March Madness Friday recap: Cooper Flagg and Duke are the ACC’s last hope; South Carolina and UCLA roll in women’s tournament

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The first round of the men’s NCAA tournament is behind us, and the women’s tournament is at its midway point in the opening round.

Here are the highlights from Friday’s busy slate of games across the country.

Duke and Cooper Flagg are the ACC’s last hope

For the first time in 50 years, Duke is the last ACC team left standing after the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The Blue Devils, thanks to the return of star freshman Cooper Flagg from an ankle injury he sustained in the conference tournament last week, cruised past No. 16 Mount St. Mary’s 93-49 on Friday in their first-round game. Flagg looked fine after his injury, and finished with 14 points and seven rebounds. He drew a foul about 90 seconds into the game and hit the court, clearly not favoring his ankle at all.

Though Duke’s success isn’t completely tied to Flagg being available, him being back to normal should be a very encouraging sign for the Blue Devils’ national title hopes.

That, however, is the ACC’s only hope — which is a very rare sight for the conference that used to completely dominate the sport. The ACC will only have one team in the second round of the tournament for the first time since 1975. That was when the NCAA started allowing multiple teams from the same conference into the tournament.

In fairness to the ACC, the conference didn’t have much of a chance on Friday. After both Louisville and Clemson lost their first-round games on Thursday, North Carolina was the only other school left outside of Duke. The Tar Heels, who had to play their way into the first round anyway, almost rallied out of a 22-point hole in their matchup with Ole Miss on Friday. While that was a very entertaining finish, the Tar Heels couldn’t pull it off.

By comparison, the Big Ten is a perfect 8-0 after the first round and the Big 12 is 6-1. The SEC, which set a record with its 14 entries in this tournament, went 8-6.

So, if the ACC is going to pull off the national championship this season, it’ll be Flagg and Duke. With how bad the league was all season, and how easily the Blue Devils rolled through the conference, that’s only fitting.

UCLA, South Carolina lead blowout day for women favorites

The Gamecocks’ quest to defend their national title got off to the perfect start on Friday.

South Carolina rolled to a 60-point win over Tennessee Tech to open the women’s NCAA tournament in what was easily the biggest win of the day. The Gamecocks, after opening the game on a 33-12 tear, cruised to the 108-48 win at home to get into the second round. They shot better than 67% from the field as a team and 63% from the arc.

While the win isn’t surprising, considering the Gamecocks earned a top seed in the tournament once again, it followed a trend for a very straightforward start across the opening day of the women’s tournament.

There were just two technical upsets on the day. No. 9 Indiana beat No. 8 Utah early, and then No. 10 Oregon beat No. 7 Vanderbilt in overtime. That was just about it. Duke and Tennessee each rolled to blowout wins without any issue, and Ohio State, TCU, Kansas State, Baylor, Ole Miss and Richmond grabbed double-digit victories.

Notre Dame also picked up a 52-point win over Stephen F. Austin to open the tournament, which came after a pretty rough finish to the season for the Fighting Irish. They’ll take on Michigan next on Sunday. Top-seeded UCLA followed suit with a 38-point blowout of Southern to end the day.

While upsets are sure to come eventually, they were few and far between on Friday.

UConn’s three-peat quest

The UConn men’s quest for a three-peat is alive. It’s not likely to be completed by the Huskies, who enter the tournament as a No. 8 seed after two seasons as college basketball’s unquestioned best team. But they got the job done Friday in a 67-59 win over No. 9 Oklahoma.

After starting the season as the No. 3 team in the nation, it quickly became clear that the Huskies wouldn’t be the juggernauts of years past. A 4-3 start dropped UConn to No. 25 in the AP poll, and it entered the NCAA tournament unranked with a 23-10 record as the third-place finisher in the Big East.

On Friday, the Huskies opened a 32-26 halftime lead over the Sooners and didn’t trail until Oklahoma took a 47-46 lead with 9:03 remaining. The Huskies, however, responded immediately to retake the lead. They didn’t give it back, and then held the Sooners to just a single field goal in the final 5:30 of the game en route to the win.

The Huskies have now won 13 straight games in the NCAA tournament. They’ll take on No. 1 Florida in the second round on Sunday after the Gators cruised past Norfolk State in their opening round matchup. It’s going to be a tough battle to keep that win streak alive. But with the way the Huskies have been winning in March the last two years, it’s hard to count them out completely.

The Pitinos make history

Rick Pitino is onto the second round after St. John’s beat Omaha on Thursday, which set up a battle with John Calipari and Arkansas on Saturday. Then, on Friday, Pitino’s son followed suit in historic fashion.

Richard Pitino and New Mexico held on late to knock off No. 7 Marquette in their first-round matchup. That marked the first NCAA tournament win for the Lobos in 13 years, and now has them on the cusp of what would be their first-ever Sweet 16 appearance.

While the win was huge on its own for the Lobos as a program, it was huge for the Pitino family. The two are now the first father-son duo to each win a game in the same NCAA tournament in history.

It would take a lot for the two teams to square off against each other in the tournament. They’d have to meet in the Final Four, which means New Mexico would have to get past top-seeded Auburn and the rest of the South bracket, and St. John’s would have to run the table in the West with Florida on the other side.

But regardless of how this tournament ends, it’ll be a memorable one for the Pitino family.

Hailey Van Lith set for rematch with former team

Though the women’s side didn’t have too many surprises, we will get one great rematch-of-sorts on Sunday. TCU star Hailey Van Lith will get to go up against her former team when the Horned Frogs host Louisville in the second round.

Van Lith got her start with the Cardinals, and spent three seasons there before transferring to LSU for last season. She then arrived in Fort Worth for her final season of eligibility this year, and immediately led TCU to its best season in decades. The Horned Frogs rolled through the Big 12 and made it back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2010. Their No. 2 seed is the program’s highest in the event, and they had no issue beating No. 15 Fairleigh Dickinson on Friday. Now, a win over Louisville will get them out of the opening weekend for the first time ever.

Louisville, on the other hand, has been to 19 of the last 20 NCAA tournaments. Van Lith’s former coach, Jeff Walz, has only failed to reach the Sweet 16 three times in his 18 seasons with the program. The Cardinal survived a scare and barely snuck past Nebraska in their opening-round game on Friday.

Though TCU has looked very solid all season long, Sunday’s game should be a battle in Fort Worth.

This news was originally published on this post .

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