Might Fairleigh Dickinson be the best Cinderella story in NCAA event historical past?

USA TODAY Sports activities’ Paul Myerbeg breaks down why Fairleigh Dickinson has an opportunity to be the best Cinderella story in NCAA event historical past.

USA TODAY

When Sunday’s NCAA event enterprise closes, the boys’s Candy 16 will probably be set whereas the ladies may have half of the Candy 16 discipline determined. 

Already two No. 1 seeds have been knocked out on the boys’s aspect, highlighted by No. 1 Purdue’s gorgeous loss to No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson. Now FDU goals to do what no 16-seed has ever completed: Attain the Candy 16. 

The Knights will attempt to make it occur Sunday (7:45 p.m. ET, truTV) towards Florida Atlantic, a potent mid-major that is 32-3 on the yr after its dramatic win over Memphis. However first, No. 11 Pitt and No. 3 Xavier get the occasion began at 12:10 p.m. ET on CBS. 

The ladies’s motion began with the defending champs, No. 1 South Carolina, beating  South Florida (1 p.m. ET, ABC). Iowa standout Caitlin Clark then takes the nationwide stage within the subsequent sport on ABC has her No. 2 Hawkeyes tackle No. 10 Georgia. 

Suppose you will have what it takes to beat your mates? Take a look at your school basketball abilities (or luck) right here with USA TODAY’s Survivor Pool.  Bookmark our brackets web page, too!

MEN’S TOURNAMENT:  Full scores and schedule

WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT:  Full scores and schedule

SATURDAY’S PLAY:  Make amends for all the boys’s, girls’s motion

In comparison with the primary males’s sport of the day, this one is far more of a slog. 

No. 3 Kansas State and No. 6 Kentucky each struggled from the sector within the first half, combining for 22 made discipline targets on 63 makes an attempt (34.9%). Each groups at occasions used swarming defenses and halfcourt and fullcourt strain, making it tougher for each offenses to ease into their programs. The excellent news is that each offenses settled earlier than the tip of the half, with Kansas State main 29-26.

Not coincidentally, 3-point capturing let each groups down. Kansas State didn’t convert on any of its 12 makes an attempt from past the arc, whereas Kentucky hit simply 2-of-11.

The sport’s main scorer, Kentucky ahead Oscar Tshiebwe, already has a double-double, with an 11-point, 11-rebound first half. In every of the three halves Kentucky has performed this event, Tshiebwe has recorded at the least 10 boards.

Kansas State’s main scorer did not crack double figures, as ahead Nae’Qwan Tomlin recorded eight factors and 6 rebounds earlier than intermission. Level guard Markquis Nowell, nevertheless, has been discovering gamers and his 5 assists match your complete Kentucky workforce’s output.

Keep in mind when South Carolina was in bother towards South Florida? Yeah, me neither.

The highest-seeded, undefeated and defending champion Gamecocks have been examined early by South Florida, trailing by 4 with 7:36 left within the second quarter. However South Carolina buckled down in response, grabbing management of the sport with a 9-2 run, and wound up doing what it normally does: Successful in a rout.

Closing rating: South Carolina 76, South Florida 45. 

Zia Cooke was South Carolina’s solely participant in double figures till the final 3 minutes of the sport, but it surely didn’t matter as a result of the Gamecocks had 10 different gamers with factors. Cooke completed with 21 factors, Aliyah Boston had a double-double in what might be her ultimate house sport with 11 factors and 11 rebounds, and Laeticia Amihere added 10.

It was South Carolina’s thirty fourth win this season, and fortieth going again to final season. 

The Musketeers, for the primary time for the reason that 2016-17 season, are headed to the Candy Sixteen.

No. 3 Xavier (27-9) had all 5 starters attain double figures in scoring in a reasonably snug 84-73 victory towards No. 11 Pittsburgh. The Panthers (24-12) had been a second-half workforce all season lengthy and closed the deficit to eight factors late within the second half, however they left themselves an excessive amount of work to beat.

Xavier ahead Jack Nunge led the best way with 18 factors and three rebounds, although he fouled out with 3:19 left within the sport. With reserve guard Desmond Claude chipping in one other 11, Xavier really had six gamers attain double figures in scoring.

Xavier managed the sport in most main offensive classes: the Musketeers recorded assists on 22 of their 30 discipline purpose makes an attempt, in comparison with Pittsburgh’s 11 assists; they have been extra environment friendly from the ground, capturing 47.6% on 30-of-63 capturing, in comparison with Pittsburgh’s capturing 38.6%; and Xavier outrebounded Pittsburgh 44-41.

This marked Xavier’s sixteenth sport this season with 20 or extra assists, which is most in D-I this season. Xavier will now face No. 2 Texas on Friday within the Midwest bracket.

