March Madness 2017 updates: Friday’s NCAA bracket news, highlights, and results from Sweet 16

Seems like all of Gainesville was hype after Florida’s incredible three-point buzzer beater sent the Gators to the Elite Eight. (This GIF probably captures every Gators fan mood right now.)

But these people in Las Vegas watching the game certainly look like they’ve won the lottery — or at least are about to cash in on their Florida-Wisconsin bets. (The line was set at 1.)

Frank Martin is known for his intensity. Over the years, his sideline persona has become the butt of jokes from fans, bloggers, and pretty much anyone who doesn’t have to deal with him directly.

For his team, Martin’s glare, his yelling, and his fire are something else. Not something to fear, but something to channel into a style of play. That’s what the South Carolina Gamecocks have done, particularly on defense, and it’s a big reason why they are now one win from the Final Four.

While the entire college basketball world was glued to the Kentucky-UCLA rematch on Friday night in the Sweet 16, the Florida Gators and Wisconsin Badgers were quietly gearing up to give us the greatest game so far of the 2017 NCAA tournament.

This was the first OT game of the tournament. This was the first game to end on a buzzer-beater. And there is no doubt that Chris Chiozza’s running three-point game-winner to lift Florida into the Elite Eight is the best moment March Madness has given us this year.

And just like that, 68 teams have become eight.

It always seems strange to think about it in those terms once you get to this part of the tournament voyage, where the houses below that looked like specks just a few days ago have started to look like houses again. So much happens in such a short period of time during March that time itself gets distorted.

Wisconsin mounted an impressive late comeback against Florida in the Elite Eight early Saturday morning. Florida ultimately won, but the comeback was still neat.

With the clock ticking down in the final seconds, Badgers guard Zak Showalter took a running off-balance three-pointer after stumbling during a crossover. Showalter threw up a game-tying shot, and it somehow went in.

The Florida Gators and Wisconsin Badgers played a remarkable NCAA tournament game in the early hours of Saturday morning. It ended with Florida winning at the buzzer in overtime, but the road there was a fascinating one.

Florida just tied the score in overtime after a chase-down block by Canyon Barry, which set up a basket on the other end by teammate Chris Chiozza. The block is the main thing here, against UW’s Khalil Iverson.

The No. 7 South Carolina Gamecocks defeated the No. 3 Baylor Bears on Friday night 70-50 in the Sweet Sixteen to advance to the Elite Eight. After the game, Gamecocks head coach Frank Martin was asked by a kid reporter from Sports Illustrated Kids, a kid version of the regular Sports Illustrated magazine, about how he coaches his team’s defense, and specifically about the technique and attitude of the scheme.

SI Kids reporter: “When you coach or teach your team defense, what’s more important, technique or attitude?”

UCLA Bruins freshman point guard Lonzo Ball is going to make a lot of money to play basketball very, very soon. There are a bunch of reasons for an NBA team to snap him up early in this summer’s draft: his length (6’6 as a point guard!), his odd but efficient shooting stroke, his speed, his agility, and his overall athleticism.

I’m not smart enough to tell you what the single best attribute of Ball’s game is. There are too many. But I can tell you that his passing ability is right up there at the top, and I can make my case with two passes he made on Friday in a Sweet 16 game against Kentucky. Let’s look at these things of beauty.

Oh, T.J. Leaf.

What are you doing, buddy?

South Carolina Gamecock basketball fans are lit, folks. Their No. 7-seeded team ran No. 3 Baylor out of the gym (Madison Square Garden in New York City, to be exact) and beat the Bears 70-50 on Friday night in the Sweet 16.

This win, coming on the heels of the Gamecocks’ upset victory over the No. 2 Duke Blue Devils in the second round, had South Carolina fans fired up on Friday night with the big victory. The Gamecocks will face the winner of the No. 4 Florida Gators and No. 8 Wisconsin Badgers. Apparently, South Carolina fans want the SEC matchup against Florida.

The South Carolina Gamecocks know how to make an entrance.

They’re in the Elite Eight for the first time ever, after they destroyed Baylor in an East regional semifinal on Friday, 70-50. I didn’t see this coming.

The South Carolina Gamecocks’ defense absolutely wrecked the Baylor Bears’ vaunted offense on Friday night, sealing the program’s first trip to the Elite Eight by a final score of 70-50. Sindarius Thornwell led all the night’s scorers with 24 points, and Carolina out-rebounded the Bears, 41-36.

Baylor, who was ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 for a single week this season, found itself stymied by South Carolina’s defense all night, giving up turnovers and missing shots from close range to seal the deal from Madison Square Garden.

North Carolina hadn’t looked much like itself. The Tar Heels punched a ticket to the Sweet 16 when they beat Arkansas in the NCAA tournament’s round of 32 last week, but they needed a lot of luck. A succession of late breaks went against the Razorbacks, and North Carolina shot so abysmally that it was a wonder the Heels advanced.

When the South region’s No. 1 seed got back on the court on Friday, it finally played like a top seed. The Heels put a hurting on No. 4 Butler and advanced to the Elite Eight with a 92-80 win. The game wasn’t close, with UNC charging to a 16-point lead at halftime and never looking far backward. The Heels played a deep, experienced opponent and squashed it.

The No. 1-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels are headed to the Elite Eight after winning big over the No. 4 Butler Bulldogs, 92-80. The Tar Heels advance to their second straight Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament.

UNC made it look easy for the most part against the Bulldogs on Friday night from FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn., getting out to a 22-12 lead with 12:08 left in the first half. The Bulldogs’ defense had no answer for the Tar Heels’ offense, and UNC went to the locker room with a 52-36 lead.

Last year, one of the NCAA tournament’s neatest stories was the relationship between Villanova forward Kris Jenkins and North Carolina guard Nate Britt. The two players have a long history together, and because the world’s sometimes a funny place, they matched up head-to-head in the national championship game.

A decade before Villanova and UNC met in the title game, Britt’s family took Jenkins into its home and adopted him. Britt knew Jenkins through basketball, and when Jenkins’ mother was struggling and wanted her son to have a better life, the Britts adopted him. Jenkins has stayed close with his birth mother, who watched the Final Four in person last March. It’s a remarkable and heartwarming story.

Friday’s slate of Sweet 16 games should provide college basketball fans with everything they crave from NCAA tournament games. There are four impressive games Friday, but your eyes are drawn to one in particular: the No. 3 seed UCLA Bruins vs the No. 2 seed Kentucky Wildcats in the South Region.

The South Region easily has the best two matchups of the night. Before we get to the UCLA-Kentucky matchup, North Carolina and Butler get Friday started. North Carolina enters the Sweet 16 as the lone remaining ACC team (RIP) after eight conference teams fell during the first weekend. Butler took down Winthrop and Middle Tennessee to keep their tournament runs alive.