Beware the 12 seed: Michigan, Memphis among the No. 5 seeds trying to avoid NCAA Tournament curse

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Beware the 12 seed: Michigan, Memphis among the No. 5 seeds trying to avoid NCAA Tournament curse

2025-03-17 08:55 Last Updated At：09:01

UC San Diego coach Eric Olen knew that his team would be good this season.

This good? Maybe not quite.

The Tritons were playing Division II ball just five years ago, when the pandemic shut down its tournament and may have kept his team from winning a national championship. The school began the transition to Division I the following year, and in its first season of NCAA Tournament eligibility, the Tritons punched their ticket by winning the Big West Tournament title.

All of that is reason for rapture in Southern California. And reason for worry in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The Tritons were rewarded with the No. 12 seed in the South Region, where they will face Big Ten Tournament champion Michigan in one of those testy 5-12 matchups that always seem to bust some brackets early.

“It's been a pretty special season, you know?" said Olen, who took over UC San Diego in 2013, when it was a mediocre DII program. “These guys deserve all the recognition that has come their way. I knew we'd have a good team. I knew we'd be good. But his has been, you know, beyond my expectations of what was possible, to be in this situation, to play at this level for so long this season."

The Tritons have won 15 consecutive games, so they will be taking plenty of momentum into their matchup with Michigan on Thursday in Denver. And lest anyone think they will be intimidated, remember this: They took No. 11 seed San Diego State down to the wire in one of their only four losses this season,

“Teams don't just win 30 games by accident,” said UC San Diego guard Hayden Gray, a finalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Award. “We're going to go out there with confidence. See if they can stop us.”

It'll be a tall task for the Tritons, literally and figuratively. Michigan will have a huge size advantage in 7-foot-1 center Vladislav Goldin and 7-foot big man Danny Wolf, and coach Dusty May's team is just as hot as UC San Diego. It toppled three straight Top 25 teams in Purdue, Maryland and Wisconsin to cut down the nets at the Big Ten Tournament.

Still, there have been 55 times in which the No. 12 seed triumphed since the NCAA Tournament field expanded in 1985, including twice last year, when James Madison beat Wisconsin and Grand Canyon knocked off Saint Mary's.

“The process doesn't change. It's still going to be the same things up on the board there before the game,” the Tritons' Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones said. “We're just going to go out and do what we do.”

Much like Michigan, Memphis was probably hoping for a much better seed after winning the American Athletic tourney, but it got stuck with the dreaded No. 5 seed and a first-round matchup with Colorado State, the winner of the Mountain West Tournament.

The Tigers, who are led by All-American candidate PJ Haggerty, proved they can beat anyone when they beat NCAA Tournament teams Michigan State, Clemson, Missouri, Ole Miss and UConn. But coach Anfernee Hardaway's crew also showed they can lose to just about anyone, such as Arkansas State and Temple.

“What an incredible story,” said Colorado State coach Niko Medved, whose team will face the Tigers on Friday in Seattle. “This team, the legacy of this team, will live on forever. Just resilience and staying together. Believing in something that’s bigger than yourself and not getting ahead of yourself."

Oregon earned its No. 5 seed by having one of the strangest rollercoaster seasons of any high-major: The Ducks won 12 of their first 13 games, beating Texas A&M and Alabama along the way, then endured a five-game skid in Big Ten play, before running off an eight-game winning streak that ended with a loss to Michigan State in the Big Ten Tournament.

The Ducks now get a game Friday against No. 12 seed Liberty, which won the Conference USA tourney but has not played a single Quad 1 opponent this season.

Will Wade has No. 12 seed McNeese back in the NCAA tourney for a second consecutive year, and its first-round foe should be awfully familiar: Clemson, where Wade worked as a student manager and started his career as a graduate assistant. The No. 5 seed Tigers, who won 18 games in the ACC, will play the Cowboys on Thursday in Providence, Rhode Island.

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

Israeli strikes across Gaza kill more than 400 and shatter ceasefire with Hamas

2025-03-19 02:29 Last Updated At：02:31

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel launched airstrikes across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, killing more than 400 Palestinians, local health officials said, and shattering a ceasefire in place since January with its deadliest bombardment in a 17-month war with Hamas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the strikes, which killed mostly women and children, after Hamas refused Israeli demands to change the ceasefire agreement. Officials said the operation was open-ended and expected to expand. The White House said it had been consulted and voiced support for Israel’s actions.

The Israeli military ordered people to evacuate eastern Gaza and head toward the center of the territory, indicating that Israel could soon launch renewed ground operations. The new campaign comes as aid groups warn supplies are running out two weeks after Israel cut off all food, medicine, fuel and other goods to Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians.

“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” Netanyahu’s office said.

The attack during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan could signal the full resumption of a war that has already killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and caused widespread destruction across Gaza. It also raised concerns about the fate of the roughly two dozen hostages held by Hamas who are believed to still be alive.

The renewal of the campaign against Hamas, which receives support from Iran, came as the U.S. and Israel stepped up attacks this week across the region. The U.S. launched deadly strikes against Iran-allied rebels in Yemen, while Israel has targeted Iran-backed militants in Lebanon and Syria.

