We have our first teams in the Sweet 16

We’re getting there. We’re not quite there yet, but we’re getting closer.

It’s going to happen. This tournament is going to find its stride.

March Madness’ 3 best games of Day 3

1. (6) BYU 91, (3) Wisconsin 89 (East)

BYU led from start to finish in this one, but that doesn’t mean the victory was drama-free. You probably could have guessed that by the final score you read right above this, but if you didn’t, well, now you’ve been educated.

Wisconsin scored 11 of the game’s final 13 points and put themselves in a position to tie or win the game at the buzzer. Greg Gard made the expected decision to put the ball in the hands of John Tonje, who had already poured in 37 points. The Badgers’ star guard could manage only a heavily contested baseline jumper that didn’t even draw iron.

A loss would have been devastating for a BYU squad that had clearly been the better side for the duration of the game. The Cougars got a sensational 25-point performance from star Richie Saunders (have you heard his great grandfather invented the tater-tot?), and shot 12-of-26 from behind the three-point line as a team.

BYU had seemed to be in complete control before a questionable ejection of Cougar guard Dawson Baker with 3:11 left in the game. Officials ruled that Baker had intentionally hit Wisconsin’s Max Klesmit in the groin during a scrum.

You be the judge.

Tonje took over following the ejection, knocking down a pair of free-throws, a three-pointer and an and-1 layup to pull Wisconsin within a bucket. Mawot Mag’s tough defense then saved the day for BYU, which punched its ticket to the Sweet 16 for the first time since Jimmer Fredette and company reached the second weekend in 2011.

2. (10) Arkansas 75, (2) St. John’s 66 (West)

For most folks, this matchup was always more about the drama between John Calipari and Rick Pitino than it was about the actual basketball, so it’s sort of fitting that the game gave us plenty of competitive drama without a ton of actual well-played basketball.

The two teams went back-and-forth for the game’s first 35 minutes, but often it took a long time for the back-and-forth to happen.

Arkansas connected on only 2-of-19 shots from three, but St. John’s went just 2-for-22. The Red Storm shot 28.0 percent from the field for the game, the lowest field goal percentage for a Rick Pitino team in any of his 77 NCAA Tournament games as a head coach.

“Was it an ugly game? Or was it a game that was exciting? Like, both?” Calipari said. “An ugly exciting game. You know I don’t care. It could be an ugly-ugly game and I’m happy we’re moving on.”

The Razorbacks led by as many as 13 in the second half and by eight with eight minutes to play. St. John’s then cut the lead to two with a rally that had the mostly Red Storm-backing crowd in Providence going nuts. The door was wide open, but Pitino’s team refused to walk through it. They missed six consecutive three-pointers and eight of their final nine field goal attempts for the game. The only make during that span was a meaningless dunk with 20 seconds to play.

Arkansas is now headed to the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in five years. Calipari is headed there for the 16th time, the most of any active coach in college basketball.

Additionally, Calipari has now won nine of his last 11 games against Pitino, and is the only coach ever to have beaten Pitino in three different NCAA Tournament games.

3. (1) Houston 81, (8) Gonzaga 76 (Midwest)

You could make a case for Michigan-Texas A&M or Auburn-Creighton in this spot, but we’re going with what wound up being the most tightly-contested of the bunch.

It took a while to get there, but ultimately the most hotly-anticipated matchup of the second round gave the people the theater they were looking for.

Houston never trailed, and carried a double digit lead for the bulk of the game. Gonzaga’s ability to never let things get completely out of hand eventually paid off in the game’s closing minutes when the Cougars finally blinked and made a handful of mistakes. The last two of those mistakes — a turnover by Milos Uzan and a missed free-throw by LJ Cryer — gave the Zags a chance to tie or take the lead in the final seconds.

Mark Few turned to Khalif Battle, who lost control of the ball multiple times and wasn’t able to get a clean shot at the basket. A pair of free-throws from Uzan with 2.1 seconds to play set the game’s final score.

