A favorite is gone, an underdog is through to the Elite Eight and wild finishes dominated the Friday evening games as the NCAA Tournament rolled on. A third No. 1 seed fell on Friday night, losing in a frantic finish in the East region. VCU, the team nobody expected to be here, is also through to the Elite Eight, just one step away from rounding out the Final Four bracket.
The two games that looked to be mismatches on paper turned out to be just that on Friday. North Carolina’s talent easily prevailed over Marquette in an 81-63 win, sending the Tar Heels into the Elite Eight. Kansas also had no problem with Sweet 16 intruder Richmond in a 77-57 win. The Spiders dream run came to an end at the hands of Kansas, the only No. 1 seed left in the NCAA bracket.
The wild finishes came fast as Ohio State and Kentucky battled down to the wire, as the Wildcats matched the Buckeyes stride for stride. Brandon Knight, cold for most of the night, came up big with time running out, draining a jumper to put the Wildcats back up by two after Jon Diebler’s three had tied the game. Ohio State couldn’t answer on the other end as Kentucky held on, 62-60.
VCU also prevailed, moving into the Elite Eight with a 62-60 overtime win over Florida State. It was a brilliant inbounds play drawn up by Shaka Smart that pushed the Rams ahead by one with just seven seconds to go in the extra frame. Florida State never got a shot off and the Rams advanced to a place nobody expected them to be.
Check out the full set of Sweet 16 results below or head over to SB Nation for a printable bracket.
EAST REGION
No. 4 Kentucky def. No. 1 Ohio State, 62-60
No. 2 UNC vs. No. 11 Marquette, 81-63
WEST REGION
No. 5 Arizona Wildcats def. No. 1 Duke Blue Devils, 93-77
No. 3 Connecticut Huskies def. No. 2 San Diego State, 74-67
SOUTHWEST REGION
No. 1 Kansas def. No. 12 Richmond Spiders, 77-55
No. 11 VCU Rams def. No. 10 Florida State Seminoles, 72-71 OT
SOUTHEAST REGION
No. 8 Butler def. No. 4 Wisconsin, 61-54
No. 2 Florida def. No. 3 BYU. Thursday, 84-73
We’ll be recapping all the games, and updating the bracket, here in our NCAA Tournament results StoryStream. Stay tuned and check back for updates throughout the weekend.