Alabama basketball was 7-10 away from home. Pearl faced questions about his own future.
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Even so, though, the show goes on.
No matter how this pans out, Texas A&M has reached the NCAA Tournament.
Virginia Tech, one of the two teams to defeat Virginia this season, earned one of the 36 at-large bids and one of the ACC’s nine total bids, the most by a single conference this year.
No. 1 overall seed Virginia will face No. 16 seed UMBC, coached by former Hokies assistant Ryan Odom, in Charlotte on Friday in the South Region.
It will be the just the second time that the Tar Heels have been a No. 2 seed under Williams, with the only other time coming in 2011.
Here’s what else to look for in the East Region.
While the Spartans were a better regular season team than Purdue and likely should have received that 2-seed in Detroit, they were also stronger than North Carolina, another team they beat. Their 12-1 mark against Q1 teams is remarkable. He plays on both sides of the ball and hus 7-foot-5 wingspan will make things tough for any opposition. Wichita State has the veteran leadership to get through to the second weekend.
Cinderellas: St. Bonaventure needs to get out of a tough game in Dayton against UCLA. The Bonnies may have the most underrated backcourt in the country in Jaylen Adams and Worcester’s Matt Mobley. But Duke has the firepower to make a very deep run this year led by Marvin Bagley III. “People think you play for the national championship if you play in the last game and I don’t”. The Blue Devils have won 12 of 14 matchups against Michigan State, including an 88-81 victory early this season in a meeting of the top two teams in The Associated Press poll. Michael Porter Jr., one of the top recruits from last year’s class, returned last week after missing the entire season to injury. Led by Big South coach of the year, Mike Jones, Radford went 22-12 this year and 12-6 in conference. Notre Dame, USC, Baylor, Louisville and Oklahoma State were all left out of the tournament. I looked at each one of them independently. They beat Kansas twice, including on the road, West Virginia on the road, Oklahoma twice, and Texas Tech.
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-The region to watch is the Midwest, which is top heavy with Kansas, Duke and Michigan State, who were ranked in the top 4 in the AP preseason poll. Brunson gets excellent support from Mikal Bridges, who is averaging 18.0 points and collecting 5.4 rebounds per night, and is shooting 52.1 percent. That sets up a potential meeting between Virginia and one of those teams in the Sweet Sixteen. They had some absolutely great wins. Along with the hot hands of Malik Newman and the hopeful return of Udoka Azubuike, this team is playing its best basketball of the season right now. But John Calipari probably won’t be pleased with their draw. This could be a flawless situation for a 12-over-5 upset.
