College basketball fans will shift their attention to the other side of the sweet 16-game NCAA Tournament bracket in the South and Midwest regions on Friday night. By the end of the night, the March crazy bracket, which began with 68 teams, would be reduced to 8.
No. 1 seed Auburn and Houston will face Big Ten Michigan and Purdue respectively. Houston will play the fourth seed Purdue in Indianapolis. Auburn will play No. 5 seed Michigan in SEC Country. The Tigers are looking for the third Elite 8 appearance in program history.
At SEC Action, Kentucky and Tennessee will meet for the third time this season. This week marked Mark, the second SEC team to play each other in the Sweet 16, the first since Alabama faced Kentucky in 1986.
NCAA Bracket 2025: Printable March Mudness Bracket, NCAA Tournament Prediction, Pick, Sweet 16 Score, Date
Matt Nolander
Start with the Battle of Atlanta’s Elite Centers and dive into the biggest storyline of the second day of Sweet 16.
Auburn and the big battle between Michigan
The guards will win the game in March, but Auburn’s Joani Bloom and Michigan’s Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin managed to determine the Elite Eight spot. Bloom is one of the frontlines for National Player of the Year, and Michigan is the only team in Division I basketball to start two seven-footers in the lineup. Wolf and Goldin finished the season with 15 double-doubles, the most tied in the Big Ten.
Despite losing three of the last four games before the NCAA Tournament, Auburn cruised throughout the regular season, earning the No. 1 seed in Sunday’s selection. Meanwhile, Michigan’s strength is winning games at crunch time. Wolverine won 12 games this season with under four points. This is the second most tied ever for participants in the NCAA Tournament.
Kentucky, Tennessee will hold its third meeting
The SEC doesn’t come as a surprise that one of the matchups will feature meeting enemies as seven teams set records in Sweet 16. Kentucky went 2-0 with Tennessee in the regular season. This includes a 75-64 victory at the Lap Arena last month. The Wildcats played the final nine minutes of that game without outstanding defender Lamont Butler, who reorganized a shoulder injury. Butler has worn heavy shoulder wraps throughout the NCAA tournament.
Tennessee is aiming for eight consecutive elite appearances after one appearance in the program’s history. First year manager Mark Pope will be serving as his alma mater on the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.
The Midwest region includes No. 1 seed Houston, No. 2 seed Tennessee, No. 3 seed Kentucky and No. 4 seed Purdue, just the second in the last five NCAA tournaments with all the top four seeds of the Suite 16.
Purdue’s “Home Game” against Houston
First seed Houston is playing a de facto road game against No. 5 seed Purdue. Indianapolis is 65 miles from Purdue’s campus in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the Houston campus is about 1,000 miles away.
This is not the first time Houston coach Kelvin Sampson has faced this scenario. In 2023, Houston defeated 9th Seed Auburn in Birmingham, Alabama. When Sampson coached in Oklahoma in 2003, his team lost to third seed Syracuse in the elite 8 Albany.
Houston’s season ended against the second seed Duke in this round last year, when Cougars guard Jamal Seed was injured in the second half and never returned. They are aiming to make their second Final Four appearance this century. Purdue is seeking a return to the final weekend of the NCAA Tournament after losing to No. 4 Seed UConn in last year’s national title game.
Check out the full TV and streaming schedule of Thursday’s sweet 16 games below.