A senior Hamas official said Netanyahu’s decision to return to war amounts to a “death sentence” for the remaining hostages. Izzat al-Risheq accused Netanyahu of launching the strikes to save his far-right governing coalition.

Hamas said at least six senior officials were killed in Tuesday’s strikes. Israel said they included the head of Hamas' civilian government, its justice minister and two security agency chiefs. There were no reports of any attacks by Hamas several hours after the bombardment.

But Yemen's Houthi rebels fired rockets toward Israel for the first time since the ceasefire began. The volley set off sirens in Israel's southern Negev desert but was intercepted before it reached the country's territory, the military said.

The strikes came as Netanyahu faces mounting domestic pressure, with mass protests planned over his handling of the hostage crisis and his decision to fire the head of Israel’s internal security agency. His latest testimony in a long-running corruption trial was canceled after the strikes.

The strikes appeared to give Netanyahu a political boost. A far-right party led by Itamar Ben-Gvir that had bolted the government over the ceasefire announced Tuesday it was rejoining.

The main group representing families of the hostages accused the government of backing out of the ceasefire. “We are shocked, angry and terrified by the deliberate dismantling of the process to return our loved ones from the terrible captivity of Hamas,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.

Strikes across Gaza pounded homes, sparked fires in a tent camp outside the southern city of Khan Younis and hit at least one school-turned-shelter.

After two months of relative calm during the ceasefire, stunned Palestinians found themselves once again digging loved ones out of rubble and holding funeral prayers over the dead at hospital morgues.

“Nobody wants to fight,” Nidal Alzaanin, a resident of Gaza City, said. “Everyone is still suffering from the previous months.”

A hit on a home in Rafah killed 17 members of one family, according to the European Hospital, which received the bodies. The dead included five children, their parents, and another father and his three children. Another in Gaza City killed 27 members of a family, half of them women and children, including a 1-year-old, according to a list of the dead put out by Palestinian medics.

At Khan Younis’s Nasser Hospital, patients lay on the floor, some screaming. A young girl cried as her bloody arm was bandaged. Wounded children overwhelmed the pediatric ward, said Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a volunteer with Medical Aid for Palestinians aid group.

She said she helped treat a 6-year-old girl with internal bleeding. When they pulled away her curly hair, they realized shrapnel had also penetrated the left side of her brain, leaving her paralyzed on the right side. She was brought in with no ID, and “we don't know if her family survived,” Haj-Hassan said.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the strikes killed at least 404 people and wounded more than 560. Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the ministry’s records department, said at least 263 of those killed were women or children under 18. He described it as the deadliest day in Gaza since the start of the war.

The war has killed over 48,500 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and displaced 90% of Gaza’s population. The Health Ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and militants but says over half of the dead have been women and children.

The war erupted when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages. Most have been released in ceasefires or other deals, with Israeli forces rescuing only eight and recovering dozens of bodies.

The White House blamed Hamas for the renewed fighting. National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said the militant group “could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war.”

The ceasefire deal that the U.S. helped broker, however, did not require Hamas to release more hostages to extend the halt in fighting beyond its first phase.

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the unfolding operation, said Israel was striking Hamas’ military, leaders and infrastructure and planned to expand the operation beyond air attacks.

The official accused Hamas of attempting to rebuild and plan new attacks. Hamas militants and security forces quickly returned to the streets in recent weeks after the ceasefire went into effect. Hamas on Tuesday denied planning new attacks.

Under the ceasefire that began in mid-January, Hamas released 25 hostages and the bodies of eight more in exchange for more than 1,700 Palestinian prisoners as agreed in the first phase.

But Israel balked at entering negotiations over a second phase. Under the agreement, phase two was meant to bring the freeing of the remaining 24 living hostages, an end to the war and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Israel says Hamas also holds the remains of 35 captives.

Instead, Israel demanded Hamas release half of the remaining hostages in return for a ceasefire extension and a vague promise to eventually negotiate a lasting truce. Hamas refused, demanding the two sides follow the original deal, which called for the halt in fighting to continue during negotiations over the second phase.

The deal had largely held, though Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians who the military says approached its troops or entered unauthorized areas. Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to mediate the next steps.

Israel says it will not end the war until it destroys Hamas’ governing and military capabilities and frees all hostages — two goals that could be incompatible.

A full resumption of the war would allow Netanyahu to avoid the tough trade-offs called for in the second phase and the thorny question of who would govern Gaza.

It would also shore up his coalition, which depends on far-right lawmakers who want to depopulate Gaza and rebuild Jewish settlements there.

Released hostages have repeatedly implored the government to press ahead with the ceasefire to return all remaining captives. Tens of thousands of Israelis have joined protests calling for a ceasefire and return of all hostages.

Federman reported from Jerusalem and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press reporters Mohammad Jahjouh in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip; Abdel Kareem Hana in Gaza City, Gaza Strip; Fatma Khaled in Cairo; and Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war