2015 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight Sunday TV Schedule, Saturday results, Game Thread

Before we start:

Do not forget that the first men's Elite Eight game begins at 1:20pm CT. These are not night games today!

Yesterday:

The day started with the crowning of a national champion. For the second time in their history (the first being back in 1981), the Florida Southern Moccasins are Division II men's basketball champions. It wasn't pretty, but the Mocs did jump out to an early lead on Indiana of Pennsylvania and never looked back. The win marks the first time a team from the South Region (which currently comprises the Sunshine State, Golf South, and SIAC) has captured the D-II title since North Alabama did it way back in 1991.

After that... well, the basketball was a lot better, but the end result was nothing but horrible. For all the commentary on how Wisconsin basketball is actually watchable these days, they're still Wisconsin and there's no team with whom K-State has never shared a conference that is more repugnant in the eyes of EMAW Nation. The Badgers pulled away from Arizona early in the second half, and that was that.

And then there was that other game, in which there was simply no positive result to be had barring the sudden destruction of Cleveland due to orbital bombardment, alien invasion, or act of God. When otherwise normal people are actively rooting for Notre Dame, you know things have gone sideways. But the Irish made things very exciting indeed, taking the game into the locker room at halftime tied at 31 and holding as much as a six-point lead with only six minutes left to play. But a three-minute drought say Kentucky retake the lead before Jerian Grant sank a three with 2:36 to go to put the Irish back up 66-64.

The Irish never scored again. A Karl-Anthony Towns layup tied the game at 1:16, and with only six seconds left Demetrius Jackson fouled Andrew Harrison. Harrison drained two from the stripe, and Grant's three-point try with a second left didn't go, and that was that. Kentucky is 38-0, and next weekend we all have to watch them play Wisconsin.

Talk about your Catch-22s.

On the bright side, MURICA'S TEAM won last night. The New Jersey Institute of Technology Highlanders, the only team in the nation nobody wants in their conference, are now 21-11 and in the semifinals of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament after dispatching Canisius. The test now, however, will be to see whether they can win on the road. Their next task is on Tuesday at Northern Arizona.

Yesterday's results, with (as always) green linked recaps courtesy our friends around the SB Nation college network.

Today:

There are but two games involving men's teams today, and they're both in the afternoon. In the first, we get the bizarre respite of getting to watch two teams nobody actively hates (well, excluding people who have a raging hatred of Rick Pitino personally). Louisville is, generally speaking, a likable squad even if their coach is sometimes unpleasant. Michigan State, on the other hand, is a perfectly cromulent basketball program against which the only real complaint anyone might have is "they stole our recruit".

In the second, we have Gonzaga attempting to reach their first Final Four in history, and all they have to do is get past a school so reviled that ESPN's counter-programming against Kentucky-Notre Dame last night was the directly related I Hate Christian Laettner. Suffice it to say that anyone who's rooting for the Blue Devils tomorrow is probably a horrible human being with whom you should reconsider any association.

The thought occurs that if Gonzaga wins, the national semifinals will feature two teams we all righteously hate playing one another for the right to face a team that we're perfectly okay with. That's pretty swell, and it's what March Madness is all about, right?

Today's schedule, brief as it is:

Yesterday:

Really, they may as well cancel this thing after what UConn did to Texas. It was the most devastating victory ever in a Sweet Sixteen contest. It was a humiliation of incalculable magnitude. It was yet another example of why opposing coaches hate Geno Auriemma. Even leading by 40 in the second half, Connecticut was blithely lining up for open threes and bombing away; the only saving grace was that they were happy to just let the clock drain.

On the other hand, if everyone else had simply said to hell with it and crowned UConn on the spot, we wouldn't have had two other games yesterday which were legitimately worth watching no matter your opinion on women's hoops. Dayton displayed an incredible amount of straight-up ball skill yesterday. This is not the usual "they play good fundamental basketball" argument people make to try and convince you of the superiority of the women's game; indeed, Dayton isn't actually a "fundamentally good" basketball team.

But a pair of guards -- freshman Jenna Burdette and senior Kelley Austria -- showed a remarkable level of ball-handling and passing chops. Not to the level of a really talented men's team, and there were some truly terrible passing miscues on the part of their teammates (who made up for it by being bank-shot assassins in the paint), but it was still really beautiful basketball to watch. Burdette also held Louisville's star point Jude Schimmel scoreless until a few minutes into the second half, and that was a big part of the reason why the Flyers are moving on to their eventual Connecticut-inflicted doom in the Elite Eight.

Maryland took control of Duke in the first half, and basically just maintained. They move on to face Tennessee Monday, and it's a miracle that happened. Why?

With 6:34 to play, Gonzaga led the Vols by 17 points on what was basically their home turf. That's game over, right? Vol and-one. Another Vol and-one. Gonzaga jumper, but another and-one. A pair of Zag free throws, and then an 8-0 Tennessee run fueled by three Gonzaga turnovers. A Gonzaga score, finally, with 58 seconds to go, put the Bulldogs back in front briefly, but the front end of a one-and-one 16 seconds later tied the game. Only a blocked shot by Elle Tinkle with one second left even allowed Gonzaga to survive to overtime.

Although Gonzaga got the first bucket of the extra five, one Tennessee answered they never relinquished the lead again. A devastating and heartbreaking loss for the 11th-seeded Zags, leaving Dayton as the lone Cinderella (and obviously they're getting crushed on Tuesday).

Results:

Today:

It's Florida State and South Carolina, Baylor and Notre Dame for spots in the Final Four. The WNIT quarterfinals are also all today, with West Virginia hosting Villanova as the main item of interest for us. Lastly, the WBI championship game is tonight, but you can't watch it without paying to watch it, and that's no fun. The schedule: