Men’s NCAA Tournament 2024: Thursday’s Sweet 16 Winners And Losers

The start of the Sweet 16 wasn’t so sweet for teams west of Texas.

Maybe on Friday night, Gonzaga can salvage things a bit for the Mountain and Pacific time zones, but Thursday was rough for Arizona and San Diego State.

Gone are the dreams of the Wildcats having home-state advantage in the Final Four after getting unexpectedly ousted by Clemson. And sayonara to SDSU’s quest to make it back to the Final Four for a second straight year after the Aztecs were drilled by reigning champion Connecticut.

In the latter games, Alabama stunned No. 1 North Carolina and Illinois clipped Iowa State in a pair of gems that came right down to the wire.

Read on for the full list of winners and losers from Thursday night’s action.

For most of the past three months, there was nothing elite about Clemson.

In what was regarded by most as a down year for the ACC, the Tigers entered the NCAA tournament having lost 10 of their last 20 games. There was a mighty impressive road win over North Carolina in the middle of that run, but there were also six losses to teams who did not make the Dance, several of them in blowout fashion, including the 21-point loss to Boston College in the ACC tournament.

They looked primed for an immediate loss to New Mexico.

After blowing by the Lobos, the expectation was that the Tigers would lose to Baylor.

And despite those two impressive victories, they weren’t given much of a chance Thursday night against Arizona in Los Angeles.

Nevertheless, Clemson pulled off yet another upset and is headed to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1980 and just the second time in program history.

It was a Hunter and a “Chef” leading the way for the hungry Tigers.

Chase Hunter was the top scorer, going for 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists. One of those assists came on a beautifully drawn-up inbounds pass to a cutting PJ Hall for a dunk to put Clemson up by five with a little over a minute remaining in regulation. And three of the points came on an and-one drive on the subsequent possession to more or less ice the game.

But the chef’s hats in the stands were there for glue guy extraordinaire Ian Schieffelin, who did his usual stat-sheet-stuffing thing, finishing with 14 points, seven rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block.

It was when he banked in a three from the top of the key midway through the second half that it really started to feel like Clemson was going to win the game.

Big man Oumar Ballo did everything he could to keep Arizona in the game. Sure, he missed six of his seven free-throw attempts, but he went for 15 points and 15 rebounds, both literally and figuratively huge in keeping Clemson from blowing the game wide open in the first half.

Ballo got virtually no help from his starting guards, though.

All season long, that was the big question for the Wildcats: Would Caleb Love and/or Kylan Boswell show up?

The former was one of the most well-known Jekyll and Hyde type players in the nation, liable to easily eclipse 20 points when he’s feeling it, but just as liable to fire up 20 shots even when he’s not—and to take possessions off on defense to make matters even worse. But the latter was actually the bigger catalyst for Arizona’s success, as the Wildcats entered the night 23-1 when Boswell posts an O-rating of 76 or better—which isn’t asking much, to be clear.

Well, Arizona got the bad versions of both of its primary guards.

Boswell made Arizona’s first shot of the night and didn’t score again. He went 1-for-6 from the field with just one assist. He did at least have two steals and no turnovers, but he was basically a ghost.

Love, on the other hand, was very visible, and for all the wrong reasons. At halftime, he had two made buckets, two air balls (at least) and three turnovers. He finished 5-for-18 from the field and a brutal 0-for-9 from three-point range. And while not an official stat, he certainly led the game in defensive possessions spent just kind of standing there.

All told, in the building where Kobe Bryant once shot 6-for-24 from the field in the process of being named the 2010 NBA Finals MVP, Boswell and Love shot a combined 6-for-24 from the field while steering Arizona to another embarrassingly early exit from the NCAA tournament.

While Caleb Love and Kylan Boswell were leaving Arizona up a creek without a paddle in Los Angeles, Connecticut’s primary guards had themselves one heck of a night in Boston.

Cam Spencer has never been lacking for confidence, but he had plenty of it in the first half against San Diego State, scoring 16 of Connecticut’s first 40 points. When the Aztecs threatened to make things interesting heading into the intermission, he scored the Huskies’ final seven points, including a dagger triple that kind of extinguished the hopes of an upset.

Tristen Newton was also big in the first half, maybe most notably on the offensive glass, where the point guard had four rebounds. He also had nine points, three assists and a steal before the break, finishing the night with 17 points, albeit on 14 shots.

The biggest star, though, was freshman Stephon Castle, who picked a neat time for the first double-double of his college career.

Castle only had five points and four rebounds at halftime, but his fingerprints were all over UConn turning a nine-point lead into a 30-point blowout in the second half. He finished the night with 16 points and 11 boards, doing most of his damage either right at the rim or from the free-throw line.

The trio darn near outscored San Diego State by itself, going for 51 points to the Aztecs’ 52. Spencer, Newton and Castle also combined for 23 rebounds and nine assists. SDSU went for 29 and nine, respectively.

It was just one of those nights when UConn felt like a cheat code. No chance you’re beating this team when those guards are doing that to what was one of the better defenses in the nation this season.

In program history, San Diego State has earned a No. 5 seed or better in the NCAA tournament four times. (Five if you want to count the 2020 tournament, when the Aztecs were 30-2 and headed for no worse than a No. 2 seed when the world shut down.)

Unfortunately, in three of those four years, they’ve run into a Connecticut-shaped buzzsaw.

The 2011 Kawhi Leonard-led Aztecs were no match for Kemba Walker’s historic run. He went for 36 in UConn’s 74-67 run in that Sweet 16 showdown.