After a primary quarter largely managed by South Florida, No. 1 South Carolina took cost within the second quarter to take a 33-29 lead at halftime of their second-round matchup. 

Aliyah Boston led the Gamecocks in scoring with 9 factors, because the workforce managed the boards by outrebounding the Bulls 23-16, together with 10 offensive rebounds. South Carolina additionally bought the free throw line, going 8-for-12 from the road, whereas South Florida went 1-for-2.

South Florida’s Elena Tsineke leads all scorers with 12 factors, half of which got here from behind the 3-point line. 

The Bulls jumped out to a 16-12 lead on the finish first quarter earlier than South Carolina took management of the second quarter, happening a 15-4 scoring run to steer by as a lot as seven within the quarter. South Florida ended the quarter on a 7-2 run to shut the hole.

— Jordan Mendoza

There’s some historical past behind Daybreak Staley’s outfit. 

The South Carolina coach sported a Cheyney State jersey for Sunday’s second-round sport towards South Florida. Cheyney State performed within the very first girls’s NCAA event in 1982 regardless of then being a Division II workforce.

Coached by Corridor of Famer C. Vivian Stringer, Cheyney State made all of it the best way to the title sport that yr earlier than shedding to Louisiana Tech. Cheney State continues to be the one HBCU to succeed in a Division I Closing 4, doing it once more in 1984. 

— Nancy Armour

Of their Spherical of 64 victory towards No. 6 Iowa State, No. 11 Pittsburgh allowed 41 factors in your complete sport. Within the Spherical of 32, it is a completely different story. No. 3 Xavier had scored 42 factors by the 5:01 mark … of the primary half. The Musketeers have opened up a 48-34 lead on the half on a torrid 19-of-36 efficiency (52.8%) from the sector. 

One massive a part of the distinction has been past the arc, the place Xavier has transformed half of its 14 makes an attempt. Particularly, guard Adam Kunkel is on fireplace, going an ideal 5-of-5 from 3-point vary, with a team-high 15 factors. Ahead Jack Nunge is correct behind him, chipping in 14 factors on 6-of-10 capturing. 

The Panthers began sizzling however then cooled off, getting outscored by a margin of 27-16 to shut the half. Making issues much more regarding for Pittsburgh, Xavier guard Souley Boum, who led the Musketeers this season with 16.5 factors per sport, has but to attain a single level and is 0-of-6 from the sector.

The primary sport of the day, a matchup within the males’s bracket between No. 11 Pittsburgh and No. 3 Xavier, tipped off simply after midday Sunday. And if the offensive tempo to start out is any indication of what’s to come back the remainder of the day, scoring will probably be on show.

The Musketeers have been the main scoring workforce within the Large East this season and have separated themselves from Pittsburgh halfway via the primary half, opening a 28-18 lead. Xavier ripped off a 14-3 run and is capturing 57.1% from the sector on 12-of-21 makes an attempt. Guard Colby Jones and ahead Jack Nunge every have eight factors to steer the Musketeers.

Pittsburgh is capturing 7-of-16 from the sector, at a clip of 46.7%.

The matchup additionally supplies an attention-grabbing little bit of nostalgia and familiarity as Xavier head coach Sean Miller starred as a guard for the Panthers from 1987-92, the place he began 124 of the 128 video games during which he performed. 

All season lengthy, this promised to be essentially the most wide-open NCAA males’s event in a technology. The bluebloods weren’t as blue. The highest-ranked groups had apparent flaws. The mixture of an additional COVID yr for older gamers, an out-of-control switch surroundings and a crop of freshmen that largely weren’t prepared for prime time meant groups’ fortunes yo-yoed from sport to sport, week to week. 

Now right here we’re, almost completed with the primary weekend of March Insanity, and there’s an necessary query to ask: Who’s going to win the nationwide championship? 

Perhaps it could be higher to say it one other manner. In case you’re nonetheless alive by Sunday evening on this loopy event, go forward and dare to dream. Even you, Princeton. It’s really that up for grabs.

– Dan Wolken

No, you’re not seeing double.

Indiana and Miami will play one another within the second spherical of each the boys’s and girls’s tournaments. The boys’s sport is Sunday evening in Albany, New York, whereas the ladies’s groups will face off Monday in Bloomington, Indiana.

“That is superior. I imply, what an incredible state of affairs,” stated Katie Meier, coach of the Miami girls. “I do know our athletic director was on a aircraft going forwards and backwards with somebody from Indiana as properly.”

The NCAA doesn’t have a report of what number of occasions colleges have performed one another in every of the tournaments, not to mention in the identical spherical. However suffice to say, it hasn’t occurred usually. Meier had been requested concerning the potential for the double dip forward of Saturday’s sport, however she didn’t wish to reply and jinx herself. Good factor, because the Hurricanes fell behind by 17 earlier than rallying to beat Oklahoma State.

