The 2026 NCAA Basketball Tournament resumes this Friday, March 27 with the Sweet 16, and for many, this is when the competition really gets good. Aside from a couple of lower-seeded teams that may still be dancing, the Sweet 16 typically pits higher seeds against one another, meaning there will be no shortage of must-see matchups.
In anticipation of the action, let’s run through a few of those matchups, highlighting players to watch, team strengths and weaknesses, and other storylines to follow.
Will Mikayla Blakes or Hannah Hidalgo lead her team to Sweet 16 victory?
Vanderbilt’s
Mikayla Blakes has racked up 1,661 points during her collegiate career—the fourth-most all-time by any Division I player during their first two seasons—and she’s hungry for more. Blakes, who led the country in scoring this season at 27 points per game, has demolished her NCAA Tournament competition thus far, dropping a total of 55 points against High Point and Illinois.
On Friday, Blakes will face her toughest assignment yet in Hannah Hidalgo.
Hidalgo powered the No. 6-seed Notre Dame Fighting Irish over the No. 3-seed Ohio State Buckeyes with a hefty stat line—23 points, 13 rebounds and eight steals—and the Irish will once again be depending on her against the higher-seeded Commodores. Hidalgo is perhaps the nation’s peskiest perimeter defender, and she’s undoubtedly its most prolific thief: She leads Division I in steals per game by a country mile at 5.6, and she plays a huge role in igniting Notre Dame’s transition offense with her defensive playmaking.
Needless to say, both Blakes and Hidalgo are incredibly important to their respective teams, and much of Friday’s game between Vanderbilt and Notre Dame will be decided by which star guard wins the individual matchup.
Who will have the upper hand: Blakes or Hidalgo? Or, will someone from the Commodore or Irish supporting cast step up on the Sweet 16 stage?
Can Duke’s defense slow down LSU’s offense?
Not many teams in the NCAA Tournament are defending better than the Duke Blue Devils. The No. 3-seed in the Sacramento 2 Region is coming off an impressive second-round win over No. 6-seed Baylor in which they held the Bears to a season-low 46 points and just 30 percent shooting from the field.
The No. 2-seed LSU Tigers, however, are several cuts above the teams Duke has played thus far, especially offensively.
LSU has scored over 100 points in each of its first two NCAA Tournament games, blowing out No. 15-seed Jacksonville and No. 7-seed Texas Tech. With an explosive trio of scoring guards that includes Flau’Jae Johnson, Mikaylah Williams and MiLaysia Fulwiley, the Tigers have plenty of scoring options, and when all three of them are locked in at the same time, it’s a scary sight for opponents.
While Duke is perfectly capable of putting up points themselves, they probably don’t want to get into an up-and-down type of game against LSU.
According to Her Hoop Stats, the Tigers rank No. 6 in the country in pace, averaging 78.7 possessions per 40 minutes. They’re also leading Division I in offensive rebounding rate at 47.1 percent, so Duke’s All-American forward Toby Fournier and the rest of the Blue Devils frontcourt will have their hands full.
Can Duke find a way to neutralize LSU’s firepower, or will the Tigers romp to yet another Elite Eight?
Which No. 1 seed will look the strongest: UConn or UCLA?
The two most-favored teams to win it all (according to ESPN’s annual bracket challenge, anyway) will be in action on Friday: the UConn Huskies and the UCLA Bruins.
Both No. 1-seeds in their respective regions, the Huskies and the Bruins have had smooth sailing thus far. UConn, in particular, is coming off a dominant 53-point win over No. 9-seed Syracuse in which star senior Azzi Fudd outscored the Orange by herself through three quarters.
The Bruins, too, have been as good as advertised.
Led by the highly efficient play of center Lauren Betts, UCLA made short work of their first-round opponents, the No. 16-seed Cal Baptist Lancers, and then cruised past the No. 8-seed Oklahoma State Cowgirls. Betts has played some of her best basketball in past NCAA Tournaments, and this year’s tournament has been no different: She’s scored 57 points on 70.5 percent shooting from the field in two games.
Needless to say, UConn and UCLA will be expected to win their Sweet Sixteen matchups against the No. 4-seed North Carolina Tar Heels and the No. 4-seed Minnesota Golden Gophers, respectively.
In fact, it seems to many fans and experts alike that the Huskies and Bruins are on a collision course for the NCAA championship game. Since that’s a title matchup that so many people are expecting, which team has impressed you more so far, and which will play better on Friday?
