It usually happens that the games I’m looking forward to the most end up being the least interesting. And the games I’m not really looking forward to end up being the best games. Such was the case on Thursday night when a ‘meh’ game between Purdue and Texas turned into a terrific game won on a late second tip in by Trey Kaufman-Renn. It was the best of both worlds for me, as a Matas Volkietaitis hater, to know that Texas lost and I wouldn’t have to watch any more of the Longhorns. But still there
was an entertaining game that came out of it. I did enjoy the performances from Tramon Mark and Jordan Pope in their final games in college. It was a good way to go out.
I was sort of looking forward to Nebraska-Iowa if only for the oddness of the two teams in the Sweet 16.That game went about as you’d expect, a low possession affair where Iowa just found a way to win late, with the help of an egregious error by Nebraska only putting 4 players on the court down three and in need of a stop.
Then the two games I was really looking forward to ended up kind of being duds. I was hoping to watch Houston’s defense smother Illinois and the opposite happened. Houston couldn’t buy a basket, and Illinois just let them take a ton of middies and the wrong guys were taking a healthy amount of them. I call Illinois offense ‘Boring NBA from the 2000s’ where they take a lot of threes and just do a bunch of ball screens until they get the matchup they want. It’s dull. But they won! So credit to them, I guess.
Then it was Arkansas-Arizona. The game was fun, despite not being very close. Mostly because Arkansas played the kind of defense we saw in Fayetteville when Mizzou nearly upset them. Only Arizona is really good and put 109 on the board. Even for a hot offense that’s a lot of points.
On Friday it was the East and the Midwest. The Duke-St. John’s game lived up to the hype. It was super competitive and Duke found a way to beat the Johnnies. Michigan outlasted Alabama in a high scoring game. Then UConn jumped out big over Michigan State, and held on late. And Tennessee beat up Iowa State, who was still without top forward Joshua Jefferson.
Arizona, Michigan and Duke have been the best three teams all season long and all three have a chance to advance to the final four as favorites. Purdue was one of the preseason favorites, and UConn won just two years ago. So the only spoiler here, really, is in the South region. It should be a fun few days of hoops.
College Basketball Games to watch, March 28th and 29th, 2026
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