Friday was a crazy one in college basketball. UConn went 4OTs and canned a 70-footer to beat Cincinnati and possibly play their way into the Big Dance. The incomparable Buddy Hield launched a double-pump one-handed half-court prayer to keep the Oklahoma Sooners alive, only to have it turned over on review and send West Virginia to the Big XII final.
In this space, we track teams that have never — since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985 — made it to the Sweet Sixteen. They’ve Never Been Kissed.
Hawaii advanced to the final of the WAC, beating UC-Santa Barbara by 11. The Rainbow Warriors take on Long Beach State tonight.
Stephen F. Austin annihilated Houston Baptist by 36. They move on to tonight’s Southland final against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Any school that contains a state, an acronym, punctuation, some Latin, and a girl is certain to be formidable. Good luck, Steve A.
Stony Brook is battling Vermont to death in the America East final. This one will go down to the wire.
Akron advanced to the MAC final, striking Bowling Green by 14. Only Buffalo stands between them and the Big Dance.
St Bonaventure was upset by Davidson in OT, so they are going to have to wait out Sunday. Joey Brackets has them pretty solidly IN as a 10-seed. In other news, Jack Gibbs is magic. Go see Davidson play as soon as you can.
Paging Arkansas-Little Rock. You are needed in the semifinals of the Sun Belt #FunBelt. Paging Arkansas-Little Rock. Louisiana-Lafayette awaits you.
The NBK Selection Committee will be parked in front of the television for the next twelve hours, courting Cinderella, jeering Goliath, and grinning ear-to-ear. Happy Championship Saturday.