What happened during championship week: 27 teams earn automatic berths entering Selection Sunday

Juwan Howard is out at Michigan.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Mississippi State leads Tennessee 38-19 at the half, and it's actually been worse than that after the clear worst half of basketball of the Vols' season.

Tennessee is 7-for-34 from the field, 2-for-18 from 3-point range, with no one playing well. UT has had decent shots, several going in and out, but also nine turnovers. The Vols have been a tick slow reacting to pressure. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, have been prepared for everything UT is doing to limit big man Tolu Smith, and it has been a festival of dunks and layups — MSU is 15-for-21 on 2-pointers.

Braden Smith is back. Purdue fans, exhale.

The All-Big Ten guard checked in for the Boilermakers at the 8:31 mark of the second half, after appearing to injure his right knee on a drive less than four minutes earlier. Smith was still wincing a bit and flexing his knee on the bench before heading to the scorer's table, and he still appears to be in some discomfort. But Purdue's grandest postseason hopes aren't dashed on March 15, after all.

Purdue guard Braden Smith is back in the game with the Boilermakers ahead by five with just over eight minutes to go.

At the risk of being too glib about humans harming other humans, the end-of-half scenes in Purdue-Michigan State were altogether fitting. Lance Jones grabbing his stomach after Tyson Walker delivered a forearm to clear some space on the dribble. Cameron Heide driving to the rim and getting lost in a sea of arms and elbows. Malik Hall very much running Jones over in transition while Carson Cooper was splayed out, face-down, at the other end.

When a game requires officials to check the floor for blood splatter at halftime — yes, this actually happened — you know it is not for the faint of heart.

It's basketball carnage, basically. Whatever team emerges from it will need every minute between now and the semifinal to ice some bruises and check that all limbs are in working order. Purdue has a 34-27 lead at the break, with Zach Edey doing most of the damage. The Big Maple has 15 points at the break despite Michigan State sending multiple defenders at him and even dropping guards back to try to deter and deflect looping feeds to the block.

Michigan State is struggling to find offensive rhythm, period, shooting just 33.3 percent thus far. But if Boilermakers guards Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer don't find their own way — they're a combined 2-of-7 from the floor — the door is open for the Spartans to make this bloody interesting.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Hello from Bridgestone Arena, where SEC No. 1 seed — and hopeful NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed — Tennessee takes on No. 9 seed Mississippi State in the first quarterfinal of the day.

The Vols probably need this Quad 1 win to keep up with North Carolina in what appears to be a tight competition for the final top seed — with UNC getting a Quad 1 opportunity later against Pittsburgh. The Bulldogs may be in the field of 68 already, but a win today would reduce anxiety significantly Sunday. MSU is the only team the Vols didn't beat in the SEC regular season, losing 77-72 on Jan. 10 in Starkville.

The Bulldogs' two stars, senior big man Tolu Smith and freshman shooting guard Josh Hubbard, combined for 48 points that night and will need to have big days for any chance of an upset today. It will be interesting to see how much help the Vols give Jonas Aidoo in the post against Smith. Smith has a clear strength advantage there.

Dalton Knecht nearly stole that one away with 28 points for UT, and Zakai Zeigler had 26. Other than that, it was a whole bunch of nothing for the Vols offensively. Along with winning games in Nashville, Rick Barnes' team needs to get some shots falling and confidence rising for role players — in particular, senior guard Santiago Vescovi.

With Purdue leading 18-10 at the under-8 timeout of the first half, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo tells the Big Ten Network broadcast that he doesn't like the way the game is being called.

Zach Edey has 11 points and five rebounds already, with five of those six points coming at the free throw line.

6-7 senior forward, Tennessee

A late bloomer who transferred in from Northern Colorado and has taken the SEC by storm, Dalton Knecht hung a 40-burger on Kentucky in a losing effort Saturday, and while he wasn’t super-efficient about it (29 shot attempts and four turnovers), he’s wielded his scoring scalpel much more effectively in other SEC contests. Knecht’s stats in conference games are almost Maravichian: 45.7 points per 100, 42.4 percent from 3, 60.3 percent true shooting, 31.7 PER.

