Last Night in College Basketball: UConn Makes its March Madness Bid Official

Men’s college basketball, women’s college basketball – there’s no shortage of college ball, every night. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you figure out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in college basketball. UConn adjusted against Villanova, wins Big East title The last time that UConn took on Villanova, the Wildcats put a real scare in them. Villanova became the first — and remains the only — team to be leading the Huskies at halftime in the 2025-2026 season, and while UConn would eventually win by 14 points, 83-69, the game never felt quite as in hand as that margin of victory suggests. The two teams — undefeated, No. 1 UConn and a Villanova squad that received just about as many votes as formerly ranked Alabama and Fairfield in the same poll — faced off in the Big East tournament finals on Monday, as it was expected they would from the outset. Things were different this time around: UConn won handily, 90-51, and the game was never as close as that margin of victory implied, either. The Huskies won by 39 points despite sitting the first of its starters for good about halfway through the third quarter. The first wave of reserves came in to make sure that the lead stayed out of reach for Nova, and then the deeper reaches of the bench took over from there, same as they did against Georgetown and Creighton in the two previous routs UConn had in the tournament. Sophomore forward Sarah Strong, the Big East player of the year and defensive player of the year who also won tourney honors as the top player, scored 18 points on 7-for-11 shooting with 8 rebounds, an assist, 2 steals and a block in 22 minutes. Fifth-year guard Azzi Fudd had a game-high 19 points on 8-for-13 shooting in 27 minutes, and picked up 3 steals while playing her usual aggressive on-ball defense. The bench did so much of the heavy lifting here, playing 91 combined minutes, scoring 33 points with 18 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks. The largest lead of the night, 42, was still mostly in place by the final buzzer — this is a deep team that can wait until things are well in hand to deploy a 6-foot-5 rebounding machine like sophomore center Jana El Alfy, while letting another sophomore, guard Kaleigh Heckel, play the role of high-energy defensive wizard KK Arnold, with 6-foot sophomore guard and sharpshooter Allie Ziebell in place to take over as a source of offense, too. And it’s freshman forward Blanca Quinonez that allows the Huskies to sit the likes of Strong and senior forward Serah Williams both early on and late: Quinonez had 13 points on 5-for-10 shooting with 3 steals in 18 minutes off the bench. That depth, and the relentless pressure it can apply, is key to UConn’s attack. Strong, Fudd, Arnold, Williams and junior guard Ashlynn Shade know they can go all-out on defense on their shifts because this crew is waiting to spell them without giving up the lead that’s been built. That’s going to be huge in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, as well, against the league’s top competition in moments where the stars and starters need a breather or are in foul trouble. As for Villanova, its season is far from over — the Wildcats are 35th in Wins Above Bubble, comfortably in position to be granted an at-large bid unlike the rest of the Big East teams that it and UConn dispatched of this weekend. This is a tournament-caliber team that nearly snuck in the final pre-Selection Sunday poll, and while downing an elite like UConn or UCLA might not be on the table, the Wildcats are 25-7 and plenty dangerous to the teams that can’t slow down its 3-point attack or promising sophomore guard Jasmine Boscoe. James Madison wins Sun Belt upset With top seed Georgia Southern’s women already out, it was 4-seed JMU up against 2-seed Troy in the Sun Belt conference final. The two were even closer than that seeding implies, as a single win and loss separated them in the conference standings: Troy 15-3, James Madison 14-4. Thanks to senior guard Peyton McDaniel, that gap was closed: she scored 28 points to lead all scorers, giving James Madison a 69-52 win over the Trojans. It was far from just McDaniel’s performance that lifted the Dukes, however. James Madison held Troy to just 30% shooting from the field and an abysmal 1-for-12 from 3. Senior forward Fortuna Ngnawo was the only player to reach double-digit scoring for Troy, with 18 points, part of a double-double that included 12 rebounds. Another senior forward, Zay Dyer, had 11 boards, but put up just 6 points on 3-for-16 shooting. Troy, the only team in the country to average over 50 rebounds per game, was outrebounded here by the Dukes: Troy had 16 offensive rebounds, but couldn’t get enough second chances to catch up with James Madison. The win gives the Dukes the Sun Belt’s automatic bid for March Madness, and that’s the end of the season for Troy — the Trojans rank 70th in WAB, well off the pace for a potential