Men's NCAA Tournament 2023: Friday's Sweet 16 Winners and Losers
Four tickets to the Elite Eight were punched on Thursday night as Kansas State, Gonzaga, UConn and Florida Atlantic all all came away victorious.
With four more spots up for grabs on Friday evening, the night's action began with both remaining No. 1 seeds falling as No. 5 seeds San Diego State and Miami upset Alabama and Houston.
The Aztecs controlled the tempo and shut down future lottery pick Brandon Miller en route to a 71-64 victory, while the Hurricanes lit up a terrific Houston defense on their way to a 89-75 win.
In the second wave of games, No. 6 seed Creighton ended the Cinderella story for No. 15 seed Princeton with an 86-75 victory, while No. 2 Texas led by double-digits the entire second half in an 83-71 win over No. 3 seed Xavier.
Aside from who came away with a win on the scoreboard, we've highlighted the biggest winners and losers of Friday night's Elite Eight action ahead.
Loser: An NCAA Tournament to Forget for Brandon Miller
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Brandon Miller was one of the best college basketball players in the country this year.
During the regular season, the freshman phenom averaged 19.6 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists while shooting 40.1 percent from three-point range to win SEC Player of the Year honors and earn a first-team All-American selection.
The 6'9" forward is expected to be one of the first players off the board in the 2023 NBA draft, but his college career ended on a sour note with an NCAA tournament to forget.
He was held scoreless in 19 minutes of action against No. 16 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the first round, and while he bounced back with 19 points against Maryland in the second round, it was on an inefficient 5-of-17 shooting night.
It was revealed after that opening weekend of action that Miller was nursing a groin injury, but he told reporters he was back to 100 percent heading into the team's Sweet 16 matchup against San Diego State.
Despite that promising report, he certainly didn't look like himself on Friday night.
He finished with just nine points on an ugly 3-of-19 from the floor and 1-of-10 from three-point range, and as his long attempt from three clanged off the rim as time expired, his college career likely came to a close.
Winner: San Diego State's Second Half Answer
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San Diego State carried a 28-23 lead into halftime on Friday night while limiting Alabama to 8-of-29 from the floor and 1-of-11 from three-point range, but their stifling defense was put to the test coming out of the break.
The Crimson Tide opened the second half with an 11-2 run, turning a five-point deficit into a 34-30 lead in the process, and it looked like the tournament's No. 1 overall 1-seed might finally be ready to pull away from the No. 5 seed Aztecs.
Instead, San Diego State swung the momentum back to their side with a 12-0 run that stretched from the 11:39 mark to 8:00 remaining, turning a 48-39 Alabama lead into a 51-48 scoreboard in their favor in that brief 3:39 span.
The Aztecs never trailed again after an Adam Seiko three-pointer capped off that run, and they clamped down for the final eight minutes to come away with a 71-64 victory.
With that, San Diego State improved to 20-0 when they hold the opposition to less than 65 points, and while a stellar offensive game from Darrion Trammell (21 points) gave them a nice boost, controlling the tempo and locking things down on the defensive end continues to be the key to their success.
Loser: The Worst Game of the Year for the Houston Defense
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Heading into Friday's matchup with the Miami Hurricanes, the Houston Cougars ranked No. 4 in KenPom's adjusted defensive efficiency this season, limiting the opposition to 56.6 points per game and leading the nation with a .361 opponent shooting percentage.
They picked a less-than-ideal time for their worst defensive performance of the year.
The Cougars allowed more than 70 points in a game only four times all season, with the high mark coming in an 83-77 victory over South Florida in January.
However, the Hurricanes blew past that total with 89 points on a 51.7 percent shooting from the floor and a blistering 11-of-25 from three-point distance.
The Cougars never led by more than two points, and the Hurricanes were in complete control for the final 10 minutes of what turned out to be one of the more lopsided games of the second weekend of tournament action.
With that, the final No. 1 seed still standing in this year's tournament fell, making this the first time in NCAA tournament history that no No. 1 seed reached the Elite Eight.
If you love parity, the 2023 men's NCAA tournament has been a dream.
Winner: A Game-Changing Run From Nijel Pack
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Despite what the 89-75 final score might suggest, the Houston vs. Miami game was actually still a close contest early in the second half.
The Hurricanes built a six-point lead heading into halftime, but that had been whittled to a narrow 51-49 advantage after a pair of free throws from Houston's Tramon Mark with 14:42 remaining in the game.
