Vanderbilt\u2019s seventh-ranked scoring offense is more than just Blakes; she has four teammates averaging double figures this season as well.<\/p>\n
Whichever team can cause havoc on defense and contain the other team\u2019s supporting cast could be the difference.<\/p>\n
Predictions:<\/p>\n
Jennings: Vanderbilt
Merchant: Vanderbilt
Raynor: Vanderbilt
Teague Robinson: Notre Dame<\/p>\n
No. 1 UConn vs. No. 4 North Carolina, 5 p.m. Friday, ESPN<\/p>\n
The Huskies are coming off a dominant second-round win over Syracuse in which they mounted a 53-point halftime lead (the second-largest halftime lead in NCAA Tournament history) before reeling in the defensive pressure and scoring evenly with the Orange in the second half. The Tar Heels played Syracuse once this season, beating the Orange by six in overtime in late January.<\/p>\n
As it has throughout its undefeated season, UConn used a bevy of weapons in its rout of Syracuse, but UNC\u2019s defense is no joke. The Tar Heels are the best scoring defense the Huskies have faced this season, based on points per possession, and they\u2019ve held opponents to 37 percent from the floor and 28 percent from beyond the arc. North Carolina hasn\u2019t been tested by an offense as strong as UConn\u2019s, nor has it seen a player as talented as Sarah Strong or a shooter as elite as Azzi Fudd. Sophomores Lanie Grant and Elina Aarnisalo showed up big in the Tar Heels\u2019 win over Maryland, but they need to bring even more if they \u2014 and the rest of UNC \u2014 want to fare well against the top team in this tournament.<\/p>\n
Predictions:<\/p>\n
Jennings: UConn
Merchant: UConn
Raynor: UConn
Teague Robinson: UConn<\/p>\n
Sacramento 2 RegionNo. 1 UCLA vs. No. 4 Minnesota, 7:30 p.m. Friday, ESPN<\/p>\n
Only three teams remain from what most metrics regarded as the deepest conference in the country this season, but at least one is guaranteed to get through to the Elite Eight when Big Ten foes UCLA and Minnesota face. The Bruins are rolling, winners of 27 in a row, including an 18-point victory at The Barn in January, the teams\u2019 lone regular-season meeting. The Golden Gophers are also riding their own wave of momentum, coming off Amaya Battle\u2019s buzzer-beating game-winner<\/a> in the second round to secure their first Sweet 16 berth since 2005.<\/p>\n UCLA has the country\u2019s best offensive rating, and everything runs through Lauren Betts. If Sophie Hart can handle Betts in single coverage, that will give the rest of Minnesota\u2019s perimeter players \u2014 who have some size \u2014 a chance against the Bruins\u2019 guards. But rather than attempt to stop UCLA, the best course of action might be to try to score with them. The Gophers have an outstanding offense, if not as elite as the Bruins, and create challenges for defenses in the half court. UCLA already had some difficulty containing Oklahoma State\u2019s movement, giving Minnesota a template to work with.<\/p>\n The Golden Gophers are new to this stage and fed off the energy of the home crowd in their first two wins. It will be interesting how they respond against a veteran, battle-tested opponent that has been to the Sweet 16 each of the last three seasons.<\/p>\n Predictions:<\/p>\n Jennings: UCLA \n LSU and Duke are familiar opponents, bringing high intensity to this Sweet 16 meeting.<\/p>\n No. 3 Duke vs. No. 2 LSU, 10 p.m. Friday, ESPN<\/p>\n A second consecutive rematch is on the docket, as the Blue Devils and Tigers reprise December\u2019s ACC-SEC Challenge meeting, which LSU won handily despite trailing 14-1 to start. However, Duke switched its starting lineup the next time out, replacing Jadyn Donovan with Riley Nelson, and reeled off 17 wins in a row. As Baylor learned in its 23-point second-round loss, these aren\u2019t your early-season Blue Devils.<\/p>\n Still, Duke is the lower seed for a reason. The Tigers bring more depth into this Sweet 16 matchup, as well as a faster pace, a more potent offense and better rebounding on both ends. They also have the experience of having been to the Elite Eight each of the past two seasons, and Flau\u2019jae Johnson and MiLaysia Fulwiley both won titles as freshmen. Plus, Kim Mulkey is one of three coaches remaining in the tournament, along with Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley, who have won a championship.<\/p>\n The Blue Devils\u2019 main advantage comes in the clutch. Duke has been excellent in close games, with a net rating of plus-12.4 in crunch time, per CBB Analytics. LSU, meanwhile, has been a bit of a train wreck in clutch situations, getting outscored by 21.3 points per 100 possessions. If the Blue Devils can keep the game close, they\u2019ve been the better team down the stretch.<\/p>\n Predictions:<\/p>\n Merchant: LSU Sacramento 4 RegionNo. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 4 Oklahoma, 5 p.m. Saturday, ESPN<\/p>\n South Carolina has lost three games all season. It lost twice to Texas and once to Oklahoma, so it is getting its shot to avenge January\u2019s 94-82 overtime loss to the Sooners. In that game, South Carolina struggled mightily, shooting just 37 percent and 23.8 percent from deep.