Those 3-point shooting numbers are particularly impressive given the volume and difficulty. As Plan A, B and C for every opposing defense, Knecht makes attempts that are often contested looks off the dribble or running catch-and-shoots flying off pin-downs. Squint and you can see Klay Thompson.

Knecht’s shot has more of a line-drive trajectory than you’d prefer, and his 73.4 percent mark from the line indicates that his current 3-point percentage might be at the high end of what we should expect long term. But movement shooters who can connect at anywhere near this rate are hugely valuable in the NBA — the New Orleans Pelicans’ Jordan Hawkins, for instance, was a 2023 lottery pick based almost entirely off this skill, and he doesn’t have anywhere near the physical profile or shot-creation skill of Knecht.

The question now for scouts is basically one of “How high?” in terms of where Knecht’s shooting skill will put him in the NBA next year, but teams will be watching his lateral movement closely to see how well he can hold up as a wing defender. As an older player who will be 23 on draft night, Knecht also will be evaluated through the lens of being four years older than most of the players who will go in the top 20.

Tennessee may get a rematch with Kentucky in the SEC tournament this week, and regardless should be no worse than a No. 2 seed for the NCAA Tournament.

Read more here.

Greetings from quarterfinal Friday at the Big Ten Tournament. All the stars are out today, including top 4 seeds such as — checks notes — Northwestern and Nebraska.

But we start with the completely expected: No. 1 seed Purdue, riding a five-game win streak into the Target Center and the day's first matchup against Michigan State.

Given the recent history in March, whatever the Boilermakers do will be analyzed and scrutinized down to the smallest inflection, and this is an intriguing way to start the journey. It was less than two weeks ago that the Boilermakers hosted the Spartans and only won by six, for one thing. And if Tom Izzo's veteran guards play as they did in the second half of a second-round win over Minnesota, it will test the one area everyone has questions about until proven otherwise: Purdue's backcourt and its ability to provide Zach Edey with the floor-spacing, complementary threats he needs.

The Conference USA tournament is in the semifinals on Friday, with the championship game set for Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ET. The conference will be a one-bid league this year.

Both games are on CBS Sports Network.

• 12:30 p.m.: (1) Sam Houston (21-11) vs. (5) UTEP (17-15)
• The Bearkats have won eight in a row and swept the Miners in the regular season
• 3 p.m.: (3) Western Kentucky (20-11) vs. (7) Middle Tennessee (14-18)
• The Hilltoppers play at the fastest tempo of any team in Division I, according to KenPom.

NEW YORK — The man sauntered up just as Rick Pitino was finishing a group chat with the assembled media in the bowels of Madison Square Garden. He wore all black — black sweater, black pants and black sunglasses — and a big grin. “Hey, Coach, great job,’’ he said. “You don’t even know who you’re talking to.’’ Pitino smiled that awkward smile you give when you’re supposed to recognize a person but can’t quite place him. The man didn’t make the coach suffer too long. “I’m Walter Berry,’’ he said.

He did not carry a torch, but he might as well have because, in that moment, St. John’s present finally matched its past. Berry represents all that the Red Storm were, and could never quite become again. It was Berry who teamed with Chris Mullin to help the Johnnies to the 1985 Final Four, and it was Berry who brought the St. John’s half of the Garden to its feet and the Syracuse half to its knees when he blocked Pearl Washington’s shot in the Big East tournament championship game the following year to seal the win.

But like the man himself, whose pro career never quite matched his collegiate highlights, St. John’s faded into the background. The team name still meant something, but the team itself not so much. The Johnnies won just one tournament title since Berry’s heyday, and until Thursday afternoon, hadn’t so much as reached the tourney semifinals in 24 years. That nearly defies logic, considering Madison Square Garden doubles as St. John’s home court, but it is a testimony to the program’s abject irrelevance that it could not even win in the city it calls home, and on the court it calls its own.

There’s a million reasons why it all went south — recruits more enamored with leaving New York than staying in it ranks among them. But it’s not complicated. After Lou Carnesecca retired, St. John’s whiffed and whiffed and whiffed on the right head coach.

