March Madness 2026: The best and worst from Sweet 16 Friday

Let’s rock.

Best game

(1) Duke 80, (5) St. John’s 75 (East)

Outside of a stellar finish, this one gave us just about everything you could ask for from a Sweet 16 contest.

Aided by a heroic performance from injured guard Caleb Foster (more on that later), Duke erased a 10-point deficit to hand St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino just his second career loss in the Sweet 16. The Blue Devils have now trailed by double figures six times this season, and are 6-0 in those games.

Isaiah Evans poured in a team-high 25 points for Duke, while Cameron Boozer finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds for his third consecutive double-double and 22nd of the season.

The victory extended the Blue Devils’ winning streak to 14 games, the longest in the country.

The Red Storm had an opportunity to tie the game in the closing seconds, but Dylan Darling — who beat Kansas at the buzzer last Sunday — couldn’t drum up any more March magic.

St. John’s seemed to have an answer on offense every time they were faced with what felt like a “must score” possession down the stretch, but couldn’t get the stops necessary for those conversions to matter.

“It was our defense that broke down at the end,” Pitino said. “It wasn’t so much not being in the right place. We just got bullied to the basket. They do that to a lot of teams. That’s why they’re the No. 1-ranked team in the country. We couldn’t defend the bully drives.”

Duke has defeated St. John’s in the regular season or the NCAA Tournament during all five of its national championship seasons. They’re now just three wins away from extending that odd statistic to six.

Team that won it best

Michigan

Dusty May’s team took the best shot Alabama had in its arsenal and did not blink.

The Crimson Tide were red hot from the outside in the first half, forced the Wolverines to play at their pace, and carried a two-point lead into the break at halftime.

Ok, they weren’t quite that hot, but they were hot.

Michigan responded the way potential national champions are supposed to. They slowed the action down after the break, stepped up their offense, and let their All-American forward go to work.

Yaxel Lendeborg took control of the game in the first two segments of the second half, spearheading a Michigan run that turned a two-point deficit into an eight-point advantage. The Big Ten Player of the Year finished with 23 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists.

“I mean, you got Yax playing like that, just the kind of competitiveness he had today, like, I think he’s the best player in the country without a doubt,” Michigan guard RoddyGayle said. “When he’s like that, we’re the best team.”

With the 90-77 win, Michigan set a new school record for victories in a single season with 34. They also became just the second Wolverine team to score 90 or more points in its first three NCAA Tournament games. The only other squad to do that — the 1988-89 team — ultimately captured the program’s first and still only national championship.

Biggest disappointment

Iowa State

It feels mean to do this given the Joshua Jefferson situation (more to come), but ultimately, the Cyclones were a 2-seed that lost to a 6-seed by 14 points on Friday night. There was no other choice for this spot.

Not only could Iowa State not figure out a way to drum up any offense without its All-American, but they were absolutely dominated on the glass by a Tennessee team that finished the night with a 43-22 rebounding advantage. The Vols had 16 offensive rebounds that led to 14 second chance points. ISU’s 5-of-23 shooting performance from beyond the arc didn’t exactly help to counter that.

The injury to Jefferson will certainly result in a season of “what ifs” for Cyclone fans, who had high hopes of seeing their team advance to a regional final for the first time since 2000 and just the third time ever.

Three Friday cheers

1. Caleb Foster

Returning to the court just 20 days after undergoing surgery for a broken foot, Foster gave one of the gutsiest efforts we’ve ever seen from a player in the NCAA Tournament.

Originally expected to appear only in the Final Four, if at all, this postseason, Foster scored 11 big points in 19 huge minutes to help his team get past St. John’s and into the Elite Eight for a third straight year.

It was a performance that left his head coach emotional and nearly speechless after the game.

“Still a little stunned with what happened,” Scheyer said during the team’s postgame press conference. “Because what this guy did, to be honest, he had no business playing tonight. Ninety-nine percent of guys do not come back to play under the circumstances of what happened to him. It was incredible the way he willed us. There’s no analytics, there’s no stats that can measure how big this dude’s heart is for what he did.”

What he did, among other things, was score three of the biggest second half buckets for a Duke team that needed a lift to get past Rick Pitino’s Sweet 16 wizardry.

“I would rank it a 12 out of 10,” backcourt mate Cayden Boozer said of the importance of Foster’s return. “The fact that he just had surgery and he was able to come back this quick and just play with the confidence to not overthink.”

Scheyer said after the game that it was the first time Foster had played any 5-on-5 basketball since suffering the injury.

Guts win out in March, and it’s hard to give a gutsier performance than the one Foster gave on Friday.

2. UConn’s second weekend dominance

When UConn makes it out of the NCAA Tournament’s opening weekend, the Huskies aren’t just hard to beat, they’re impossible to beat. Or at least they have been since 2009.

