March Madness | featured news

Instead of parlaying an historic day of upsets into a second weekend filled with small schools, the NCAA tournament now looks like a who's-who of major college programs.

The basket was as wide as the ocean for Brady Heslip, and because of that, the future looks as bright as those uniforms for the Baylor Bears. Heslip made 9 of 12 from behind the 3-point line Saturday to lift third-seeded Baylor and their highlighter-yellow uniforms to a pullaway 80-63 victory over No. 11 Colorado. The Bears (29-7) advance to the South Regional semifinals, their second trip to the final 16 in three seasons. They'll play the winner between Xavier and Lehigh next Friday in Atlanta.

The Lehigh Mountain Hawks said they weren’t afraid of mighty Duke. Maybe no one believed them at the time, but the Patriot League champions proved they were serious. C.J. McCollum scored 30 points and Lehigh upset Duke 75-70 to become the second No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2 during a wild Friday in the NCAA tournament.

Chris Allen led four Cyclones in double figures with 20 points, and Iowa State scored their final 14 at the free throw line Thursday night to beat Connecticut 77-64.

The Cougars rallied despite being dominated in the first half. The Hilltoppers are the only team in the tournament with a losing record.

This is the time of the year when everyone can channel their inner Dick Vitale. Just make sure not to startle your co-workers if you start yelling, "Awesome, baby!" Everyone in the entire country, starting on Selection Sunday when the NCAA Tournament brackets are revealed, becomes a college basketball expert. From President Obama to that annoying woman in accounting who lets her corgie make the picks (and still somehow wins the office pool), we're all about to pretend we know more about Cinderella than the prince himself.

An 11-game postseason run that was equal parts stunning and historic ended with a championship as Connecticut defeated the Butler Bulldogs.

When the options boil down to winning or heading home, nobody's better than Kemba and Connecticut....

With Kemba Walker struggling, the Huskies showed they were far from a one-man team.

Of course Butler erased a late deficit. Of course the Bulldogs hit a clutch 3-pointer late in overtime. Of course they're going back to the Final Four.