The seeding of the Zags — who were awarded an 8 despite being ranked in the top 10 by a number of metrics including the NET and KenPom — drew more than a few complaints on Selection Sunday. Count Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson among those who thought this matchup shouldn’t have happened this early in March.

“Gonzaga is as good as anyone we’ve played all year,” Sampson said. “Had they been seeded somewhere else, that’s a team that could have had a chance to get to the Elite Eight, or maybe the Final Four. They’re that good.”

3 teams that won it the best

1. Texas Tech

There were a lot of impressive team efforts on Saturday, but we’ll rock with the Red Raiders in the top spot here. Grant McCasland’s team played accentuated its strengths, got big performances from its stars, and played a fully composed 40 minutes of basketball to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in three years.

After beating UNC Wilmington with a barrage of three-pointers in the first round, Texas Tech opted to utilize its advantages inside the arc against undersized Drake. The Red Raiders funneled their offense to Second Team All-American JT Toppin, who responded by knocking down nine of his first 10 shots and scoring 19 of his 25 points in the first half. Toppin also grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked two shots.

When Drake adjusted at halftime and emphasized limiting Toppin after the break, the Red Raiders turned to Darrion Williams, who poured in a game-high 28 points. When the final horn sounded, Tech had hung 77 points on the nation’s second-best scoring defense. That total tied for the most that Drake had allowed in a non-overtime game this season.

Perhaps most impressive of all, Texas Tech advanced to the second weekend without the services of third leading scorer Chance McMillian, who is dealing with an upper body injury and hoping to be available for next week’s games.

2. Michigan

The Wolverines trailed Texas A&M, 70-66, with 7:08 to play. The next time the whistle blew for a TV timeout, Michigan held an 81-72 advantage with 3:37 to go. That’s a 15-2 run in just three minutes and 31 seconds.

Despite playing their fifth game in nine days, the Big Ten Tournament champions looked like the fresher and more composed team down the stretch. Texas A&M, playing for just the second time over the same stretch of nine days, missed eight of their last nine shots and allowed their opponents to score the game’s final nine points.

Included that stretch was unbelievable lefthand shot by Michigan guard Tre Donaldson that seemed to break the Aggies’ back.

More than a few folks on Selection Sunday felt like Michigan, a 5-seed, and Wisconsin, a 3-seed, should have been flipped following the Wolverines’ triumph over the Badgers. One certainly looked more like a 3-seed than the other on Saturday.

Maybe, just maybe, if the Committee can’t handle adjusting its bracket for Sunday championship games, then there shouldn’t be Sunday championship games.

3. Tennessee

Don’t be fooled by the 67-58 final score, UT’s win over UCLA was a whoopin’. The Vols led by 19 points with 5:51 to play before they shifted into cruise control and allowed Mick Cronin’s squad to make the final score look respectable.

Tennessee scored the final nine points of the first half and opened the second half on a 14-6 run to create too wide of a gap for the Bruins to close. Chaz Lanier hit four threes during the stretch, setting a new UT single-season record for made threes in a season in the process.

The Volunteers are now headed to a third straight Sweet 16 for the first time in program history, and are two wins away from that ever-elusive first trip to a Final Four.

The 3 Biggest Disappointments

1. St. John’s

No team in college basketball got more national attention over the last few weeks than St. John’s, and now the Red Storm are done for the season before the NCAA Tournament’s second weekend.

The most frustrating part for the Johnnies about not being able to get back to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999 is that Arkansas didn’t do anything particularly special to prevent it.

St. John’s wasn’t just a miserable 2-for-22 from three, they were 8-of-25 on layups. That’s going to be tough for Red Storm fans to stomach all offseason, and for the players on this team to stomach for a lot longer.

“They had 28 offensive rebounds and we still won, which is crazy,” John Calipari said in his postgame interview on CBS. “If they made a few shots, they probably beat us.”

Gotta make shots.

2. McNeese State

I get that you are the biggest underdog of the day, so this really isn’t fair, but also ... you were playing in the first complete standalone game of the weekend. When that’s the case, you’re bound by duty to keep things interesting for an American public that, by this point in March, doesn’t know how to do anything other than watch college basketball.