<\/p>\n South Carolina will hope for a better shooting day, especially from second-leading scorer Ta\u2019Niya Latson, who had just six points in the first game. The lights weren\u2019t too bright for standout freshman Aaliyah Chavez then, as she scored 26 points to go with her eight assists. South Carolina must have an answer for Chavez as well as standout forward Raegen Beers.<\/p>\n The star power will be heavy in this game with the Oklahoma duo, along with South Carolina\u2019s Tessa Johnson, Raven Johnson, Joyce Edwards and many more.<\/p>\n Can South Carolina achieve revenge against a non-Texas opponent?<\/p>\n Predictions:<\/p>\n Jennings: South Carolina No. 3 TCU vs. No. 10 Virginia, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, ESPN<\/p>\n What a fun matchup coming down the pipeline in Sacramento. The 10th-seeded Cavaliers<\/a> have gone from needing a play-in game to get into Round 1 to punching their ticket to the Sweet 16 in less than a week\u2019s time. After beating No. 2 seed Iowa at Iowa in double overtime (after knocking off Georgia in overtime), they\u2019ve shown a level of resilience that can continue to serve them well.<\/p>\n The Cavaliers\u2019 biggest strength is junior guard Kymora Johnson, the Charlottesville native who is averaging 19.5 points per game. But TCU has star guard Olivia Miles, who automatically puts quite the strain on UVA\u2019s defense. The Horned Frogs have the better defense; Virginia has the better rebounders. This one could come down to who takes over more between Johnson and Miles.<\/p>\n Predictions:<\/p>\n Jennings: TCU Fort Worth 3 RegionNo. 1 Texas vs. No. 5 Kentucky, 3 p.m. Saturday, ABC<\/p>\n These two teams met in early February with the Longhorns\u2019 defense doing Longhorns\u2019 defense things \u2014 forcing 23 turnovers and tallying 11 steals as point guard Tonie Morgan and forward Teonni Key turned the ball over six times apiece. Since then, Texas\u2019 defense has only locked in more (that UK meeting was one game before Texas\u2019 loss to Vanderbilt, which ultimately galvanized the Longhorns). That has come with devastating consequences for all Texas opponents \u2014 since that loss, Texas\u2019 defense has held opponents to 57 points per game.<\/p>\n Even in that loss, Kentucky showed that despite ball control issues, it could still dig deep and put up a fight against the Longhorns. After trailing by 14 midway through the third quarter, Kentucky cut Texas\u2019 lead to one point with just more than six minutes to go in the game. Plus, the Wildcats faced West Virginia \u2014 nicknamed \u201cStress Virginia\u201d for its full court defensive pressure \u2014 in the second round, and beat the Mountaineers on their home court and turned over the ball 17 times. If there were any kind of a possible tuneup for facing defensive pressure like Texas again, West Virginia could be it.<\/p>\n Predictions:<\/p>\n Jennings: Texas \n Michigan\u2019s guards will have to withstand Louisville\u2019s proven defense to advance. (Jaime Crawford \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n No. 2 Michigan vs. No. 3 Louisville, 12:30 p.m. Saturday, ABC<\/p>\n Michigan has the better offense, but Louisville has the better defense. The Wolverines have arguably the best player on the floor in Olivia Olson but are making just their third Sweet 16 appearance in school history, while Louisville\u2019s Jeff Walz is making his 13th with the Cardinals. It will be up to Louisville to limit an explosive Michigan offense<\/a> that scored 83 points against Holy Cross in the first round and 92 points against NC State in the second round. It will be the job of the Wolverines to limit Louisville, which enters the Sweet 16 confident after holding off Alabama on Monday.<\/p>\n Predictions:<\/p>\n Jennings: Michigan
Raynor: UCLA
Merchant: UCLA
Teague Robinson: UCLA<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2251299338-scaled-e1774330246424.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Raynor: LSU
Jennings: LSU
Teague Robinson: Duke<\/p>\n
Merchant: South Carolina
Raynor: South Carolina
Teague Robinson: South Carolina<\/p>\n
Merchant: Virginia
Raynor: TCU
Teague Robinson: TCU<\/p>\n
Merchant: Texas
Raynor: Texas
Teague Robinson: Texas<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2268067288-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Merchant: Louisville
Raynor: Louisville
Teague Robinson: Louisville<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is the Sweet 16 what we expected? In many ways, yes. All four No. 1 seeds and three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[8922,7091,399,3349,8938,164248,1777,13423,398,396,397,7027,1778,6344,1782,99,7559,5690,17392,17358,1773,2664],"class_list":["post-542344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-connecticut-huskies","tag-duke-blue-devils","tag-football","tag-kentucky-wildcats","tag-louisville-cardinals","tag-lsu-lady-tigers","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-minnesota-golden-gophers","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-north-carolina-tar-heels","tag-notre-dame-fighting-irish","tag-oklahoma-sooners","tag-south-carolina-gamecocks","tag-sports","tag-tcu-horned-frogs","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-ucla-bruins","tag-vanderbilt-commodores","tag-virginia-cavaliers","tag-womens-college-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}