The opening weekend of the 2025 NCAA Tournament is in the rearview mirror, but each remaining team saw one major development help them reach the Sweet 16.
It wasn’t the most exciting of opening weekends at the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
Close games were seemingly few and far between. Upsets were limited, there was only one buzzer-beater, and none of the games went to overtime. On one hand, the remaining field lacks a true Cinderella with the only double-digit seed being John Calipari’s No. 10 seed Arkansas. The field is also already down to three conferences (plus Duke) vying for the title, and the SEC’s seven teams is a Sweet 16 record.
But perhaps the “March moments” are just delayed to the second weekend and beyond. There are some tremendous matchups lined up for the second weekend, and each team has its sights set on San Antonio. While just a two-game sample size is not nearly enough for a full evaluation, each program rode at least one positive trend from the first two rounds into the Sweet 16.
Could those trends continue into the second weekend and become full-on X-factors? Perhaps.
Let’s dive in.
More Heat Check CBB:
- Florida: Walter Clayton emerges as March hero
- Sunday dramatics set up heavyweight Sweet 16
- Arkansas plays spoiler, unseats St. John’s
South Region: No. 1 Auburn vs. No. 5 Michigan
Tahaad Pettiford sets program record for Tigers
Auburn’s Tahaad Pettiford entered the NCAA Tournament on a minor cold spell. Despite typically rising to the occasion in Auburn’s toughest games this season, the star freshman scored just five combined points on 2-for-14 shooting in two games at the SEC Tournament. With 39 total points on 12-for-23 shooting over the opening weekend of the Big Dance, though, Pettiford put those performances in the rearview mirror — in record-breaking fashion. Those are the most points ever scored by an Auburn freshman in the opening weekend of an NCAA Tournament.
With more challenging games awaiting the Tigers in the Sweet 16 and possibly beyond, Pettiford’s ability to step up in big games is worth noting. In 18 games against the KenPom top 35, the talented youngster has averaged 13.3 points on 51.1% shooting inside the arc and 39.4% from three; against lower-rated opponents, those numbers dip to 9.6 points, 43.1% on twos and 36.3% on threes. An impressive shooter with one of the best floaters in the sport, the Tigers go to another level when he is on his game.
Wolverines’ bench production making the difference
Michigan is not in the Sweet 16 without superb performances from a pair of reserves against Texas A&M.
Roddy Gayle Jr. was the highlight, dropping a career-high 26 points — including 21 after halftime — on 4-for-6 shooting from beyond the arc. As head coach Dusty May pointed out after the game, though, the difference was their other reserve: “We subbed in L.J. Cason, and he broke the defense down, got downhill, got in the paint,” May said. Cason scored 11 points and dished three assists in 20 minutes.
Gayle and Cason entered the NCAA Tournament averaging 8.9 combined points over Michigan’s last seven games. They netted 54 combined points in last week’s wins over UC San Diego and Texas A&M.
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