Cinderella has been kicked out of the dance early for the second straight season.<\/p>\n
Following a madness-promising first day of upsets, the NCAA Tournament<\/a> has turned into a high-major affair.<\/p>\n The Sweet 16 invite is for power-conference programs only.<\/p>\n Advocates for fewer automatic qualifiers and bracket expansion<\/a> will have a field day with this one.<\/p>\n \u201cI think parity is great for the game, but things change,\u201d said Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd, who spent 21 seasons as an assistant at Gonzaga.<\/p>\n The Big Ten is the big conference on the block, pushing through a league-record six teams into the Sweet 16 \u2014 three in the same region.<\/p>\n The SEC has four Sweet 16 teams, the Big 12 three, the Big East two, the ACC one.<\/p>\n Mid-majors: zero for the second straight season. <\/p>\n East Region<\/p>\n The top three seeds made it through the East.<\/p>\n St. John\u2019s is the Darling.<\/p>\n The fifth-seeded Red Storm (30-6) blew a 12-point lead against Kansas, but Dylan Darling, who hadn\u2019t hit a shot all day, scored at the buzzer for a 67-65 win<\/a> that sends St. John\u2019s to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999.<\/p>\n Next up for the Johnnies is a date with Duke on Friday in Washington.<\/p>\n The Blue Devils (34-2) and star freshman Cameron Boozer had an opening 1-vs.-16 scare against Siena but took it out on TCU with an 81-58 win<\/a> to reach the Sweet 16 for the third straight season.<\/p>\n The second regional semifinal likely will leave both teams bruised and battered.<\/p>\n UConn (31-5) lost in the second round last season following consecutive national championships but clamped down on UCLA<\/a> to earn a Sweet 16 return.<\/p>\n Michigan State (27-7) is in the Sweet 16 for the 17th time under coach Tom Izzo, led by the dynamic duo of Jeremy Fears Jr. and Coen Carr.<\/p>\n South Region<\/p>\n No. 2 seed Houston avoided having to play reigning national champion Florida \u2014 Iowa made sure of that \u2014 and will be playing at home for the South Region.<\/p>\n The Cougars (30-6) will be surrounded by Big Ten teams, starting with a 2-mile trip from campus against Illinois on Thursday.<\/p>\n The Illini (26-8) are big \u2014 bigger than any team in the country.<\/p>\n They used that size to their advantage, clobbering Penn and VCU to reach the Sweet 16 for the second time in three seasons under coach Brad Underwood.<\/p>\n The second East semifinal will be the battle of the corn.<\/p>\n No. 4 seed Nebraska (28-6) is the closest thing the Sweet 16 has to an underdog \u2014 only because it had never won an NCAA Tournament game prior to this season.<\/p>\n No. 9 seed Iowa (23-12) finished 10-10 in the Big Ten but has bullied its way through the bracket so far, reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999<\/a> by ending Florida\u2019s repeat bid<\/a>.<\/p>\n Midwest Region<\/p>\n Michigan has looked every bit a top seed, winning its first two games by an average of 22 points.<\/p>\n Next up is a showdown with No. 4 seed Alabama on Friday in Chicago.<\/p>\n The Crimson Tide (25-9) washed away Texas Tech by raining down 19 3-pointers in a 90-65 thrashing<\/a> to reach the Sweet 16 for the fourth straight season.<\/p>\n No. 2 seed Iowa State took a big hit when All-America forward Joshua Jefferson sprained his ankle in the Cyclones\u2019 opener and didn\u2019t play against Kentucky.<\/p>\n It did little to slow them down; the Cyclones (29-7) spun away from Kentucky 82-63<\/a> to reach the Sweet 16 for the third time under coach T.J. Otzelberger.<\/p>\n Iowa State hopes to have Jefferson back for Friday\u2019s game and will likely need him against Tennessee.<\/p>\n The No. 6 Vols (24-11) have been Sweet 16 regulars under coach Rick Barnes and made it four straight by outlasting Virginia 79-72<\/a>.<\/p>\n West Region<\/p>\n The West has an SEC team disguised as Cinderella.<\/p>\n Texas has a world of resources and plays in the SEC yet found itself in Dayton, Ohio, as a No. 11 seed.<\/p>\n The Longhorns (21-14) pulled it together at just the right time in their first season under coach Sean Miller, knocking off No. 3 seed Gonzaga<\/a> to become the sixth First Four team to reach the Sweet 16.<\/p>\n That earns them a spot in the West semifinals against No. 2 Purdue on Thursday in San Jose, California.<\/p>\n Coach Matt Painter has molded the Boilermakers (29-8) into a model of consistency, reaching the Sweet 16 seven times the last nine seasons \u2014 including the 2024 title game \u2014 with their 79-69 win over Miami<\/a>.<\/p>\n The showdown between No. 1 Arizona and No. 4 Alabama will be an NBA scout\u2019s delight.<\/p>\n The Wildcats (34-2) go eight deep in potential future pros and guard Jaden Bradley has a knack for making the biggest plays at the biggest moments<\/a>.<\/p>\n John Calipari set the standard for recruiting NBA lottery picks at Kentucky, and it\u2019s been no different in his second season in Fayetteville. Fabulous freshman Darius Acuff Jr. was the star in Arkansas\u2019 94-88 win over High Point<\/a>, scoring 36 points as the Razorbacks secured their second straight Sweet 16 berth.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n AP March Madness bracket: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ncaa-mens-bracket<\/a> and coverage: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/march-madness<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cinderella has been kicked out of the dance early for the second straight season. Following a madness-promising first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[3376,26177,593,4473,7,15642,28830,3474,2050,17047,217,325,41665,9894,8382,2048,7367,588,113,2429,36513,599,64359,55358,11446,354,231,772,20001,55359,1544,40789,3422,7926,32582,1117,66,218,2098,3226,22055,582],"class_list":["post-719015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-ap-top-news","tag-ar-state-wire","tag-arkansas","tag-atlantic-coast-conference","tag-basketball","tag-big-12-conference","tag-big-east-conference","tag-big-ten-conference","tag-brad-underwood","tag-cameron-boozer","tag-college-basketball","tag-college-sports","tag-darius-acuff-jr","tag-dylan-darling","tag-il-state-wire","tag-illinois","tag-illinois-fighting-illini","tag-in-state-wire","tag-indiana","tag-jaden-bradley","tag-jeremy-fears-jr","tag-john-calipari","tag-joshua-jefferson","tag-march-madness-ncaa-tournament","tag-matt-painter","tag-mens-college-basketball","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaa-mens-division-i-basketball-championship","tag-ncaa-mens-bracket","tag-ncaab","tag-ne-state-wire","tag-nebraska","tag-rick-barnes","tag-sean-miller","tag-southeastern-conference","tag-sports","tag-st-johns-red-storm","tag-texas","tag-tom-izzo","tag-tommy-lloyd","tag-tx-state-wire"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}