Saturday’s 2025 NCAA Tournament Notes And More

On to Alabama!

There have been a lot of criticisms of this year’s tournament for the lack of upsets, but the quality of play has been off the charts.

Take Friday’s games.

Michigan took it to Auburn until the Tigers cranked it up and exposed Michigan’s flaws. Dusty May did a brilliant job hiding his team’s weaknesses but against Auburn, ultimately having two big and relatively slow bigs hurt.

At times it looked like Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin were mechanical robots. They seemed ponderous at times. Wolf was more effective than Goldin but in the end, Auburn’s athleticism prevailed and not least of all Tahaad Pettiford, who got on a major heater late.

Even so, Auburn looked vulnerable for much of the game. This is the wrong time of year to turn it up when you need to win.

Michigan came to play but in the end, they didn’t have the athleticism to take down Auburn.

Ole Miss led Michigan for much of the game before the Spartans pulled ahead late in the second half. They never really escaped Ole Miss until the very end though. Ole Miss is tough, which is no great surprise with Chris Beard at the helm. His past at Texas still haunts him, but as a game coach? He’s superb.

Tennessee dominated Kentucky after losing to the Wildcats twice during the regular season. UK had a brief lead but after that the Vols just put them away. We think Mark Pope is a brilliant offensive coach but the Wildcats couldn’t get their three point game going, hitting just 6-15.

Despite that and despite losing this game, this is the most likable Kentucky team in years. Pope is clearly a good guy and his players seem like good guys too. They talked about how much they appreciated Pope, how much they enjoyed playing with each other and the pride they took in the Kentucky uniform.

John Calipari did a lot of interesting things with the program, but at times he lost sight of what the Kentucky kids said after losing to the Vols. We’re not Kentucky fans, but it’s nice to see that aspect of the program back. Congratulations, Cat fans. The program looks like it’s on solid ground.

Houston seemed vulnerable against Purdue and let the Boilermakers back in late. Purdue made a lot of mistakes in the second half and got some bad breaks too. Even so, they tied the game 60-60 on a Camden Heide three with :35 left.

And then, after a missed shot with :02 left, Kelvin Sampson called a timeout and the Cougars, who looked pretty shaky in this game, ran an impeccable inbounds play and scored with .9 left on the clock. Purdue actually got a shot off and it looked for a minute like it might actually go. It didn’t though, and Houston moves on. That was a beautiful game though.

So the Elite Eight is set and here it is:

• South - #1 Auburn vs. # 2 Michigan State
• West - #1 Florida vs. # 3 Texas Tech
• East - #1 Duke vs. #2 Alabama
• Midwest - #1 Houston vs. #2 Tennessee

Broken down by conference:

• SEC - 4
• Big 12 - 2
• Big Ten - 1
• ACC - 1

We like Michigan State to wrestle Auburn into submission, Florida over Texas Tech, Duke over Alabama and...the last one is really tough. You’d love to see this as the first game of the weekend rather than the last because whoever wins is going to be exhausted. We’ll go with Houston out of respect for the amazing job that Sampson has done with this team.

*****

The Kevin Willard Chaos continues. The Maryland coach has allegedly been playing footsie with Villanova and now, according to Taylor Lyons of the Baltimore Sun, Willard will indeed move to the Main Line.

This of course will probably re-ignite the coaching carousel. Texas A&M’s Buzz Williams is apparently trying to put himself on Maryland’s radar. When he was at Virginia Tech, he said he thought it was wise for a coach to leave after about seven years before people get tired of you. He’s a couple of years ahead of schedule. That of course would leave A&M open, which could get interesting too.

There’s no guarantee that Maryland would be interested obviously. It’s about time someone take a long look at Luke Murray. He’s played a very large role in UConn’s success and seems ready.

Chris Beard has also been rumored to be a candidate but he’s also rumored to be a candidate at A&M if Williams leaves and that might be more like home to Beard, who was born in Georgia but who grew up in the Lone Star state.

However, if Maryland was willing to pay him and to resolve the chintzy financial issues that so annoyed Willard, he’d be a hell of a hire. He’s never going to escape the domestic violence arrest, but on the bright side, the Maryland fans are far more violent than he is. They’d love him, and he would absolutely win.

It’s also possible that American coach, DMV native and former Terp Duane Simpkins could get the call-up. We’re really impressed with what we’ve learned about him.

*****

Donovan Dent, formerly of New Mexico and one of the most alluring people in the portal, has committed to UCLA. He doesn't necessarily seem like someone who will thrive in Mick Cronin’s methodical and somewhat dull offense, but maybe the NIL is really good.

*****

For Virginia fans, Tony Bennett’s system had some charm. For those of us in TV Land, it was the basketball version of brutalism. In person it was wild to watch, but on TV? It was horrible.

Now though, Ryan Odom is going to do things differently. Quite differently. And we’re looking forward to that. It’s going to help the ACC in general.

*****

There is a bit of unhappiness on the women’s side. First, after JuJu Watkins got her, apparently some lunatics went after Mississippi State’s Chandler Prater online, saying that she hurt Watkins on purpose.

USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb scoffs at this and defends Prater, who has turned her social media comments off. It’s really ugly that people are treating her that way. Good for Gottlieb for sticking up for her.

And second, Geno Auriemma is really unhappy about the women’s tournament having eight teams in two locations. UConn apparently had to get up at 5:00 a.m. to have a shoot around. He’s got a point.