That's when Nijel Pack caught fire.
The Kansas State transfer nailed a trio of three-pointers over Miami's next four possessions, and when the third deep ball fell, it gave the Hurricanes a 62-53 lead from which they never looked back.
Pack finished with a game-high 26 points on 7-of-10 from beyond the arc, and he has been money from distance all season with 83 made threes at a 40.5 percent clip.
ACC Player of the Year Isaiah Wong added 20 points and all five Hurricanes starters finished in double figures, but the hero of the night was Pack as he shifted the momentum in what turned out to be a lopsided final result.
Loser: Princeton's Supporting Cast
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Senior guards Tosan Evbuomwan and Ryan Langborg have been the go-to scorers for Princeton all season, and both players had terrific games on Friday night.
The duo combined for 50 points on 21-of-39 shooting, with Evbuomwan (24 points) chipping in nine assists and six rebounds and Langborg (26 points) knocking down 4-of-7 three-point attempts despite shooting just 32.3 percent from distance on the year.
Unfortunately, that duo received very little offensive support.
The rest of the Tigers' roster shot a combined 9-of-26 from the floor for 25 points, with nine of those points coming from Blake Peters off the bench, and that simply was not enough secondary scoring to keep up with a potent Creighton squad.
The No. 15 seed upstarts were a great Cinderella story, and they didn't allow Creighton to pull away and truly take control of the game until the closing minutes as it was a seven-point game with 3:38 remaining.
Tip of the cap to this year's biggest underdog story on a great March Madness run.
Winner: Creighton Exploiting Their Inside Advantage
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Despite having no one in the rotation taller than 6'8" and lacking a true rim protector, Princeton was able to upset an much bigger Arizona team that was led by a pair of productive big men in the first round.
The Tigers were one of the best rebounding teams in the nation entering Friday night's action, and they won the rebounding battle against the Wildcats in that upset while limiting second-chance points in the process.
That wasn't the case on Friday night.
The Blue Jays finished with a lopsided 37-26 margin on the boards, and they pounded the ball inside to 7'0" center Ryan Kalkbrenner every chance they got on the offensive end of the floor as he finished with 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting.
He wasn't the only one who had success inside, though, as the Blue Jays shot an absurd 74.2 percent on two-point attempts.
Props to sharp-shooter Baylor Scheierman for his 21 points on 5-of-7 shooting from three-point range, but Creighton advanced on to the Elite Eight thanks to their ability to get to the ball inside and finish.
Loser: An Ice-Cold Start for Xavier
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Xavier was one of the best offensive teams in the country this year, ranking in the top 10 nationally in field goal percentage while checking in No. 8 in KenPom's adjusted offensive efficiency.
If you were watching them for the first time at tip-off on Friday night, you never would have guessed that was the case.
The Musketeers started the game 1-of-13 from the field and that led to a 14-5 deficit with 12:49 remaining in the first half before Adam Kunkel finally knocked down a three-pointer to snap the cold spell.
That might not seem like an insurmountable deficit in the grand scheme of things, but it set the tone for the entire game as the Texas defense built some early confidence and never let up the rest of the way.
By halftime, the Longhorns had built a 42-25 lead and the outcome of the game was all but decided.
Xavier finished the game shooting 43.8 percent from the floor, which considering their ice-cold start wasn't all that bad, but it was one of just five games all season that they failed to shoot 44 percent.
Winner: Wire-to-Wire Dominance by Texas
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By the time their game tipped off, the Texas Longhorns were the top-seeded team left in the NCAA tournament field after No. 1 seeds Alabama and Houston both fell in Friday's early games and No. 2 seed UCLA lost on Thursday night.
They looked the part of the best team still standing.
A lay-up from Sir'Jabari Rice with 5:32 remaining in the first half gave the Longhorns a 28-18 advantage, and their lead would never dip below double-figures the rest of the way.
The defensive intensity from Texas set the tone and they never let up, holding a terrific Xavier offense under 72 points for just the seventh time all season. It's no coincidence that the Musketeer went 0-7 in those games.
Tyrese Hunter (19 points), Marcus Carr (18 points) and Christian Bishop (18 points) led the way offensively, and Texas shot 52.5 percent from the floor, marking the 14th time this season they've shot better than 50 percent as a team.
The key to success for the Longhorns is lockdown defense and efficiency on the offensive end, and they checked both of those boxes in decisive fashion on Friday to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2008.
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