Duke is tied 42-42 with S. Carolina, 7 minutes to play. They rebound well.

ACC out

That's the wave of the future, for at least two reasons:

1) Money. The big schools will have more NIL to offer, over or under the table.

2) Competitiveness. Good players like to win, and winning means playing with other good players. Given a choice -- and now they have it -- players will gravitate to a program where they fit on the roster and are surrounded by top-shelf talent.

ClayK said:

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2) Competitiveness. Good players like to win, and winning means playing with other good players. Given a choice -- and now they have it -- players will gravitate to a program where they fit on the roster and are surrounded by top-shelf talent.

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This. If you are a player with options, you no longer have to be stuck on a rebuilding team on which you are the only remaining elite player, or a team whose coach used NIL to recruit players who will start ahead of you, or a team on which you clash with the coach or are out of favor with the coach.

TCU is playing in the elite 8 this evening. Their best player, Hailey Van Lith, is a fifth-year senior playing on her third college team. And she didn't get lured away from a small unknown college, either; her previous teams were Louisville and LSU.

stu said:

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Well, between the women and men seven #1 seeds and one #2 seed made the Final Four. And the #2 gets an asterisk because of JuJu's absence.

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Yes... though let's be honest, this isn't new for the women... Cinderella isn't big on the women's tournament...