Georgia Amoore scored a career-high 29 points and top-seeded Virginia Tech advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time in school history with a 73-64 win over No. 4 seed Tennessee. The Hokies won their 14th straight game overall and advanced to a matchup with No. 3 seed Ohio State in the Seattle 3 Regional final on Monday night. Ohio State topped UConn in the first semifinal, ending the Huskies’ streak of 14 straight Final Four appearances. Kayana Traylor added 14 points and Elizabeth Kitley scored 12 points. The ACC Tournament champions had reached the Sweet 16 only once previously in school history. Jordan Horston led Tennessee with 17 points.
By this point, Louisville resume of women’s NCAA Tournament success should have the Cardinals getting mentioned in the same breath as South Carolina, UConn and the other powers in the sport. Instead, Jeff Walz feels like the Cardinals are regularly a team picked to get bounced early in March Madness. Walz and the No. 5 seed Cardinals will play in their fifth straight regional championship game facing No. 2 seed Iowa in the Seattle 4 Regional on Sunday. Louisville’s streak of five straight Elite Eight appearances is the longest active streak in the country after UConn was beat to Ohio State. Led by star Caitlin Clark, Iowa will play in just its second regional final in the past 30 years.
New York has a notable rival for the title the city that never sleeps in 24/7 Las Vegas. Two of the biggest moments in this year's NCAA Tournament came in those two cities Thursday night, both thanks to players taking center stage in their hometowns. New York native Markquis Nowell had an NCAA-record 19 assists for Kansas State in its win over Michigan State. Las Vegas native Julian Strawther made a shot from the logo with 7.2 seconds left that put Gonzaga ahead for good against UCLA. Both are hoping to follow up those performances in their hometowns in the Elite Eight.
The Washington State Cougars have adopted Shania Twain's “Man, I Feel Like A Woman” song as their official anthem on the way to March Madness. The Cougars sing the song in the locker room before every game. They also sang the 1997 smash hit on the court after becoming the lowest-seeded team to ever win the Pac-12 Tournament. The Cougars are seeded fifth in the NCAA Tournament and play 12th-seeded Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday. Twain has tweeted her support of the team and may even sing with them at upcoming concert stop.
JIm Nantz and CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus agreed two years ago that this would be Nantz’s final tournament as the top announcer. Nantz started calling early-round games for CBS in 1986 and was the Final Four studio host for five years before taking over play-by-play duties from Brett Musburger in 1991. When Nantz signs off on April 3, he will have called 354 NCAA Tournament games, including 64 national semifinals and 32 championship contests. Nantz decided to step back from doing the tournament to devote more time to family.
The Washington men's basketball team ended an uneasy 2023 season with a loss to Colorado on Wednesday afternoon.
After Cole Bajema somehow converted the layup of a lifetime before crashing to the court that pulled the Huskies even with 1:25 left, Colorado's Luke O'Brien drained a dagger 3-pointer on the ensuing possession. On its next trip, Keyon Menifield tried to whip a pass along the baseline to Bajema in the corner that was intercepted and Buffaloes' Julian Hammond III drained a midrange jumper that essentially decided the game. Washington never got anything going on three of its last four offensive possessions and fell 74-68 in the first round of the Pac-12 men's basketball tournament.
This article is part of our DFS College Basketball series. Six games wet our appetite Wednesday afternoon, two from each of the ACC, Pac-12 and Big East, so we should have a reasonable spread of regional biases. Five of the six games have a total of 138 or higher, with Washington State-California looking like our likely omission, but don't discount the possibility of someone, particularly from the Cougars, popping off. With blocks available, there's a lineup-stabilizing floor with a 4x+ ceiling that elevates if Butler doesn't have Manny Bates ($7,200) to combat him.
Penn's Markus Burton is the MVP of the all-Northern Indiana Conference boys basketball team. Kingsmen coach Al Rhodes is Coach of the Year.
TJ Bamba scored a career-high 36 points, Andrej Jakimovski added a double-double and Washington State won its sixth straight Pac-12 Conference game for the first time in 30 years with a 93-84 victory over Washington on Thursday night. Bamba, a junior, made 13 of 20 shots with three 3-pointers and all seven of his free throws for the Cougars (16-15, 11-9 Pac-12 Conference). Jakimovski scored 12 points and grabbed a career-best 17 rebounds.
Washington hoped to close out the season on a positive note on senior night back at home. Any notion of that was dismissed immediately as the Cougars pounced on Washington instantly and UW was never able to recover in a game the Dawgs never led. Washington State did whatever they wanted all night against a hapless Husky defense. After the Huskies got torched by ball movement and 3's in their last game by Stanford, Washington State picked up right where the Cardinal left off.