at-large bid. Similarly, the Dukes would not have made it to the dance if not for the automatic bid, but they won the game they had to by playing defense and limiting Troy’s opportunities. A well-deserved dub. Troy beats Georgia Southern to earn March bid Troy’s men’s team had more luck in the other Sun Belt final, which Georgia Southern did make it to. The existence of this Sun Belt finals matchup was much more chaotic than the women’s — that was the 2-seed vs. the 4-seed, but also the two had more space between them in seeding than in their actual records. Here, Georgia Southern was just 8-10 in conference play in the regular season and made it to the final despite being the 10-seed, while Troy was the 1-seed, but just 12-6 in conference play. It was a wide-open tournament, and Georgia Southern took advantage of that until it could not do so any longer. The Eagles just didn’t have an answer to any of Troy’s offensive options. Junior forward Thomas Dowd led the way with 23 points on 8-for-12 shooting and 13 rebounds, but Georgia Southern couldn’t stop anyone on this team from making buckets. Troy shot 59% from the field as a team, and while the bench only provided so much relief, the starters were all hitting their shots and moving the ball around to create open looks — every starter had between 2 and 6 assists, and Troy scored 50 points in the paint to more than make up for what was a pretty standard night from deep. The Trojans, even more so than its counterparts on the women’s side, needed this conference championship in order to make their way to March Madness, as they rank 136th in WAB. And Troy pulled a favorable matchup, but they also were the top team in the Sun Belt in the regular season, and handled its previous tournament opponents just fine, too. Gonzaga men and women advance to WCC final Gonzaga’s men have made the 29th-straight West Coast Conference title game in a row, thanks to a 65-56 win over Oregon State in the semifinals. The Bulldogs limited the Beavers to just 34% shooting, and it’s a good thing that they did, too, as Gonzaga shot just 3-for-13 from 3-point range, while not forcing a significant number of turnovers or heading to the stripe overly much. The Bulldogs held Oregon State in check, though, contesting shots and avoiding fouling much themselves in the process, and for that they picked up yet another trip to the WCC championship game. It wasn’t just Gonzaga’s men that made it this far, either, as the women also advanced, and had an easier time of it, too. Gonzaga faced Santa Clara and never trailed at the end of any quarter — the Bulldogs were up just 17-15 through one, but then exploded for a 29-point second quarter while limiting the Broncos to 11 points. From there, it was a matter of just not giving that lead away, and Gonzaga not only accomplished that but kept adding on, leading to an 88-60 final. Santa Clara shot just 27%, and going 17-for-19 on free throws is the only reason the score was even as close as this. Gonzaga, conversely, shot 56% overall and 9-for-14 from 3. Freshman forward Lauren Whittaker just missed a double-double with 16 points on 5-for-9 shooting with 9 rebounds and 3 assists, while another freshman forward, Jaden Haile, actually did get the double-double: in 25 minutes off the bench, Haile had 12 points and 11 boards, while adding 3 assists and a steal and block each, too. Whittaker, by the way, set a new program record for rebounds in a season when she grabbed her 326th. The Bulldogs aren’t a lock for March Madness despite this dominance, unlike the men’s team that will surely earn an at-large bid even if it loses in the final to Santa Clara. Gonzaga is 63rd in the NCAA Evaluation Tool and 94th in WAB; it needs the automatic bid to punch a ticket to March, and for that to happen, the 2-seed Bulldogs have to defeat 4-seed Oregon State on Tuesday. Saint Mary’s upset by Santa Clara Yes, “even if it loses in the final to Santa Clara,” you read that correctly — Saint Mary’s, which began its day ranked No. 21 in the latest poll, was upset by Santa Clara in the other WCC semifinal game. Saint Mary’s was up at the half, albeit barely, and then Santa Clara exploded for a 44-point second half. The difference maker was guard Sash Gavalyogov, a freshman from Bulgaria who scored 23 points off the bench for the Broncos on 9-for-16 shooting with 6 assists — he also hit a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired when Santa Clara was up by just 2 points with 12 seconds left, and that ended up being the dagger. This marks the first time since 2021 that the WCC final will not be between Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s, but both are likely to be part of March Madness, given the latter is also well-regarded by NET and WAB and in no real danger of missing out. Santa Clara is closer to the bubble, ranked 40th in WAB with a score of 1.55 — it might even grab an at-large bid with a loss against Gonzaga, given how vital the W against Saint Mary’s was to its prospects. That was a single-day change of +0.77 to its WAB score that shot it up to 36th from 40th in the rankings. The WCC might have three teams in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament regardless of which of its remaining ones gets the auto bid. Fairfield gets past Quinnipiac The MAAC women’s tournament wrapped on Monday, featuring formerly ranked Fairfield against Quinnipiac, the one team that defeated it in conference play this season, and because of that, the conference’s top seed in this tournament. The Stags could not shake 3-seed Merrimack for the first three quarters of their semifinal matchup on Sunday until finally breaking away and winning 65-48, with the Warriors deploying the aggressive, physical defense that caused Fairfield to lose to Quinnipiac earlier in the year before that point. Meanwhile, the Bobcats just survived 4-seed Iona in overtime on Sunday, setting up the third matchup of the season between these two. [2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament: Automatic Bids Tracker] Defense was once again the highlight in this tournament final, with Fairfield eventually winning by the score of 51-44. The Stags shot just 38% and were limited to 15 3-point attempts — they average 31.3 attempts and 11.5 makes per game, the second-most and most in the country, respectively —  but scored 15 off of turnovers and edged out Quinnipiac in the paint, 24-20 while hitting 9 of 10 free throws. That was enough to make up for the uncharacteristic lack of the deep ball, thanks to Fairfield’s own defensive effort: the Bobcats shot just 33% and had a mere 4 3s of their own. While Quinnipiac needed the conference championship and the automatic bid to get into the tournament, Fairfield was at least on the bubble — a loss to Quinnipiac probably would have ended that, however, so for all intents and purposes, regardless of making the poll recently and nearly making it again this week, the auto bid was the Stags’ lone way in, too. Their ticket is punched, though, for the second year in a row, and now they can get away from teams that have abused them on the perimeter to limit them from 3 for the last week, to face someone less intimately familiar. Maine, Vermont to meet in America East final Because of the scheduling, it’s taking forever to get through the America East tournament: Maine’s women won on Thursday to advance to the semifinals against Binghamton, and that was not played until Monday. Vermont moved on to the semis on Friday, and did not play its semifinal matchup until Monday, either. Maine, the 2-seed, took on 3-seed Binghamton, which it went 1-1 against this year in the regular season, in both instances facing down significant fourth-quarter comebacks. Once again, the Bearcats bore down in the final frame, outsourcing Maine 22-16 and whittling away what had been an 11-point lead to a mere 3 points again and again throughout the quarter. The Black Bears kept responding, however, led by senior Adrianna Smith, who scored 8 of her 26 points in the quarter. The forward, a semifinalist for the 2026 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year award, had a double-double with 12 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals, bringing Maine to a 60-56 dub and a place in the America East title game. Smith is the only player in the country this year to average 20 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists per game, and also led the conference in all three categories — Maine isn’t here without her, in more ways than just yesterday. The Black Bears will face Vermont there, as the Catamounts survived a double-overtime matchup against UMBC. While Vermont was in control in the first half, heading into halftime up 32-23, the Catamounts managed just 18 points in the second while the Retrievers chipped away at the lead throughout. Junior forward Jade Tillman was the main problem for Vermont, as she scored 32 points on 10-for-21 shooting and sank 10 of 11 from the line while grabbing 10 rebounds. No one else for UMBC hit double-digit scoring; Tillman had just under half of its 65 points. Vermont’s offense returned in overtime, where it matched its entire second half output with 18 points in 10 minutes. Senior guard Jadyn Weltz had a big game, with 23 points, 2 rebounds and an assist, steal and block each, while senior center Nikola Priede dropped 22 on 10-for-16 shooting with 7 rebounds, an assist, a steal and 5 blocks — she scored her 1,000th career point in the game, as well. Sophomore guard Emma Haan scored “just” 9 points, but she was huge defensively, with a game-high 14 rebounds — 13 of them defensive boards — 4 steals and a block. Now, top-seed Vermont takes on Maine, in another situation where the winner of this game is the only one going to March Madness: neither is anywhere close to the bubble, and while they have the players to win a game in the tourney itself, they aren’t getting there without the automatic bid. And the winner of that won’t be determined until Friday night, when Maine travels to Vermont for the America East championship.