The 2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament continues Thursday with the Sweet 16!
The first team to punch their ticket to the Elite Eight was No. 3 Kansas State, as it outlasted No. 7 Michigan State in overtime, while 8-seed Arkansas is currently taking on 4-seed UConn.
Closing things out, No. 9 Florida Atlantic battles No. 4 Tennessee at 9 p.m. ET, and 3-seed Gonzaga will go up against No. 2 UCLA at 9:45 p.m. ET.
Follow along with the most up-to-date bracket here.
Here are the highlights!
FINAL: No. 3 Kansas State 98, No. 7 Michigan State 93
Oop it up!
Kansas State won the opening tip and Markquis Nowell quickly turned it into two points by lobbing a pass to Keyontae Johnson for the alley-oop slam.
Moments later, Mady Sissoko was on the receiving end of an alley-oop to help Michigan State score its first points of the game.
Trading buckets
Both were making shots with ease early on. Joey Hauser and Jaden Akins did much of the scoring for Sparty in the first 10 minutes, while Johnson and David N’Guessan scored their fair share of points for the Wildcats.
No one stopping Nowell
Nowell was dropping dimes all over the place in the first half, recording 10 assists in the first 20 minutes to give Kansas State a 43-38 lead going into the halftime break.
Dizziness
With the shot clock winding down, Nowell gathered the loose ball and heaved up a 3-pointer while falling to his right; he banked it in.
3s and 3s
Akins, Tyson Walker and Hauser are draining the long ball for Michigan State in the second half.
Nowell the maestro
Nowell is a walking highlight reel. His latest dimes went to Cam Carter and Johnson in the paint.
He drained it
Ismael Massoud hit this 3-pointer from Queens.
The Kansas State forward’s 3-ball gave the Wildcats a 5-point lead in what has been a back-and-forth second half.
WE’RE GOING TO OT
With five seconds remaining in the second half, Walker attacked the rack and got the layup to go off the glass for Michigan State, forcing overtime.
MSU back in front
Walker gave Michigan State its first lead of overtime with yet another 3-ball.
It’s just absurd
Nowell racked up his 18th assist of the game and third of overtime when he threw an alley-oop from just beyond midcourt to Johnson, who executed the reverse slam. The sensational alley-oop gave the Wildcats a 2-point lead with 56.2 seconds remaining in overtime.
K-State gets the stop
Down three in the closing seconds, Michigan State was unable to get off a shot to tie the game, as Kansas State played swarming defense. Nowell eventually stole the ball and ran out the clock for the Wildcats.
No. 8 Arkansas vs. No. 4 UConn
Setting the tone
UConn scored the first four points of the game before Arkansas’ Anthony Black pulled off a physical and-1 off the dribble. Later, Nick Smith also pulled off a physical and-1 for the Razorbacks.
Oooh the passing
Directly after forcing a turnover, the Huskies put on a passing clinic. Alex Karaban began the fastbreak with a line-drive pass down the court to Andre Jackson, who then lobbed the alley-oop to Donovan Clingan.
HUGE UConn run
The Huskies went on a 14-0 run late in the first half to go up 34-17. Adama Sanogo capped off the run for UConn by getting an inside bucket, forcing Arkansas to call timeout.
The Huskies led 46-29 at halftime.
All Huskies
UConn picked up where it left off after the break, building a lead that grew to as much as 29 points. After Arkansas cut the lead to 19, Jordan Hawkins hit a pair of 3-pointers, one of them shown below, to get UConn’s lead back up to 25.
Stay tuned for updates!
COMING UP:
No. 9 Florida Atlantic vs. No. 4 Tennessee (9 p.m. ET, TBS)
Florida Atlantic Owls
FAU
+5.0
+160
o131.5
Tennessee Volunteers
TENN
-5.0
-227
u131.5
No. 3 Gonzaga vs. No. 2 UCLA (9:45 p.m. ET, CBS)
Gonzaga Bulldogs
GONZ
+2.0
-110
o145.5
UCLA Bruins
UCLA
-2.0
-125
u145.5
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