Favorites won 15 of 16 games in the second round of the NCAA Tournament Saturday/Sunday, going 12-4 ATS. Very unusual.
— Clemson 72, Baylor 64
#6-seed Tigers were the only underdog to win in the second round.
Clemson led wire-to-wire, shot 56.7% inside the arc.
Clemson plays Arizona in the Sweet 16.
— Houston 100, Texas Tech 95, OT
Tech hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer in regulation to force OT
Houston led by 13 with 3:49 left in regulation.
Tech lost by 5; they missed 16 foul shots (29-45).
— Marquette 81, Colorado 77
Marquette led 45-34 at half; game was tied with 3:33 left.
Kolek scored 21 points, had 11 assists; he played all 40:00.
Golden Eagles shot 73.5% inside arc, Colorado 58.3%.
— Alabama 72, Grand Canyon 61
Antelopes led by 3, with 6:03 left to play.
Grand Canyon was 2-20 on the arc, 23-37 on foul line.
Alabama plays North Carolina in the Sweet 16.
— San Diego State 85, Yale 57
Aztecs came into game shooting 31% on arc; they made 13-27 in this game.
Aztecs led 45-21 at halftime of this stress-free win.
San Diego State plays UConn in the Sweet 16.
— Purdue 106, Utah State 67
Aggies led 20-19 after the first 10:00, then it went downhill, quickly.
Utah State shot 35.9% from the floor.
Zach Edey scored 23 points, had 14 rebounds.
— UConn 75, Northwestern 58
UConn won easily; they led 40-18 at halftime.
Huskies won their last nine games, seven of them by 14+ points.
Northwestern made NCAA’s the last two years, first time they ever did that.
— Duke 93, James Madison 55
Duke led the Dukes 47-25 at halftime.
Blue Devils made 14-28 shots on the arc.
Duke plays Houston in the Sweet 16.
Famous birthdays for March 25:
Elton John, 77
Bonnie Bedelia, 76
Lee Mazzilli, 69
Avery Johnson, 59
Tom Glavine, 58
Kyle Lowry, 38
— College basketball coaching hires:
West Virginia hired Drake coach Darian DeVries as its new coach; his son Tucker is expected to follow him to Morgantown. Tucker DeVries scored 21.6 ppg this year, grabbed 6.7 rebounds per game. Darian DeVries was 150-55 in six years coaching Drake.
Rice Owls hired former SMU coach Rob Lanier as their new coach; Lanier has been a head coach for 10 years at three different schools, making the NCAA’s in 2002 at Siena, 2022 at Georgia State.
— Baltimore Orioles are 23-6 in spring training, which means very little.
— JD Martinez signed a one-year, $12M deal with the Mets; he mentioned how the Giants had offered him more $$$ than the Mets, but because San Francisco’s ballpark is bigger than Citi Field, he thought his numbers would go down with the Giants, and teams would think he was on the decline.
— In the NBA, Portland Trailblazers started five rookies Saturday night, only the second team since 1971 to start five rookies in a game.
On April 26, 2012, Golden State started five rookies against San Antonio; one of the rookies was Klay Thompson.
— The starting five Grand Canyon used against Alabama Sunday averaged 23.0 years old, starting lineup for the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder averages 22.6 years old.
— NBA suspensions after a scuffle the other night:
Utah’s Kris Dunn got suspended for two games, a total of $35,678.
Houston’s Jabari Smith got suspended for one game, $53,601.
— All eight #1 and #2-seeds made it to the Sweet 16, for the first time since 2019.
