The Candy 16 for the 2025 NCAA males’s basketball match started on Thursday, and now have half of the Elite Eight set. Let’s check out a number of the largest winners and losers from Thursday’s recreation.
Winner: SEC
That has been the widespread theme of this 12 months’s NCAA season and the match itself. The SEC simply retains profitable, retains dominating and retains sending its groups deep into the match.
With Thursday’s wins by No. 1 Florida (87-71 over No. 4 Maryland) and No. 2 Alabama (113-88 over No. 6 BYU) the SEC has already put two groups into the Elite Eight. That quantity will certainly enhance by no less than one on Friday when the winner of No. 2 Tennessee vs. No. 3 Kentucky advances, whereas No. 1 Auburn and No. 6 Ole Miss may also have an opportunity.
We all know practically half of the Elite Eight will probably be from the SEC. As many as 5 of the eight groups may very well be from that one convention.
The SEC — it is not only a soccer convention anymore.
Loser: BYU’s perimeter protection
Defending the three-point shot was an enormous problem for BYU all season because the Cougars ranked 285th within the nation, permitting their opponents to make 35.1% of their pictures from past the arch.
They’d have cherished to have been at that degree on Thursday.
The Cougars allowed Alabama to make 25 three-point pictures, whereas additionally permitting the Crimson Tide to shoot 49%. Mark Sears alone was 10-for-16.
