UNDATED (AP) — Florida isn’t around to defend its title anymore, but all the other top seeds in this year's NCAA Tournament are still around. And many of them are winning convincingly. The first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament were decided by an average of 15.3 points. That represents the third-highest average margin of victory through the round of 32 since 1985. The only NCAA Tournaments with higher average victory margin since then came in 1993 (16.1) and 2024 (15.4).
UNDATED (AP) — This could be a familiar Final Four in the women’s NCAA Tournament. UConn, South Carolina, UCLA and Texas reached the Final Four last year. They’re the top four seeds this season. And they’ve all won convincingly through the first two rounds of this tournament. That creates the possibility of the first repeat Final Four since 1996. But there are 12 other contenders attempting to prevent that scenario in March Madness.
UNDATED (AP) — Oklahoma linebacker Owen Heinecke is suing the NCAA for an additional year of eligibility. Heinecke played three games of lacrosse at Ohio State in February 2022, costing him a year of eligibility. He transferred to play football at Oklahoma, then sat out a year because of injury. He was mostly a special teams player in 2023 and 2024 before breaking out last season with 74 tackles, including 12 for loss. Oklahoma submitted a request for an eligibility waiver, but it was denied in January, and an appeal was denied in February. An emergency hearing is set for April 16 in Norman, Oklahoma.
SAN JOSE, Calif (AP) — When Oscar Cluff left Australia to begin his college career in the United States, he never could have imagined where he would end up. A journey that started at a small junior college near the Arizona-Mexico border has taken Cluff to the Sweet 16 as a key member of No. 2 seed Purdue. The Boilermakers face No. 11 seed Texas on Thursday in the West Region semifinals of the NCAA Tournament. Cluff started his career at Cochise College before transferring to Washington State. After a standout year at South Dakota State, the coaches there recommended him to Purdue's Matt Painter.
UNDATED (AP) — The only person left out of millions who entered men's and women's NCAA tournament brackets in ESPN's competition is an eighth-grader from suburban Pittsburgh. His name is Otto Schellhammer, and you can bet the 14-year-old is enjoying his one shining moment. He is 48-0 through the first weekend of the women's tournament, and he'll try to push it to 56-0 when the Sweet 16 takes place on Friday and Saturday. The record for ESPN's competition is 57-0. The exact odds of a perfect bracket are steep: Most mathematicians put the number at around 1 in 28 billion.
