{"id":209979,"date":"2026-03-18T16:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/209979\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T16:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:08:09","slug":"north-carolinas-wilson-texas-techs-toppin-among-the-missing-stars-in-the-ncaa-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/209979\/","title":{"rendered":"North Carolina’s Wilson, Texas Tech’s Toppin among the missing stars in the NCAA Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top-ranked Duke<\/a> earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament behind star freshman Cameron Boozer<\/a> and an overpowering inside game.<\/p>\n

But as the Blue Devils embark on what they hope will be a deep March Madness run, coach Jon Scheyer is having to make some adjustments with two key players dealing with injuries.<\/p>\n

Point guard Caleb Foster<\/a> suffered a broken right foot in the regular-season finale against No. 21 North Carolina<\/a> and likely will be out until the Final Four, should the Blue Devils get that far.<\/p>\n

The news on big man Patrick Ngongba II<\/a> is a little better. He missed the ACC tournament with a foot injury, but could be ready to play in Thursday’s opener against No. 16 seed Siena.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell you he\u2019s improving,\u201d Scheyer said. “I feel very positive about it, but I can\u2019t say what that means as far as later in the week in terms of timing or readiness, because we have to take it step by step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duke isn’t the only team dealing with injuries.<\/p>\n

Several teams, some with high seeds, will have to navigate March Madness without key players.<\/p>\n

Toppin was one of the nation’s best big men this season, earning first-team All-America honors from The Associated Press after being a second-teamer last year.<\/p>\n

Toppin’s torn ACL suffered against Arizona State on Feb. 17 leaves a hole in the No. 20 Red Raiders’ lineup.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-9 junior averaged 21.8 points on 55% shooting from the floor and 10.8 rebounds while leading Texas Tech with 43 blocked shots. The Red Raiders went 3-3 without him, falling to a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n

Texas Tech faces No. 12 seed Akron on Friday in Tampa, Florida, in its opener.<\/p>\n

The 6-10 forward was one of the nation’s best freshman the first part of the season, leading the Tar Heels with 19.8 points and 9.4 rebounds while shooting 58% from the floor.<\/p>\n

Injuries derailed his season.<\/p>\n

Wilson first broke his left hand and was close to returning when he broke his right thumb in a noncontact drill in practice. He had season-ending surgery in early March.<\/p>\n

Wilson still was a second-team AP All-American, but his loss will leave North Carolina with a big hole as March continues.<\/p>\n

The No. 6 seed Tar Heels play No. 11 VCU<\/a> on Thursday in Greenville, South Carolina.<\/p>\n

Freshman AJ Dybantsa led the nation in scoring and the sharp-shooting Saunders kept opposing defenses from paying too much attention to him by hitting a team-leading 64 3-pointers.<\/p>\n

Saunders’ season came to an end when he tore his ACL against Colorado on Feb. 14 and the Cougars lost three of their next four games.<\/p>\n

The 6-5 senior was BYU’s third-leading scorer at 18 points on 48.9% shooting in 25 games. BYU went 4-5 without him and plays No. 11 seed Texas in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday in Portland, Oregon.<\/p>\n

Cason was the primary backup to point guard Elliot Cadeau<\/a> before suffering a torn right ACL against Illinois on Feb. 27.<\/p>\n

The 6-2 sophomore guard averaged 8.4 points in 18.5 minutes per game and was the Wolverines’ best 3-point shooter at 40%. <\/p>\n

Michigan still reached the Big 10 Tournament title game and is the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region. The Wolverines face Howard on Thursday in Buffalo.<\/p>\n

Braden Huff, Gonzaga<\/p>\n

The left-hander had been a tough matchup for opposing teams before needing surgery for a torn meniscus in mid-January.<\/p>\n

Huff has started jogging and shooting, but coach Mark Few was not optimistic about him being able to play the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n

A 6-10 junior, Huff was Gonzaga’s second-leading scorer at 17.8 points per game on 66% shooting and averaged 5.6 rebounds. The Zags have advanced past the NCAA Tournament’s first weekend nine times since 2014, but will likely have to do it without Huff this time.<\/p>\n

Gonzaga is the No. 3 seed in the West Region and opens against No. 14 Kennesaw State on Thursday in Portland, Oregon.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP March Madness bracket: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/march-madness<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top-ranked Duke earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament behind star freshman Cameron Boozer and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[794,44562,26072,14864,2692,4857,14856,82294,795,9819,25233,53325,27,29,28,415],"class_list":["post-209979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-byu-cougars","tag-caleb-foster","tag-caleb-wilson","tag-cameron-boozer","tag-college-basketball","tag-duke-blue-devils","tag-elliot-cadeau","tag-l-j-cason","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-north-carolina-tar-heels","tag-patrick-ngongba-ii","tag-richie-saunders","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-tech-red-raiders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}