Notes On Friday’s 2026 NCAA Tournament Action

Most of Friday’s NCAA tournament games were not that close.

Duke beat TCU by 23, Michigan took out Saint Louis by 23 also, Houston took out Texas A&M by 31, Michigan State handled Louisville by 18, and Illinois smacked Louisville by 21.

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We’ll come back to those.

The other three games were really good: Texas knocked off Gonzaga, 74-68, Nebraska escaped Vanderbilt, 74-72, and Arkansas slipped by High Point, 94-88.

And that game was freaking amazing.

Arkansas is a very good team, but High Point? High Point is a fever dream. Those guys are an absolute blast to watch. They pushed Arkansas to the absolute limit, and if they didn’t have a transcendent talent in Darius Acuff, they would not have won this game.

It completely escaped us until quite late in the game, but Cam’Ron Fletcher started out playing for John Calipari at Kentucky, and had a chance to help take him out at Arkansas. Just wild. But it didn’t quite happen.

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However, High Point coach Finn Clayman should be on UNC’s radar. He won’t be, but he should be. UNC is focused on getting a big-time coach, when a savant might be an hour and change away. At a minimum, he’s a dramatically better coach than Hubert Davis.

The Texas-Gonzaga game wasn’t as dramatic, but it’s still impressive: the Zags have made the Sweet 16 every year since 2015. Knocking them off is pretty impressive in its own right. But the Longhorns have peaked at exactly the right time. They’ll play the winner of Miami vs. Purdue, and either way, that’s a winnable game.

Finally, it’s impossible not to feel bad for Vanderbilt. They had a heck of a year, and to have that shot rim out like that? You just can’t get any closer. It’s impossible.

In the other games, it wasn’t really surprising that Michigan thumped Saint Louis. It was a fine season for the Billikens, but this was a bridge too far.

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No surprise, of course, that Houston beat the Aggies, but was the margin a surprise? Perhaps. Kelvin Sampson…

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Publish date : 2026-03-22 13:15:00

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