The NCAA Tournament Predictions for 2019: The Case for the Eagles, Baylor, Miami, UConn and WVU in the Hoosiers
The final eight spots in the round of 16 of the N.C.A.A. women’s basketball tournament will be decided Monday. Follow along with the bracket and live scores, and check out our picks for the games we don’t want to miss (teams organized by seed; all times Eastern):
For the second year in a row, Florida Gulf Coast entered the tournament as a 12 seed. It was a 74-63 victory over Washington State. Sha Carter and Tishara Morehouse each had 16 points. The Eagles held the leading scorer to 5 points. They might have a hard time putting the clamps on the star forward. In the first round of the playoffs, Siegrist became the fifth Division I women’s player to achieve 1,000 points in a single season.
Indiana beat Tennessee Tech in the first game of the N.C.A.A. tournament. Miami overcame a 17-point deficit in the second half to beat Oklahoma State. The Hoosiers are playing to get to their third consecutive round-of-16 game, while Miami has made the second weekend only once. In the second round of the men’s tournament, the universities met.
Baylor struggled early on Saturday, falling behind by 18 points in the first quarter to 10th-seeded Alabama. The Bears pulled out the third- largest comeback in the tournament history to win, 78-74. UConn faced no such struggles, racing to a 53-20 halftime lead on the way to a 95-52 win over Vermont. In the end, the game was decided by a missed shot from the Bears’ DiJonai Carrington, who was tightly contested by two UConn defenders, a play that was loudly decried after the game for the absence of a foul call. Can we get similar drama in the rematch?
Half of the women’s and men’s top seeds have been knocked out of the NCAA tournament.
College sports are being reshaped each off-season by the transfer portal. The portal allows programs to quickly gear up for a title run because it redisifies the talent that used to befall perennial powerhouses like Connecticut and Tennessee.
The Semifinals and Finals of The Sweet 16: Where Do They Stand? How Do They Fit in, What Do They Say, and Where Does The World Come From?
With the men resuming play Thursday, here’s a quick look at tip-off times for the Sweet 16, and where the tournament stands. (We’ll preview the women’s Sweet 16 before it begins on Friday.)
By this time of the tournament, an air of inevitability begins to take hold on one or two teams that can get the job done. It’s hard to pin down this year.
The lowest seed still playing is getting the label of Cinderella. The Tigers are making the case that their offense and rebounding is good enough to hang with the country’s best teams.
Then there’s Florida Atlantic. The Cinderella label was discarded by the No. 9 seed, which said that its 33 win record was the result of hard work and focus.
Four of the top “blue blood” programs are not in the Sweet Sixteen for the second year in a row. From 1980 to 2019, at least one of those teams got this far in every year’s tournament.
MSU’s No. 3 Cougar, UConn’s Kitley, and the Huskies Have The Best NCAA Tournament Game in a Single Portal
Coaches and programs are trying to figure how to keep the best players. Michigan State’s head coach Tom Izzo, a frequent transfer portal critic, says there are pluses and minuses.
“The portal is not all bad. I mean … Izzo stated that every place isn’t for everyone. “What to me is bad about it is the fact that every kid who has a bad day just thinks about leaving. At this level, if you’re half in, you’re nowhere.”
No. 4 Villanova vs. No. 9 Miami at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN No. 2 Utah vs. No. 3 LSU at 5 p.m. ESPN No. 2 Iowa vs. No. 6 Colorado at 7:30 p.m. ESPN No. 5 Louisville vs. No. 8 Ole Miss at 10 p.m. ESPN
It’s a new level of March Madness because of the flexibility of the transfer portal and a policy change in 2021, that lets basketball players swap schools without sitting out a waiting period. But it also reflects the women’s game growing popularity and the emergence of more talented athletes.
The Final Four will be held in Dallas on March 31st, with the eight regional games being held in South Carolina and Seattle. The national title game is on Sunday, April 2, at 3p.m.
Defending champion South Carolina hasn’t lost a game in more than a year, led by a group of seniors that includes reigning national player of the year Aliyah Boston. Virginia Tech is having its best tournament in its history, thanks to Elizabeth Kitley, the conference player of the year, who averages a double-double.
UConn is also making a charge, helped by the return of guard Azzi Fudd from a knee injury. Fudd led the Huskies in scoring on Monday for the first time since November, taking some of the load off of forward Aaliyah Edwards.
In Tennessee, Rickea Jackson, Jasmine Powell and Jasmine Franklin average 60 points a game, making them the most successful transfer groups.
The Vols face Virginia Tech in the Sweet 16 because the Hokies have two high-profile transfers in Taylor Soule from Boston College and Anna Opusu from Maryland.
Reese was one of the people who left Maryland. Maryland is in the Sweet 16 with guard Diamond Miller, along with its own transfers, such as Lavender Briggs.
Hurricanes got a boost from twin-sister guards, who transferred from Fresno State, and also from TikTok darlings. The lady who made the crucial free throws in the upset of Indiana waved her last goodbye to the crowd.