, some people believe that timing matters.

"I know it sounds crazy, but when do you play the game?" Fraschilla says. "You'll be amazed at how many upsets happen in the early part of the day. The year we beat Oklahoma (in 1995), No. 12 Miami of Ohio and Herb Sendek was knocking off No. 5 Arizona at the same time – the very first couple of games at the NCAA tournament.

"I told my team, 'We're going to wake up better than Oklahoma.' "

ENDURANCE

Florida Gulf Coast's ability to win a second game and become the first No. 15 seed to reach the Sweet 16 was impressive – not just because it was the program's NCAA tournament debut but also because the players didn't get caught up in the emotions and excitement of winning the first game.

"You've never been to that second game before," Evans says. "The preparation is a little foreign. The excitement is still there. And the other team has had a chance to see you. It was nice to see Florida Gulf Coast win its first game, get to the second game and play the same way."

Past underdogs like Evans and O'Quinn were rooting for the Eagles when they made their run last year.

"Of course I was pulling for those guys," O'Quinn says. "I know the feeling that was going through their bodies. I'm sure those guys were on a cloud higher than nine."

A key to sustaining an NCAA tournament run is coaching. With short turnarounds between games and ever-increasing pressure mounting the deeper a team goes, assistant coaches who scout, analyze and prepare game plans are vital. The rest of this recipe – having an experienced, confident group with a star player who can carry you, if you can swing it – remains important, too, the longer they play.

Still, it's worth noting there are some people who may not root for Cinderellas quite like the rest of us. They're the ones broadcasting the games.

"Ratings were always critical, so you always wanted the right match ups and the right games," says American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco, who worked as the executive vice president at CBS Sports and oversaw NCAA tournament coverage. "The truth is, every now and then, the Cinderella story was terrific. But you also wanted those big guys duking it out at the end.

"You're always torn because those brand names are the ones that typically generate the ratings, but I can remember so many upsets, so many great moments. That tournament is always going to have them. It's part of the charm."

That's what we bank on each year when we fill out our brackets and turn on our television set. We never know who will fill those roles. And at the end of the day, even those involved in Cinderella stories laugh at the idea that they could identify the next one.

"If I could," Smart says, "I should retire from coaching and go to Vegas."

12-year-old's bracket is better than yours

Associated Press

@ap

HAWTHORN WOODS, Ill. — A sixth-grade boy from suburban Chicago completed a near-perfect bracket predicting the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, finishing in a tie for first in ESPN’s massive annual contest.

Sam Holtz said ESPN officials told him that is he ineligible to claim the top prize — a $20,000 gift card and a trip to the Maui Invitational basketball tournament — because he’s 12 years old. ESPN requires participants to be at least 18.

“I’m irritated,” Holtz told the Daily Herald. “Yes, I’m still proud of my accomplishment, but I’m not happy with the decision.”

Finishing with the best bracket does not equal an automatic claim to the prize. ESPN awards the prize through a random draw of the brackets that were among the top 1 percent in the contest — about 115,700 this year. Kevin Ota, a spokesman for ESPN Digital Media, said the network is putting together some kind of prize for Holtz.

“We plan to have fun with this,” Ota said Tuesday. “The great thing is that this kid beat all these experts out there.”

The tournament includes 67 games and Holtz missed only six. He was perfect picking games played in the Sweet 16, Elite Eight and Final Four. Out of 11.5 million who entered a bracket on ESPN’s website, Sam finished tied for first with 1,830 points after Duke beat Wisconsin 68-63 in Monday’s championship game. He entered 10 brackets in the contest.

“There is no secret,” said Holtz, who attends Lake Zurich Middle School North. “There was some luck, and I studied ESPN.com. I just picked the teams that I felt had the best players.”

His mother, Elizabeth, kept him home from school Tuesday.

“He wanted to go to school today, but I kept him home because ESPN said they planned to call this morning,” she said. “He wants to go this afternoon, but I told him if Jimmy Kimmel calls, he’s going to have to miss that, too.”