March Madness | featured news

The first ticket to the round of 16 will be punched when second-seeded Villanova tussles with West Coast Conference champion Saint Mary's at 1:05 p.m. ET on Saturday. They'll be followed by a couple of upset-minded teams trying to keep the magic moving: 13th-seeded Murray State takes on fifth-seeded Butler, and 14th seed Ohio plays No. 6 seed Tennessee.

Looking ahead at the second day of the N.C.A.A. tournament.

At last the Texas Longhorns can relax. No longer do they have to spend their days on edge, force-feeding themselves the notion that their season remained salvageable. No longer do they have to convince anyone ...

WashPost: Thursday and Friday can't get here fast enough because the NCAA tournament is wide, wide open. If we've learned anything over these first two weeks of March, it's that not all that much separates the best from the rest.

The selection committee made its choices. Now, it's America's turn. The country's biggest office pool, otherwise known as March Madness, serves up the usual smorgasbord of choices, starting with Kansas, the overall top seed in the 65-team NCAA tournament bracket released Sunday.

North Carolina teammates Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson, along with Connecticut's Hasheem Thabeet, are among 11 players named to the John R. Wooden Award All American team. Hansbrough and Lawson will lead the Tar Heels against Villanova in Saturday's national championship semifinals. Thabeet and the Huskies play Michigan State in the other semifinal in Detroit.

Ty Lawson scored 19 points and Danny Green added 18 to lead the Tar Heels to a win over Blake Griffin and Oklahoma on Sunday in the South Regional final.

Michigan State turned a nail biter into a runaway victory, 64-52, denying the Big East a third Final Four team.

Connecticut, the No. 1 seed in the West Regional, beat Missouri 82-75 on Saturday for the first team to qualify of the Big East's four that reached the regional finals.

The second berth was assured as soon as the East Regional semifinals were over on Thursday. Villanova earned the trip to Detroit with a 78-76 victory over top-seeded Pittsburgh in the final.

Cardinals play like the top seed in tournament, topping 100 points for first time this season.