In previewing the Sweet 16, one team stands out with no stars after an opening weekend in which the Breitbart Sports All-Americans and All-Conference players dominated a crazy first two rounds of March Madness.
Danuel House might sneak into the NBA, and Alex Caruso and Jalen Jones are longshots. None of them rank in the top 5% (top 200) of all Value Add Basketball college players. They were just a few very good seniors trying to play hard for the last 30 seconds of their double-digit loss to Northern Iowa.
Then the most incredible comeback started with House scoring with 30 seconds off a steal and assist from freshman Aggies teammate Admon Gilder to make it 69-61. A steal and dunk from Jones, turnover and House three-pointer, Caruso drives and and is fouled, and one final Gilder steal and layup to force overtime and lead to the come-from-behind win.
Texas A&M goes on to play Oklahoma on TBS Thursday at 7:37 p.m. Here are the rest of the games.
South – CBS Thursday (projected winners in bold; all times Eastern)
Thursday 7:10 p.m. CBS – Villanova (Josh Hart 1st Team All-Big East, Ryan Arcidiacono, and Daniel Ochefu 2nd Team All-Big East) over Miami (Sheldon McClellan 2nd Team All-ACC). Villanova made it through the first weekend for the first time since 2009 and their utter dominance of Iowa legitimized them as the Big East hope.
Thursday 9:40 p.m. CBS – Kansas (Frank Mason and Perry Ellis both 5th Team All-American — Iowa State only other with two All-Americans — and Wayne Selden 2nd Team All-Big 12) over Maryland (Melo Trimble 5th team All-American, Robert Carter, and Diamond Stone 2nd Team). Both teams are loaded with NBA talent, but Maryland has been inconsistent while Kansas is the team to beat.
West – TBS Thursday
7:37 p.m. – Oklahoma (Buddy Hield National Player of the Year and Isaiah Cousins 2nd Team All-Big 12) over Texas A&M (None, just incredible balance). Can the one team with no stars beat the greatest star of this season?
9:55 p.m. – Duke (Grayson Allen 2nd team All-American and Brandon Ingram 1st Team All-ACC) over Oregon (Dillon Brooks and Chris Boucher both 2nd Team All-Pac 12). The Pac-12’s one hope gets a shot in the tournament of the ACC.
East – TBS Friday
7:27 p.m. — Wisconsin (Nigel Hayes 1st Team All-Big Ten) over Notre Dame (Demetrius Jackson 2nd team All-ACC). All-American bracket picked Stephen F. Austin. The battle of last second winners — the bracket picked SFA to be the first 14-seed to make the Sweet 16 since 1997 and was one second from being correct — but Notre Dame tapped in a win then Wisconsin also hit a final second shot to stun Xavier.
9:57 p.m. — North Carolina (Brice Johnson 2nd team All-American) over Indiana (Yogi Ferrell 4th team All-American). All-American bracket picked Kentucky — the most followed Sweet 16 game for sure.
Midwest – CBS Friday
7:10 p.m. — Iowa State (Monte Morris 2nd Team All-American, Georges Niang 5th Team All-American — only team besides Kansas with two Breitbart All-Americans) over Virginia (Malcolm Brogdon 3rd team All-American).
9:40 p.m. — Gonzaga (Kyle Wiltjer Player of the Year in West Coast Conference and Domantas Sabonis 1st Team All-WCC) over Syracuse (Michael Gbinije 2nd Team All-ACC). All-American bracket picked Michigan State.
The method for determining the Breitbart Sports All-American Bracket and the other approaches is explained here.
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