High-seeded Indiana had rolled earlier within the day whereas IU and Miami’s males’s groups each secured their spots Friday.

“We’re wanting ahead to taking part in Indiana,” Meier stated, “and hopefully the ‘Canes come out on high in two.”

– Nancy Armour

This was a event to recollect for the Ivy League even earlier than Princeton’s males reached the second spherical.

That is the primary yr the Ivy’s groups have received first-round video games in each tournaments. A day after the Princeton males surprised Arizona, the Tenth-seeded Princeton girls upset N.C. State on Friday evening on a 3-pointer with seven seconds left.

“We have been watching (the boys) within the locker room proper earlier than apply,” Julia Cunningham stated Friday evening. “Watching them, all of the protection they’re getting from the media, it was so properly deserved. We checked out one another and thought, we’re subsequent, now it’s our flip.

“It’s particular,” she added. “A particular week to be a Tiger.”

– Nancy Armour

What number of groups will you will have in your Candy 16? We’ll know who advances after Sunday’s eight-game slate that includes among the highest seeds nonetheless standing after a wacky and unpredictable begin to the NCAA males’s basketball event.

However we’ll all be paying shut consideration to the outlier, as No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson appears to be like to construct off Friday evening’s historic upset of No. 1 Purdue with a second-round matchup towards No. 9 Florida Atlantic.

Maintain this in thoughts, although: Of the eight video games performed Sunday, six characteristic the best potential seeds — No. 6 towards No. 3, No. 5 towards No. 4 and No. 7 towards No. 2.

This is a listing of Sunday’s video games ranked by how watchable they’re:

1. No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson vs. No. 9 Florida Atlantic (7:45 p.m. ET)

2. No. 5 Saint Mary’s vs. No. 4 Connecticut (6:10)

3. No. 6 Kentucky vs. No. 3 Kansas State (2:40)

4. No. 3 Baylor vs. No. 6 Creighton (7:10)

5. No. 3 Gonzaga vs. No. 6 TCU (9:40)

6. No. 7 Michigan State vs. No. 2 Marquette (5:15)

7. No. 5 Miami vs. No. 4 Indiana (8:40) 

8. No. 3 Xavier vs. No. 11 Pittsburgh (12:10)

– Paul Myerberg 

With its upset of No. 1 seed Purdue, the Knights gave the Northeast Convention its first win within the first spherical of the NCAA males’s event in 4 a long time. However the Knights would not be right here with out Merrimack, which received the convention title however was ineligible due to its shift to Division I – NCAA guidelines state a faculty should sit out 4 years after such a transition.

So Merrimack coach Joe Gallo and the remainder of the workforce stayed house and watched Fairleigh Dickenson choose Purdue – and large man Zach Edey – aside. So is there jealousy amongst its Northeast foes?

“To cite my 6-year-old, ‘Dad, we beat them, so we would like them to win,’ ” Gallo informed CBS Sports activities. “Folks have additionally been robust on our league all yr, so I am glad for the win.”

– Heather Tucker

The UMBC Twitter account lastly has a greatest buddy. It’s the Farleigh Dickinson males’s basketball workforce’s Twitter account. What have they got in widespread? They each thrive in creating absolute chaos and busting brackets.

The UMBC Twitter account celebrated Fairleigh Dickinson’s victory over Purdue, which in all probability destroyed many NCAA males’s event brackets. The FDU Twitter account caught wind of this and declared their new friendship collectively.

It was at all times going to be arduous for UMBC to search out somebody who understood it. In spite of everything, it’s not usually that you simply get a 16 seed upsetting a 1 seed. UMBC was the primary males’s program to do it when it knocked off No. 1 Virginia in 2018. But when there’s anybody who understands the sensation, it’s FDU.

— Mike D. Sykes II, For the Win

OPINION: Why do not NCAA colleges pay school athletes who make them billions?

Houston entered the NCAA Match with the No. 1 rating within the USA TODAY Sports activities coaches ballot, regardless of its loss within the American Athletic Convention championship sport simply previous to the disclosing of the brackets final Sunday.

The Cougars, who have been taking part in with out main scorer Marcus Sasser within the loss to Memphis, retained 21 of 32 No. 1 votes to stave off second-ranked Alabama. The Crimson Tide obtained eight firsts after profitable the SEC title in spectacular vogue.

Houston dealt with Northern Kentucky in its first-round sport and Auburn in its second-round sport, whereas Alabama routed Texas A&M Corpus Christi in its event opener. The Crimson Tide knocked off No. 8 seed Maryland late Saturday.

— Eddie Timanus