GAME OF THE DAY: Seton Hall 69, No. 3 Villanova 67
Seton Hall punched its ticket to the Big Dance for the first time since 1993 with a huge win in Madison Square Garden. The Pirates got 26 points from Isaiah Whitehead and Seton Hall is playing with a lot of confidence entering the tournament.
IMPORTANT OUTCOMES
No. 7 North Carolina 61, No. 57 Virginia: North Carolina played tremendous defense as they were able to hold on for the ACC title. Joel Berry finished with 19 points and was named the tournament’s MVP.
No. 1 Kansas 81, No. 9 West Virginia 71: Devonte Graham had 27 points and played great defense on Jaysean Paige as the Jayhawks took down the Mountaineers. The win likely assures Kansas of a No. 1 seed and potentially gives them the No. 1 overall seed.
No. 8 Oregon 88, No. 12 Utah 57: The Ducks earned a blowout win and made their case to be a No. 1 seed for the committee with this impressive win. Freshman guard Tyler Dorsey had 23 points and nine rebounds.
No. 2 Michigan State 64, No. 18 Maryland 61: The Spartans are moving on to the Big Ten tournament title game as Denzel Valentine had a big game and Michigan State’s defense stepped up in the final portion of the second half.
No. 13 Purdue 76, Michigan 59: Purdue ended the run of Michigan, who now has to sweat out Selection Sunday. The Boilers had 27 points and 11 rebounds from senior center A.J. Hammons while Vince Edwards finished with 13 points.
No. 17 Texas A&M 71, LSU 38: In a game that LSU desperately needed to win to keep their NCAA tournament hopes alive, they came out completely disinterested and barely bothered to show up. Tonny Trocha-Morelos led a balanced Aggie effort with 13 points. Ben Simmons finished with 10 points, 12 rebounds and 1 assist.
No. 16 Kentucky 93, Georgia 80: The Wildcats are going to the SEC tournament title game to face regular season co-champion Texas A&M as Tyler Ulis (25 points) and Jamal Murray (26 points) both had huge games.
STARRED
Jameel Warney, Stony Brook: In the opening game of the day, the senior forward put the Seawolves on his back and led them to the America East tournament title and NCAA bid. Warney finished with 43 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks as he was 18-for-22 from the field.
Devonte Graham, Kansas: The Jayhawks need a different player to close seemingly every game and on this night it was Graham. The guard finished with 27 points, five assists and four steals and also did a great job of guard Jaysean Paige.
STRUGGLED
Melo Trimble, Maryland: The sophomore guard made Maryland’s only two field goals in the last 10 1/2 minutes, but they were his only field goals of the game as Trimble was 2-for-15 from the field to finish with 11 points.
Antonio Blakeney and Tim Quarterman, LSU: Blowout loss for LSU today as the freshman guard and junior guard combined to finish 3-for-27 from the field and 3-for-15 from 3-point range to finish with 12 points on the day.
AUTOMATIC BIDS
- Stony Brook is dancing after knocking off Vermont in the America East tournament title game.
- Hampton is heading back to the NCAA tournament after taking down South Carolina State in the MEAC title game. Brian Darden led the Pirates with 22 points.
- Middle Tennessee will represent Conference USA after beating Old Dominion for the conference tourney title. Giddy Potts led the Blue Raiders with 14 points.
- Fresno State toppled San Diego State in the Mountain West title game as Marvelle Harris had 18 points.
- Southern will be in the tournament from the SWAC as they beat Jackson State. Trelun Banks had 19 points to lead the Jaguars.
- Buffalo is also returning to the NCAA tournament after Blake Hamilton’s late 3-pointer lifted them past Akron.
- Weber State clinched the Big Sky automatic bid by holding off Montana in the title game. Jeremy Senglin had 20 points to lead the Wildcats in the title game.
- Stephen F. Austin is back in the NCAA tournament for the third consecutive year after beating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the Southland tournament.
OTHER NOTABLE RESULTS
- Saint Joseph’s earned an important bubble win over Dayton in the Atlantic 10 semifinals as Isaiah Miles had 26 points.
- In the other A-10 semifinal, VCU ran past Davidson as Korey Billbury paced the Rams with 17 points.
- UConn also did a nice job stating its NCAA tournament case with an American semifinal win over Temple. Daniel Hamilton led with 19 points.
- Joining UConn in the American title game is Memphis, who knocked off Tulane in the other conference semifinal. Freshman Dedric Lawson led with 17 points.
- Arkansas-Little Rock moved on to the title game in the Sun Belt with a win over Louisiana Lafayette. Jalen Jackson led with 16 points.
- Louisiana Monroe will face Arkansas-Little Rock in the title game in the Sun Belt as they beat UT Arlington. DeMondre Harvey had 21 points.