Almost immediately falling behind by double-digits and trailing by 18 at halftime is not keeping things interesting. Not even 117 shots of the Aura kid could save the early afternoon.

I had to put in extended face time with my kids. Do you know how much I had enjoyed not having to bust out my Daddy Pig impression from “Peppa Pig” for the previous two days? They were the best two days of my year. You guys took that from me.

I feel like I have no choice but to root against NC State moving forward.

3. Wisconsin

Losing as the 3-seed in a 3/6 matchup is bad enough, but Wisconsin also ruined the Big Ten’s perfect tournament. The conference had already become the first ever to win its first 10 games in a single tournament, and the Badgers couldn’t get them to 11 straight.

Honestly, it kind of feels like UCLA’s los s an hour later is on the Badgers too. Once they knew they weren’t playing for Big Ten perfection, it seemed like they lost all motivation.

5 Day 3 Cheers

1. Houston becoming the new Sweet 16 king

There was a changing of the guard on Saturday night.

Not only did Houston keep Gonzaga from setting a new tournament record for most consecutive Sweet 16 appearances at 10, but the Cougars took over their title of program with the longest active Sweet 16 streak (6).

That’s a pretty unreal stat for a program that made just one NCAA Tournament appearance between 1992 and 2018.

2. Kelvin Sampson consoling Khalif Battle

Sampson had coached against Battle since Battle was playing for Temple in the America Athletic Conference (Houston’s home before making the move to the Big 12), and made it a point to comfort the Gonzaga star in the moments immediately following his final college game.

Greatest sporting event in the world.

3. The expanded Ben McCollum fan club

A group of younger gentlemen dressed like Drake head coach Ben McCollum chose to join the group of older gentlemen who had dressed like Ben McCollum for Thursday’s game.

I’ll miss you guys the most.

4. Michigan’s turnaround

Every proud power conference program coming off a miserable season (or string of seasons) is pointing to Michigan right now as evidence for why things can be markedly different 12 months from now.

The Wolverines played in the NIT two seasons ago. Last season they won eight games. This season they’re headed to the Sweet 16.

No other team in college basketball history has lost as many games as Michigan did last season (24) and then made the Sweet 16 a year later.

How does that happen? Well, Michigan hired one of the brightest young coaches in the sport in Dusty May, May brought a couple of his key pieces with him from Florida Atlantic, and then the new staff was able to land one of the top transfer portal hauls in the sport.

It’s an easy recipe to explain, but a more difficult one to implement if you aren’t a major brand from a power conference. That isn’t going to stop every frustrated fan base in America from pointing to the Wolverines as evidence for why there’s zero excuse for their program not to be winning at a high level right now.

5. BYU’s offense

In the midst of a first week of the tournament that has been defined by lopsided by final scores, poor offensive performances and an overall lack of excitement, BYU brought the goods on Saturday evening.

We are very close to getting a BYU-Alabama Sweet 16 matchup that could evoke memories of the Loyola Marymount games from the team’s 1990 tournament run (except for, ironically, its 62-60 win over Alabama in the Sweet 16).

5 Day 3 Jeers

1. The early standalone games

I’ll never understand the layout of the tournament’s first Saturday and Sunday. I mean I’m sure the explanation is rooted in something related to ratings and money, but it still defies basic logic from a fan perspective.

After being flooded with games at all hours for the previous 48 hours, we get just two games back-to-back for the first five hours of the day. No games going on at the same time. Even the first half of the third game is alone on an island. And then BAM, we’ve got six games hurled at us during the evening session.

There’s no reason to have second round games wrapping up after midnight on the East Coast. It’s an easy fix, and it blows my mind that it hasn’t happened yet. Having at least one other option as Purdue was routing McNeese in the early afternoon would have been nice.

Giving us all these options for 48 hours straight and then yanking them away without a proper adjustment period is cruel and unusual punishment.

