Kerry Miller@@kerrancejamesIncluded Columnist IVMarch 29, 2024Men’s NCAA Tournament 2024: Thursday’s Sweet 16 Winners and Losers
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Connecticut’s Stephon CastleMichael Reaves/Getty Images
The start of the Sweet 16 wasn’t so sweet for groups west of Texas.
Possibly on Friday night, Gonzaga can restore things a bit for the Mountain and Pacific time zones, however Thursday was rough for Arizona and San Diego State.
Gone are the imagine the Wildcats having home-state benefit in the Final Four after getting suddenly ousted by Clemson. And sayonara to SDSU’s mission to make it back to the Final Four for a 2nd straight year after the Aztecs were drilled by ruling champ Connecticut.
In the latter video games, Alabama stunned No. 1 North Carolina and Illinois clipped Iowa State in a set of gems that came right down to the wire.
Keep reading for the complete list of winners and losers from Thursday night’s action.
Winner: Clemson into Elite Eight for Second Time in Program History
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Clemson’s Chase HunterBen Solomon/NCAA Photos by means of Getty Images
For the majority of the previous 3 months, there was absolutely nothing elite about Clemson.
In what was related to by many as a down year for the ACC, the Tigers went into the NCAA competition having actually lost 10 of their last 20 video games. There was a magnificent remarkable roadway win over North Carolina in the middle of that run, however there were likewise 6 losses to groups who did not make the Dance, numerous of them in blowout style, consisting of the 21-point loss to Boston College in the ACC competition.
They looked primed for an instant loss to New Mexico.
After blowing by the Lobos, the expectation was that the Tigers would lose to Baylor.
And in spite of those 2 remarkable success, they weren’t offered much of a possibility Thursday night versus Arizona in Los Angeles.
Clemson pulled off yet another upset and is headed to the Elite Eight for the very first time because 1980 and simply the 2nd time in program history.
It was a Hunter and a “Chef” blazing a trail for the starving Tigers.
Chase Hunter was the leading scorer, choosing 18 points, 7 rebounds and 5 helps. Among those helps began a perfectly drawn-up inbounds pass to a cutting PJ Hall for a dunk to put Clemson up by 5 with a little over a minute staying in guideline. And 3 of the points began an and-one drive on the subsequent ownership to basically ice the video game.
The chef’s hats in the stands were there for glue guy extraordinaire Ian Schieffelin, who did his normal stat-sheet-stuffing thing, ending up with 14 points, 7 rebounds, 3 helps, 2 takes and a block.
It was when he banked in a 3 from the top of the crucial midway through the 2nd half that it truly began to seem like Clemson was going to win the video game.