March Madness Friday wrap-up: Cooper Flagg and Duke are the ACC’s last resort; South Carolina and UCLA roll in females’s competition

The preliminary of the men’s NCAA tournament lags us, and the women’s tournament goes to its midway factor in the opening round.

Here are the highlights from Friday’s hectic slate of video games throughout the nation.

Duke and Cooper Flagg are the ACC’s last resort

For the very first time in half a century, Duke is the last ACC group left standing after the preliminary of the NCAA competition.

The Blue Devils, many thanks to the return of star freshman Cooper Flagg from an ankle injury he maintained in the meeting competition recently, travelled previousNo 16Mount St Mary’s 93-49 on Friday in their first-round video game. Flagg looked great after his injury, and do with 14 factors and 7 rebounds. He attracted a nasty concerning 90 secs right into the video game and struck the court, plainly not preferring his ankle joint in all.

Though Duke’s success isn’t entirely connected to Flagg being readily available, him being back to typical need to be a really motivating indicator for the Blue Devils’ national title hopes.

That, nonetheless, is the ACC’s only hope– which is a really unusual view for the meeting that utilized to entirely control the sporting activity. The ACC will just have one group in the 2nd round of the competition for the very first time because 1975. That was when the NCAA began enabling several groups from the very same meeting right into the competition.

In justness to the ACC, the meeting really did not have much of a come acrossFriday After both Louisville and Clemson shed their first-round video games on Thursday, North Carolina was the only various other institution left beyondDuke The Tar Heels, that needed to play their method right into the preliminary anyhow, nearly rallied out of a22-point hole in their matchup with Ole Miss on Friday While that was a really enjoyable surface, the Tar Heels could not draw it off.

By contrast, the Big Ten is an excellent 8-0 after the preliminary and the Big 12 is 6-1. The SEC, which established a document with its 14 entrances in this competition, went 8-6.

So, if the ACC is mosting likely to carry out the championship game this period, it’ll be Flagg andDuke With just how poor the organization was all period, and just how quickly the Blue Devils rolled via the meeting, that’s just suitable.

UCLA, South Carolina lead blowout day for females faves

The Gamecocks’ mission to protect their nationwide title left to the ideal begin on Friday.

South Carolina rolled to a 60-point sway Tennessee Tech to open up the females’s NCAA competition in what was quickly the most significant win of the day. The Gamecocks, after opening up the video game on a 33-12 tear, travelled to the 108-48 win in the house to enter the 2nd round. They shot much better than 67% from the area as a group and 63% from the arc.

While the win isn’t unexpected, taking into consideration the Gamecocks made a front runner in the competition once more, it complied with a pattern for a really uncomplicated begin throughout the opening day of the females’s competition.

There were simply 2 technological distress on the day.No 9 Indiana beatNo 8 Utah early, and afterwardsNo 10 Oregon beatNo 7 Vanderbilt in overtime. That was nearly it. Duke and Tennessee each rolled to blowout victories with no problem, and Ohio State, TCU, Kansas State, Baylor, Ole Miss and Richmond got double-digit triumphes.

Notre Dame also picked up a 52-point win over Stephen F. Austin to open up the competition, which followed a quite harsh surface to the period for theFighting Irish They’ll handle Michigan following onSunday Top- seeded UCLA did the same with a 38-point blowout of Southern to finish the day.

While distress make sure ahead at some point, they were rare on Friday.

UConn’s three-peat mission

The UConn males’s mission for a three-peat lives. It’s not most likely to be finished by the Huskies, that go into the competition as aNo 8 seed after 2 periods as university basketball’s undisputed ideal group. But they did the job Friday in a 67-59 win over No. 9 Oklahoma.

After beginning the period as theNo 3 group in the country, it swiftly came to be clear that the Huskies would not be the juggernauts of years past. A 4-3 begin went down UConn toNo 25 in the AP survey, and it got in the NCAA competition unranked with a 23-10 document as the third-place finisher in the Big East.

On Friday, the Huskies opened up a 32-26 halftime lead over the Sooners and really did not track till Oklahoma took a 47-46 lead with 9:03 staying. The Huskies, nonetheless, reacted right away to take back the lead. They really did not offer it back, and afterwards held the Sooners to simply a solitary basket in the last 5:30 of the video game en course to the win.

The Huskies have actually currently won 13 straight video games in the NCAA competition. They’ll handleNo 1 Florida in the 2nd round on Sunday after the Gators travelled previous Norfolk State in their opening round match. It’s mosting likely to be a challenging fight to maintain that win touch to life. But with the method the Huskies have actually been winning in March the last 2 years, it’s tough to count them out entirely.

The Pitinos make background

Rick Pitino is onto the 2nd round afterSt John’s beat Omaha on Thursday, which established a fight with John Calipari and Arkansas onSaturday Then, on Friday, Pitino’s kid did the same in historical style.

Richard Pitino and New Mexico held on late to knock off No. 7 Marquette in their first-round match. That noted the very first NCAA competition win for the Lobos in 13 years, and currently has them on the cusp of what would certainly be their first-ever Sweet 16 look.

While the win was significant by itself for the Lobos as a program, it was significant for the Pitino family members. The 2 are currently the very first father-son duo to every win a video game in the very same NCAA competition in background.

It would certainly take a whole lot for both groups to contest versus each various other in the competition. They would certainly need to satisfy in the Final Four, which implies New Mexico would certainly need to surpass top-seeded Auburn et cetera of the South brace, andSt John’s would certainly need to run the table in the West with Florida beyond.

But no matter just how this competition finishes, it’ll be an unforgettable one for the Pitino family members.

Hailey Van Lith established for rematch with previous group

Though the females’s side really did not have a lot of shocks, we will certainly obtain one fantastic rematch-of-sorts onSunday TCU celebrity Hailey Van Lith will certainly reach take on her previous group when the Horned Frogs host Louisville in the 2nd round.

Van Lith obtained her begin with the Cardinals, and invested 3 periods there prior to moving to LSU for last period. She after that got here in Fort Worth for her last period of qualification this year, and right away led TCU to its ideal period in years. The Horned Frogs rolled via the Big 12 and made it back to the NCAA competition for the very first time because 2010.Their No 2 seed is the program’s highest possible in case, and they had no problem whippingNo 15 Fairleigh Dickinson onFriday Now, a gain Louisville will certainly obtain them out of the opening weekend break for the very first time ever before.

Louisville, on the various other hand, has actually been to 19 of the last 20 NCAA events. Van Lith’s previous train, Jeff Walz, has actually just fallen short to get to the Sweet 16 3 times in his 18 periods with the program. The Cardinal made it through a scare and hardly snuck previous Nebraska in their opening-round video game on Friday.

Though TCU has actually looked extremely strong all period long, Sunday’s video game ought to be a fight in Fort Worth.