St. John’s has the right coach. St. John’s beat Seton Hall, 91-72, to reach a semifinal date with UConn and make a very strong case for an NCAA Tournament bid. These things are not a coincidence. “It’s been a long time, a long time coming,’’ Berry told The Athletic after greeting Pitino. “They are doing beautiful right now and I’m so happy to see them back on the map and doing well. It’s so good to see them back among the top. I was glad when they hired Pitino. I knew he’d come to St. John’s and do a great job. He’s living up to expectations for sure.’’

Continue reading.

We’ve seen enough elsewhere to officially move Northwestern and Nebraska to the lock line, where they’ve been trending for the past couple of weeks. Even if both were to lose on Friday after a double-bye, nothing has happened thus far that suggests they would be in any danger of dropping to the bubble.

Wisconsin and Michigan State, two of the more divisive teams from an at-large perspective, both finished the regular season with a whimper. The Badgers lost at Purdue and have gone 3-8 since the start of February, while the Spartans lost at Indiana and dropped four of their last five. That said, Wisconsin — with a 12-12 record in Quad 1 and 2, no losses outside of that and a resume average (KPI and strength of record) in the low 20s — is in. Michigan State still isn’t a lock after a win over Minnesota on Thursday, but it remains in the field and above the bubble. A win on Friday over Purdue would absolutely put a bow on lock status, while a loss probably keeps them in the waiting game pending other bubble teams and bid thieves. The Spartans’ metrics are absolutely Tournament caliber, but that’s the case for a number of bubble teams at the moment, and the resume still leaves something to be desired.

Ohio State ascended to the bubble when it won five of six after firing Chris Holtmann, including wins over Purdue, Nebraska and at Michigan State to add to Alabama on a neutral floor. A win over Iowa on Thursday night in the Big Ten tournament ended the Hawkeyes’ at-large hopes while keeping Ohio State in the hunt, and another win over Illinois on Friday could even get the Buckeyes into that “last four in/first four out” group, which would be an incredible climb after firing the head coach.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As Blake Hinson sprinted down the crowded corridor just off the Capital One Arena court — the one three-deep with camera people and various ACC officials — he found his Pittsburgh teammates waiting for him. Specifically, one teammate: Ish Leggett, who stood palms up, holding a flimsy plastic placard bearing Pitt’s logo. Leggett was seconds from slapping that placard onto the large ACC tournament banner in the corridor … but he couldn’t do so until Hinson arrived. Until Pitt’s entire team was there.

Until, first, he held it up to Hinson and asked his teammate for a favor:

“Bless this b—.”

Hinson gladly obliged, rubbing his hands over the plastic square like it was a raging bonfire. A sufficient blessing, indeed. Because Leggett wasted no more time; he rotated the logo, grabbed it around the edges, and proudly plastered it onto the wall in one of four semifinalist spaces.

To the victors go the spoils. And after Pitt’s 81-69 win over Wake Forest on Thursday, those spoils are a Friday night ACC semifinal appearance, only the program’s second ever. (It’s been a decade since Pitt’s last one, too, a 2014 loss to Virginia.) Thursday’s contest was, for lack of a better term, an NCAA play-out game. The winner may not be firmly in the field, but the loser would definitely be out.

“When you get to this point of the season,” coach Jeff Capel said, “you want to have the opportunity to keep playing — and we feel very fortunate we get to.”

Marquette coach Shaka Smart said Thursday that Golden Eagles star Tyler Kolek has been practicing and will play in the NCAA Tournament next week, but he wasn't sure if he would be available for Friday's semifinal game against Providence.

Kolek missed the team's Big East quarterfinal win over Villanova on Thursday and has not played since Feb. 28 because of an oblique injury.

"Tyler is eager to come back. But probably the most conservative person in the room is our trainer and our doctor, and that's how it should be," Smart said. "So to this point he's not been cleared to play in the game. And we're confident that that will change soon. But we don't know if that's soon as in tomorrow."

"But he's going to play next week. Obviously we'd love to win the Big East tournament. We'd love to win tomorrow night. I think what our guys are showing these last couple of games and even the two games we lost without Tyler is that we can compete with anyone, even while he's recovering."