NCAA tournament 2017: Friday’s live blog, scores, highlights, and news

Sweet 16 Friday is always something of a loss of innocence event. It’s the last night of the college basketball season that we’re all blessed with the gift of high-profile games being played simultaneously. Regional finals and Final Four games are cool and all, but if one of them is bad, there’s no lifeboat anywhere around us.

Refresh this post throughout the evening for updates, analysis, pictures and videos from the Friday night’s action as we eliminate four more teams from the field.

1:00 -- Florida wins at the buzzer after an insane sequence of events. Game of the tournament, and it’s not close.

12:31 -- Free basketball from Madison Square Garden is on the way.

12:30 -- YOU JUST CAN’T KILL WISCONSIN IN MARCH

We’re tied at 72 with 2.5 seconds left.

12:24 -- You just can’t kill Wisconsin in March. The Badgers have it down to three with 37.1 seconds to go.

12:18 — Florida up 69-62 on Wisconsin. Mike White is 2:10 away from making a regional final in his first NCAA tournament appearance.

12:16 — Guess the transfer list just got a little bigger.

11:58 — Kentucky 86, UCLA 75. The result of the game is that the Wildcats will face North Carolina in the Elite 8 and the internet has become one giant Lavar Ball joke.

11:45 — UCLA now shooting 70.8 percent this half. Down by 11.

11:34 -- Florida leads by six and Kentucky by eight. We are heading down a road that ends with three SEC teams in the Elite 8. Just like all of us predicted.

11:28 — UCLA is shooting just under 80 percent from the field this half, and they’re down by eight.

11:19 — It’s now De’Aaron Fox who is back to carving up the UCLA defense. He’s got a game-high 24 points and we’ve still got almost 12 minutes to play. Cats lead it by six.

11:15 -- Even when Kentucky misses, it’s eating UCLA up with second chance opportunities because the Bruin guards are taking off and hoping to get cheap points on the other end. UK leads, 52-49.

11:12 -- I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a player as automatic when he’s in one of his zones as Malik Monk is.

11:10 — If you missed the first segment of the second half on CBS you basically missed NBA Jam. Malik Monk is in full-on God Mode, UCLA is beating UK back down the court and answering, and the Wildcats are up by four.

11:06 — Kentucky and UCLA back underway on CBS.

11:05 — Florida’s offensive resurgence has allowed it to turn an 11-point deficit into a 34-32 halftime lead.

11:03 -- Love Frank Martin giving props to the 12-year-old reporter from SI for Kids.

10:47 — After being held in check virtually all half, Florida has now scored on three straight trips to trim Wisconsin’s lead to 27-20.

10:43 — Nigel Hayes doing his thing as both a distributor and a scorer for Wisconsin tonight. He’s got nine points and the Badgers are 10 of 16 from the field. They lead Florida, 24-13.

10:39 -- Halftime: Kentucky 36, UCLA 33. De’Aaron Fox, who had a great scoring day in the first matchup between these two, leads all scorers with 15 points.

10:25 — Bronson Koenig hot early for Wisconsin, which continues to look nothing like an eight seed. Badgers have raced out to a 14-6 lead over Florida.

10:21 — Not your every day wedgie.

10:16 — Pace has slowed down considerably here as both teams are starting to run some actual halfcourt sets. UCLA up, 20-19.

10:14 — Wisconsin and Florida are underway on TBS.

10:11 -- Don’t think I’ll ever be in a parking garage again without thinking “I forgot to get this validayyyyted,” so thanks for that, Wedding Crashers wedding band singer.

10:08 — All sorts of fun already here.

10:05 — De’Aaron Fox has been Kentucky’s offense early on, so Aaron Holiday comes into the game to try and put an end to that.

10:03 —UCLA is getting the pace it wants early, but it’s not like Kentucky doesn’t like to run either. Bruins up 11-8 at the first TV timeout.

9:58 — The UCLA mascot is having itself quite the season.

And from last month:

Lonzo Ball isn’t the only star in Westwood.

9:53 —Kentucky and UCLA time. The Grandaddy of them all*

*all=2017 Sweet 16 games

9:40 — Final: South Carolina 70, Baylor 50.

After going 43 years without a single NCAA tournament victory, the Gamecocks are headed to the Elite 8. Baylor’s three second weekend losses under Scott Drew have come by an average of 13 points.

9:23 — With five minutes to play, South Carolina leads Baylor by 20. Unreal.

9:22 — Final: North Carolina 92, Butler 80. The Tar Heels will face the winner of Kentucky-UCLA for a trip to the Final Four.

9:17 — Rough start to the Wyking Jones era at Cal.

9:14 -- Sindarius Thornwell continues to tear it up and SC leads by 17.

Has anyone trademarked “Sindarella” yet? Am I late on this? I’m probably late on this.

9:10 — Credit Butler for keeping things within “striking distance.” They haven’t been able to get Carolina’s lead into single digits, but they’ve been hanging around the 10-14 are for most of this half. A little under two minutes to go and UNC leads by 11.

9:00 — This is the “momentum” that South Carolina was riding into the NCAA tournament.

The Gamecocks currently lead Baylor by 21 in the second half of a Sweet 16 game.

8:57 -- Even when Butler gets what it wants and UNC bricks an outside shot, the Heels are killing the Bulldogs on second chance points. It’s what they’ve done to just about everyone all season long.

8:56 -- Joel Berry promptly buries a three and the lead is back to 14.

8:55 -- Chris Holtmann has gone zone and North Carolina has failed to adjust. The lead is down to 11 and we’ve finally got something to watch.

8:49 — Baylor comes out of the locker room and looks ... well, they somehow look like they care even less. South Carolina leads by 20.

8:42 — North Carolina leads by 20 and South Carolina-Baylor is still at the half, so here’s this:

8:35 — Ready for UCLA-Kentucky. Bring ‘em out here. Let’s just get this going now.

8:28 — Halftime: South Carolina 37, Baylor 22.

Yeesh.

8:22 — So about that whole “lifeboat” deal above. We currently have a 17-point game and an 18-point game to work with.

I’ll never let go. I promise.

8:17 -- Baylor his missed its last 12 shots and South Carolina is on an 18-0 run as a result. I’m not entirely sure the Bears are even trying to score at this point. It’s been seven minutes and 12 seconds.

8:09 — I don’t know what Baylor is doing on offense right now, but it doesn’t appear to be anything that’s going to increase their current point total. They haven’t hit a shot in five minutes and haven’t hit the rim in almost as long. South Carolina is up by 10 at 25-15.

7:58 — We really need a tournament historian to look into this missed dunk deal. There’s no way there’s ever been this many in a Big Dance before.

7:54 — Butler briefly got the Carolina lead to eight and there was a sense that they had sort of weathered the storm .... and now they’re down 52-34. That scare from Arkansas may wind up being the best thing that could have happened to the Heels this tournament.

7:35 — I don’t hate Baylor or anything, but I am rooting for this score to hold.

7:32 — Baylor and South Carolina underway on TBS and at the perfect time. Tar Heels lead it 30-14.

7:30 — UNC is shooting 80 percent. That’s typically gonna work.

7:26 — We already miss Bill Murray.

7:24 — Butler showing no signs of being able to slow down North Carolina here, and it’s 20-12 early. This has the potential to get out of hand if the Bulldogs don’t find some sort of answer defensively.

7:19 — Here’s hoping every segment of this game is as entertaining as the opening one. Both offenses are clicking. Carolina leads, 10-9.

7:11 — We are underway in Memphis, where North Carolina is looking to erase any doubt that may have spawned by the team’s uneven performance against Arkansas last weekend.