Sweet 16, Opening Day give Thursday a stacked schedule; major update on Joel Embiid's return

We rank the top 100 MLB players and make World Series predictions

By Zachary Pereles Mar 28, 2024 at 9:20 am ET• 7 min read

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🏀 Good morning to everyone but especially ...

THE MEN'S SWEET 16

After a chalky first two rounds, expect the NCAA Men's Tournament to dip its toe into the madness. The Sweet 16 begins tonight with four games:

• (6) Clemson vs. (2) Arizona, 7:09 p.m. on CBS
• (5) San Diego State vs. (1) UConn, 7:39 p.m. on TBS/truTV
• (4) Alabama vs. (1) North Carolina, 30 min. after Clemson-Arizona ends on CBS
• (3) Illinois vs. (2) Iowa State, 30 min. after San Diego State-UConn ends on TBS/truTV

I'm most excited for the day's finale. Illinois has the best offensive rating in the country. Iowa State has the best defensive rating in the country. I wrote about how the Illini -- and all of the Sweet 16 underdogs -- can pull off the upset.

• Pereles:"Keys for Illinois: Run ... and run back -- Illinois must run to attack the Cyclones' excellent defense before it can get set. The Cyclones don't allow a ton of transition opportunities, but the one-man transition that is Terrence Shannon Jr.can change that. His 7.6 transition points per game are most in Division I. ... Illinois, meanwhile, is simply awful in transition defense: 299th in transition points allowed. They allowed 20+ transition points in two of their three losses since the start of February."

The Illini and the Cyclones come in second in Kyle Boone's Sweet 16 game rankings, so he's excited for that one, too.