KHSAA commissioner Julian Tackett attributes the decline to the Sweet 16 being held too close to spring break.

The Wildcats shot a blistering 12-of-24 from three-point range in both of those earlier meetings, coming away with a 78-73 win on Jan. 28 and a 75-64 victory on Feb. 11 to hand the Volunteers two of their seven losses.

The Sweet 16 begins tonight as the men’s NCAA college basketball tournament enters its second week. • Four games on tap: The action gets started at 7:09 p.m. ET when Alabama faces BYU. The other games are Florida-Maryland at 7:39 p.

Villanova fired Kyle Neptune, and the Wildcats waited quite some time while the rest of the coaching market swirled. Villanova ended the year with a 19-14 overall record; the Wildcats have missed the NCAA Tournament three straight years.

Half of the NCAA men's tournament Elite Eight will be determined Thursday night in East and West Region action. A breakdown of the Sweet 16 matchups.

Ole Miss vs Michigan State, Kentucky vs Tennessee, Michigan vs Auburn, Purdue vs Houston Sweet 16 NCAA Tournament game predictions, picks today.

In the second round, Michigan State had the benefit of facing No. 10 seed New Mexico, a team which had never advanced to the Sweet 16 since the field expanded to 64 teams. The drought continued for the Lobos as Sparty picked up a 71-63 win as 6.5-point favorites.

A season steeped with promise ended in early heartbreak for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who suffered a 71-62 upset loss to TCU on Saturday in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

Milos Uzan led all scorers with 22 points on 8-of-17 shooting, none bigger than his last-second layup to win the game. He added six assists and three rebounds and was 6-of-9 from three-point range. Emmanuel Sharp added 17 for Houston.