A 67-63 win over Michigan State on Friday extended UConn’s win streak in games in the Sweet 16 or beyond to 17. Their last loss in a game in the tournament’s second or third weekend? An 83-72 Final Four loss to those same Spartans back in ‘09.

UConn head coach Danny Hurley is now a perfect 9-0 in second weekend or beyond tournament games, a streak that will get put to the ultimate test when the Huskies face Duke on Sunday.

3. The Killyan Toure behind-the back pass

There weren’t a lot of offensive highlights for Iowa State on Friday, but Killyan Toure made sure this one counted.

The Cyclones were unable to capitalize on this momentum, eventually falling to Tennessee by 14 points.

Three Friday jeers

1. Joshua Jefferson’s injury

Playing without their All-American and the focal point of their offense finally caught up with Iowa State on Friday.

Without Jefferson, who suffered an ankle injury in the opening minutes of the Cyclones’ first round win, ISU had zero answer for Tennessee’s pressure defense. They shot just 22.3 percent from three and just 39 percent from the field overall.

Not surprisingly, Jefferson was emotional after the loss.

Injuries to superstars has unfortunately become one of the storylines of this year’s NCAA Tournament.

In addition to Iowa State, Texas Tech (JT Toppin), UCLA (Tyler Bilodeau), Louisville (Mikel Brown Jr.) and North Carolina (Caleb Wilson) have all taken losses without star players that will have their fan bases wondering what could have been for the months (maybe even the years) ahead.

2. Houston Mallette not wanting to take his jersey off for the last time

This hurts your heart.

After saying “I’d die for this school, I’ll give anything to win” earlier in the tournament, Mallette referred to his time with the Tide as “the best year of my life” following Friday night’s loss to Michigan.

There’s still room for player-program attachment in this new era of college basketball. It still means something to the vast, vast majority of these kids, and that fact has been on full display over the last two weeks.

3. Iowa State in the Sweet 16

Star or no star, Iowa State’s 14-point loss to Tennessee on Friday dropped the Cyclones to 1-7 all-time in regional semifinal games. That’s the worst Sweet 16 record of any program that has played in the round at least seven times.

ISU has now lost five consecutive Sweet 16 games since a 2000 blowout win over UCLA. All five of those losses have come since 2014.

All-Sweet 16 Friday team

Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan

The First Team All-American looked every bit the part on Friday night, scoring 23 points to go along with 12 rebounds and seven assists as Michigan moved one win from a trip to the Final Four.

Labaron Philon, Alabama

Philon almost single-handedly kept the Tide within shouting distance of Michigan, finishing with 35 points, seven rebounds and four assists. He led Alabama in all three categories.

Tarris Reed Jr., UConn

Reed Jr. continued his absolute tear through March, finishing with 20 points, five rebounds, four assists and a steal in UConn’s triumph over Michigan State. The performance helped Reed join Zach Edey and Elvin Hayes as the only players in NCAA Tournament history to have at least 55 points and 45 rebounds entering the Elite Eight round.

Isaiah Evans, Duke

Slim Evans was once again a cold-blooded killer for the Blue Devils, hitting 10-of-15 shots, including 4-of-8 from three, on his way to a game-high 25 points.

Nate Ament, Tennessee

The freshman star lifted the Volunteers to their third straight regional final by notching 18 points, four rebounds, three assists, two blocks and one steal.

3 Best Friday dunks

1. Dame Sarr, Duke

2. Carson Cooper, Michigan State

3. Tarris Reed Jr., UConn

3 Best Friday images

1. Old school meets new school

2. End of the road

3. Rocky Top

3 Best Friday quotes

1. “This team was one of the most unique teams I’ve had in 52 years. Never one argument amongst the players - impossible, summer and regular season. Not one potential fight or somebody getting upset at somebody. I’ve never seen that in my 52 years. They were just the greatest kids in the world. They wanted to win so badly. They were willing to do anything to try and win. I’ll never have a team like this again with that type of attitude. I may have some good teams, but never, ever again with this type of attitude. Just incredible people and my heart breaks for them right now.” —St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino

2. “There’s no analytics, there’s no stats that can measure how big this dude’s heart is.” —Duke head coach Jon Scheyer on guard Caleb Foster playing through injury

3. “Trying to win a national championship. Plain and simple. I’m feeling good. We all talk about retirement. Why? What the hell am I going to do?”—Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo after being asked what he thinks he’ll be doing in five years

Full Elite Eight schedule

Let’s make some memories.

Saturday, March 28

South Region: No. 9 Iowa vs. No. 3 Illinois | 6:09 p.m. ET | TBS/truTV

West Region: No. 2 Purdue vs. No. 1 Arizona | (TBS/truTV) | 8:49 p.m. ET | TBS/truTV

Sunday, March 29

Midwest Region: No. 1 Michigan vs. No. 6 Tennessee | (CBS) | 2:15 p.m. ET

East Region: No. 1 Duke vs No. 2 UConn | (CBS) | 5:05 p.m. ET |