2. The guy who climbed the Toomer’s Corner Oak tree

Look, man, you can’t do something like this for a No. 1 overall seed making the Sweet 16.

You have to save this move for, at the very earliest, Auburn locking up a trip to the Final Four.

I don’t even want to think about what this guy is going to try to pull if the Tigers win two more games next weekend. Neither does he, but this is the position he’s put himself in now.

3. The scorebug operator for the BYU-Wisconsin game

Maybe the excitement of a high-scoring 2025 tournament game was just too much for them to handle.

4. The end of game possessions by both Gonzaga and Wisconsin

Both Wisconsin and Gonzaga had the ball down two with just seconds to play.

These were our first two opportunities at a magical March moment; A shot at the buzzer to either send your team to the Sweet 16 or extend your team’s season by at least another five minutes.

What we got was gross.

We are tending towards Amir Khan taking up a full two minutes of “One Shining Moment” at this point.

5. The lack of drama ... still

Look, this was better, but it wasn’t the “incredible second round” that so many predicted would be the payoff for trudging through a mostly uneventful opening Thursday.

Just two games were decided by fewer than nine points, and the games that were the most consistently competitive — Michigan/Texas A&M, Auburn/Crieghton, Arkansas/St. John’s — ultimately gave us no drama at the end.

I’d like to take particular issue with Tennessee/UCLA. This was the third straight night where the final game of the day was already in full-on blowout mode by the time the basketball world was left with no other viewing option. You simply have to give us more in that situation. Jordan Poole understood that.

There is significant pressure on Arizona/Oregon Sunday night.

All Day-3 Team

Trey Kaufman-Renn, Purdue

Undersized McNeese had no answer for Kaufman-Renn, who continued his strong start to the tournament with 22 points, 15 rebounds and three assists.

John Tonje, Wisconsin

Tonje became the first player of the tournament to break the 30-point threshold, dropping 37 in the Badgers’ loss to BYU.

LJ Cryer, Houston

Cryer became the second player of the tournament to hit the 30-point mark, netting 30 exactly in Houston’s win over Gonzaga.

JT Toppin, Texas Tech

Teammate Darrion Williams (who scored 28 points) could have easily had a spot on this team, but we’ll go with Toppin, who scored 25 points on 11-of-13 shooting from the field and added 12 rebounds and a pair of blocks.

Vladislav Goldin, Michigan

The big man was a beast against Texas A&M, scoring 23 points, grabbing 12 rebounds and blocking shots. He was the biggest reason why the Wolverines were able to grab more offensive rebounds than the No. 1 offensive rebounding team in the country.

3 Best Day 3 Dunks

1. Trevon Brazile, Arkansas

2. Igor Milicic Jr., Tennessee

3. Pharrel Payne, Texas A&M

3 Best Day 3 Images

1. The concession

David DelPoio/Providence Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

2. Bedtime, Bluejays

Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

3. The ecstasy

Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

5 Notable Quotes From Day 3

1. “They threw us in the coffin. They just forgot the nails. We pushed it open and we came out.” —Arkansas head coach John Calipari.

2. “He’s a buck-75 soaking wet and he’s got a bony ass. So when he lands on the ground ... You know, BAM! It’s wood on bone. So he’s probably got a pretty good bruise.” —Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl on the injury suffered by Tigers star Chad Baker-Mazara

3. “Obviously, that coach is a genius. He’s had an unbelievable start to what will end up being a Hall of Fame career. He represents all that’s right about college athletics.” —Texas A&M head coach Buzz Williams on Michigan head coach Dusty May

4. “I’ve been disappointed before with this. I don’t mind going out with a loss, I just hate to see us play that way offensively. We’ve got to live with it. You put a lot of time and effort into this, the coaches did. It’s just a bitter pill to swallow, with that type of performance” —St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino

5. “Coach Cal told us there’s two dogs and one bone. We wanted the bone. That’s it.” —Arkansas forward Billy Richmond III

Full Sunday schedule for 2025 men’s NCAA tournament

Last day of the first weekend. Let’s leave it all out there.