One of the others, of course, was last year’s national championship, which the Huskies won by a 17-point margin. Tristen Newton racked up 19 points, 10 rebounds and four assists in that victory.

And on Thursday night, UConn improved to 3-0 all-time against SDSU in the NCAA tournament, in blowout fashion once again.

Aztecs big man Jaedon LeDee had an awesome first half, going for 15 points while completely neutralizing Donovan Clingan (two points, two fouls). But the Huskies shut him down in the second half while blowing the game wide open. Newton (17 points, seven rebound, four assists) will forever haunt the dreams of SDSU fans, but Cam Spencer and Stephon Castle were equally huge in the 30-point win.

The year SDSU earned a No. 5 seed or better and didn’t run into UConn? That was in 2014, when the Aztecs got a No. 4 seed and lost to Arizona in the Sweet 16. But had they been able to win a few more games, they would’ve eventually had to tangle with UConn, as the Huskies won it all that year, too.

If and when Connecticut goes on to win it all next Monday, somebody please remind me the next time San Diego State gets a great seed in the Dance that Connecticut is batting 1.000 at winning titles when that happens.

Where would Alabama be right now without the transfer portal?

Mark Sears came to Nate Oats from Ohio. Nick Pringle started out at Wofford. Aaron Estrada went from Saint Peter’s to Oregon to Hofstra before landing with the Crimson Tide. And before dominating Alabama’s Sweet 16 victory over No. 1 seed North Carolina, Grant Nelson spent three seasons at North Dakota State.

Suffice it to say, he never played in a game with the Bison as big as this one against the Tar Heels. But after going for a grand total of six points, two rebounds and two blocks in Alabama’s first two tournament victories over Charleston and Grand Canyon, he went off for 24 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks.

Nelson scored 15 of those 24 points and tallied three of those five blocks in the final seven minutes and some change, almost single-handedly carrying the Crimson Tide to victory. They were down 72-67 when he started to take over, and they outscored the Heels 22-15 the rest of the way.

It was Nelson’s block with 25 seconds remaining and his shot contest on RJ Davis with about 10 seconds to go that resulted in a UNC shot-clock violation. It was Nelson’s subsequent clutch free throws that put Alabama back ahead by two possessions. And when Nelson missed two free throws with a second remaining, he rose up for one final block of Harrison Ingram’s attempted full-court heave.

The 24 points matched a season high set in the opener against Morehead State.

We’ll see if he saved any more magic for the Elite Eight matchup with Clemson.

By the time UNC-Alabama tipped off, we already knew the ‘Caleb Love Bowl’ wasn’t going to be happening.

The Tar Heels still had unfinished business, though, even if it no longer involved an Elite Eight showdown with a former teammate.

After missing the 2023 NCAA tournament one year after coming so close to winning it all, Armando Bacot and RJ Davis came back for one more shot at glory; one more try to win the title that eluded their grasp in 2022. And once Arizona was bounced, the path looked so much easier: Just beat an Alabama team that hadn’t been able to beat quality opponents all season long and then take care of business against ACC rival Clemson.

Early on, it looked like they could handle that.

The Tar Heels led 54-46 at halftime and—save for RJ Davis—seemingly couldn’t miss. They were 10-for-16 from distance, with even Elliot Cadeau hitting a pair despite entering the game at 8-for-48 for the season.

In the second half, though, all they could do was miss, going 2-for-16 from downtown while squandering that lead.

Worst of all was RJ Davis, going 0-for-9 from three-point range for the game, just hours after Love did the same.

Davis at least still scored 16 points and had seven assists, doing his best to battle through a poor shooting night while trying to avoid becoming the reason UNC lost the game, but it wasn’t enough. When the rest of the three-point options went cold and Davis was unable to pick up the slack, the game gradually slipped through their hands like sand through an hourglass.

In Thursday’s nightcap, it was the nation’s No. 1 offense (Illinois) against the nation’s No. 1 defense (Iowa State).

And, for the most part, defense was the name of the game in a 72-69 contest that was a friend of the under bettors.

There were a combined total of 19 steals, and the teams shot a combined 40.9 percent from the field when they weren’t succumbing to the relentless pressure and physicality on both ends of the floor.

There were two major exceptions to the rule, though, as Illinois’ Terrence Shannon Jr. and Iowa State’s Curtis Jones had quite the individual battle.

As Illinois raced out to a 36-26 halftime lead, Shannon was the star with 16 points. But while Milan Momcilovic and Keshon Gilbert shot a combined 0-for-8 from the field for the Cyclones in those first 20 minutes, Jones came off the bench for 13 of their points, keeping them within striking distance.

The duo basically doubled down in the second half, as well, each scoring 13 more points to finish at 29 and 26, respectively.

That’s business as usual for Shannon, who was averaging 31.6 PPG since the start of the Big Ten tournament, but it was a season-high for Jones, who came off the bench for all but one game.

Every time Iowa State got it back to within one possession, it seemed to be Jones’ doing. However, he just could not quite get the Cyclones over the hump, as the Illini led for the entire game. And, naturally, it was Shannon sealing the deal with a steal, a breakaway dunk and a pair of game-ending free throws in the closing second.

Now, Illinois will go from the age-old “unstoppable force vs. immovable object” debate to just a good old-fashioned battle between two unstoppable forces when it clashes with Connecticut in a matchup of the two most efficient offenses in the nation.