Sports

Power conferences fill this year’s Sweet 16 for the first time ever

Published

5 days ago

March 25, 2025

Austin Reed

Years of bracket chaos have given way to the year of the power conference.

Cinderella is staying home this time.

The Sweet 16, a popular destination for bracket-busting mid-majors, will be made up entirely of teams from power conferences, a first since the bracket expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

Not a Saint Peter’s or Loyola Chicago in the bunch. Not even a Butler or Gonzaga.

The bracket was set up for this following a chalky first round, when the top four seeds went a combined 16-0 for the sixth time ever. Two No. 12 seeds got through to the second round and one 11.

They all lost.

Highest seed to reach the Sweet 16: No. 10 Arkansas. Everyone else is 6 or higher, with all four No. 1 seeds and three of the four 2s ( sorry St. John’s ).

There will be four conferences represented at regional sties in San Francisco, Newark, Indianapolis and Atlanta. That’s the fewest in NCAA Tournament history and a far cry from the record of 11 (three times)

Speaking of records, the SEC racked up a trio of ‘em.

First, 14 teams made it into the bracket. Record.

Then, six teams lost in the first round. Record.

Now, seven SEC teams are in the Sweet 16. Sweet record.

“We have worked hard as a league to get where we are this year and it’s always tough,”

Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “But I would like to think even as fans that we would all have each other’s back this time of year and then we can go back to what we normally do.”

The other conferences — all three — fared fairly well as well.

The Big Ten was the early big bracket winner, becoming the first league to go 8-0 in the first round and stretched it to 10-0 until BYU knocked off Wisconsin. Four teams were bumped out in the second round, but Michigan State, Michigan, Purdue and Maryland are feeling sweet.

The newfangled Big 12 also represented itself well, matching a league record set in 2002 by landing four teams in the Sweet 16.

Arizona is new to the Big 12 while Houston and BYU joined last year, so there were better odds than just a few years ago. Even so, four teams — with Texas Tech — gives the league a chance at three national champions in the past five years.

The Atlantic Coast Conference, maligned by a rough early March start, has one Sweet 16er, and it’s a good one.

Duke and fabulous freshman Cooper Flagg were one of the favorites to win the national championship to open the season and still look that way after toying with its first two NCAA Tournament opponents.

“For us to win by this margin, I think this speaks to the level of killer instinct that our guys have, the competitiveness and the connectivity,” coach Jon Scheyer said after the Blue Devils’ 89-66 win over once-formidable Baylor.

One thing is for certain: There won’t be a three-peat.

The first repeat champion since Florida in 2006-07, UConn kept the dream alive with an opening win over Oklahoma. The bid to join John Wooden’s UCLA teams as college basketball’s only three-peaters came to an emotional end on Sunday with a 77-75 loss to top-seeded Florida.

“We’re a passionate program,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said, twice stopping to compose himself. “The players play with it. I coach with it. You’re always (expletive) drained when it’s over.”

The passion this year has been in the power — conferences.

___

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here.

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Sports

New Orleans Business And Political Leaders Want An NHL Team

Published

4 hours ago

March 29, 2025

Austin Reed

New Orleans can throw a big party but probably is not big enough to support three major league franchises.

It is highly unlikely that the New Orleans market will get a franchise.

Business and political leaders in New Orleans and Louisiana are kicking the tires to determine if the National Hockey League could put a franchise in the city in the future. NHL brass has been listening to business and political leaders in Alpharetta, Georgia, Cincinnati, Houston, Omaha, Phoenix and Québec City about their interest in getting a franchise in their markets. New Orleans has some significant hurdles to overcome to even get an NHL real study of the market. The National Basketball Association’s New Orleans Pelicans ownership wants an arena upgrade or an entirely new arena. New Orleans is a market that is tourist driven and does not have a big corporate base. Most of the corporate money goes to the National Football League’s Saints. Government money has propped up the Saints franchise.

The NHL’s stance has not changed since Commissioner Gary Bettman addressed possible expansion in October 2024. “We feel no compulsion to do it right now. We just came off our most successful season in our history, we’ve got collective bargaining to deal with, we’ve got new media arrangements to do in Canada in the next couple of years. If something came in and checked all the boxes, and we felt that it might make sense, we might consider it. But we’re not there right now, and it seems like everybody is, on the one hand, pushing us with, ‘Why don’t you expand?’ and at the same time saying, ‘Why would you expand?’ So, it’s not a front-burner topic right now.” But the NHL has been listening to pitches from Alpharetta. Political and business leaders in Cincinnati are pushing to build a 21^st century state of the art venue in town. The NHL would like to return to Phoenix but there is no plan to build an arena. New Orleans is not getting an NHL franchise anytime soon.

Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191

Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com

Bourbon Street New Orleans

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Sunshine State Showdown as Top Ranked University of Tampa takes on Florida Southern. The rivals are face off this weekend in Lakeland.

Published

21 hours ago

March 29, 2025

Austin Reed

Tampa (24-4)

The Spartans hosted SSC opponents Embry-Riddle (Fla.) and Saint Leo this past week. Tampa swept the Eagles in a weekend series and beat the Lions in a mid-week matchup. They dominated both offensively and on the mound in the four conference games. They outscored their opponents 33-8 in the four games. In game one against Embry-Riddle, the Spartans starting pitcher C.J. Williams tossed eight innings of one-run baseball, and catcher Jhoander Irigoyen was 4-5 with five runs batted in on the night at the plate, including two doubles. In game two against the Eagles, Skylar Gonzalez pitched six innings, giving up one run. Despite Gonzalez‘s efficient outing, the Spartans found themselves down one heading into the ninth before Brayden Woodburn launched a solo shot to tie the game up. J.D. Urso walked it off for the Spartans in the bottom of the tenth with a single. In game three, Jake Stipp picked up his fifth win of the season, improving to 5-0 on the season, tossing seven scoreless in route to a Spartans 10-0 run-rule victory. Jordan Williams, Nico Saladino, Woodburn, and Kevin Karstetter all had multi-hit games, and Santiago Garavito hit his first moonshot of the year. In the mid-week matchup against St. Leo, the Spartans bullpen, Eli Thurmond, Ethan Brown, Jacob Fletcher, and Logan Wash, combined for seven scoreless innings while striking out 12. Jake Griffith hit his first long ball of the season, and J. Williams continues to inch closer to Eddie Cowans‘s single-season Tampa stolen base record (52), stealing four bags on the night. The No. 1 Spartans look to continue their dominance on the mound and at the dish as they take on No. 13 Florida Southern for a three-game series and Valdosta State during a mid-week matchup.

Florida Southern (22-6)

The Mocs are 22-6 on the season and 7-2 in Sunshine State Conference play. They started their season 15-2, including taking two of three from then-ranked No. 14 West Florida, before sweeping Georgia Southwestern State University, taking a mid-week matchup against Eckerd, sweeping USC Beaufort, taking two of three from Florida Tech, sweeping Barry, and taking another mid-week matchup this time against Roosevelt University. The Mocs then dropped a series to No. 25 Carson-Newman before taking two of three from Eckerd, a mid-week matchup from St. Leo, and three of four from Wayne State. The No. 13 Mocs look to make a statement as they host No. 1 Tampa for a three-game series.

Live stats for all games this week can be found at Tampastats.com. 

Live broadcasts for all games this week can be found at TampaSpartans.tv.

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Elete 8: The Gators face Texas Tech just one win away from a trip to the Final Four.

Published

21 hours ago

March 29, 2025

Austin Reed

CBS Sports and TNT Sports announce tip times and commentators for the Regional Finals of the 2025 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship on Saturday, March 29, on TBS and truTV. The games will also stream on NCAA March Madness Live and Max. Florida will take on Texas Tech in the first game at 6:09 PM, ET, followed by Alabama playing Duke in the second game at 8:49 PM, ET.

Kevin Harlan will be on the call for the TBS/truTV broadcast, with Dan Bonner and Stan Van Gundy as analysts. Lauren Shahdi will serve as the sideline reporter.

The Florida Gators had a strong second half Thursday night, and they defeated the Maryland Terrapins 87-71. There are some concerns about Florida forward Alex Condon’s health. He suffered an apparent ankle injury during the first half, but played in the second half.

Florida is 2-1 all-time against Texas Tech. Both of the wins were in the 1960s, and one of them required two overtimes. The most recent meeting between the two teams came in the second round of the 2018 NCAA tournament, which resulted in a 69-66 loss for the Orange and Blue. Florida was a 6-seed and the underdog that year, but now the Gators are the No. 1 seed in the West Region and are going into the matchup as the favorite.

Both Florida and Texas Tech are looking to return to the Final Four after an absence since 2014. Texas Tech was the national runner-up in that year, while Florida just made it to the Final Four. Florida has the more efficient defense of the two teams, but both teams have top-5 offenses, according to KenPom.

The Nissan NCAA Tip-Off pregame show will begin the night’s action at 5 PM, ET with host Ernie Johnson and analysts Charles Barkley, Clark Kellogg, Kenny Smith and Jay Wright.

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