Texas Tech has had plenty of men’s March Madness experience. In fact, the program reached the national championship game only six years ago – falling to Virginia during the Cavs’ “redemption run” in 2019. The Red Raiders lost their NCAA first round tournament game last season.

Names and faces change over the years, but these high-profile postseason games carry similar pressure and weight and are fraught with distractions. What should a head coach tell his players as the stress mounts before tipoff?

No. 3 seed Tech’s head coach Grant McCasland called for the Red Raiders to believe in the greater purpose that the team has been given and block out the noise ahead of their tilt against No. 10 Arkansas.

“There’s a lot of distractions that happen. People want to know if they can have tickets and people want your autograph and want to say ‘hi’ to you that did not want to say hi to you before,” McCasland said.

“And you know what? You lose and those same people do not want to say hi to you again.

“That stuff goes away like this (McCasland snaps).”

As @TexasTechMBB advances to the Sweet 16 in San Francisco, Coach McCasland delivers a final message to his team, reminding them to stay focused amid the constant distractions that come with each new challenge on the road ahead. pic.twitter.com/7Lua5U8T9Q

— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) March 27, 2025

The coach, who has led the team for the past two seasons, said he wouldn’t want to go into this battle with anyone else.

“There’s nobody I’d rather do this with than y’all. Nobody.”

It’s hard to imagine this version of John Calipari as an underdog. He’s got a national championship, six Final Fours and six SEC regular season and tournament titles to his name.

And yet, here he is, a Hall of Fame coach leading No. 10 Arkansas into the Sweet 16 in the closest thing this tournament has to a Cinderella.

Singular focus.

We’ve got some time before tipoff, so check out the latest episode of The Follow, only on @HogsPlus! pic.twitter.com/JYcBFi5PTu

— Arkansas Razorbacks Men’s Basketball 🐗 (@RazorbackMBB) March 27, 2025

The Razorbacks are – of course, because it’s a Calipari team – stacked with talent. Three of Calipari’s players from Kentucky followed him to Fayetteville, Johnell Davis transferred in from Florida Atlantic University and freshmen Boogie Fland, Karter Knox and Billy Richmond all decommitted from the Wildcats to follow Calipari to Arkansas.

But despite all that talent, it was a mixed bag of a season for the iconic coach in his first season as a Razorback. Arkansas went 22-13, finished ninth in the SEC with a below .500 conference record, had a five-game losing streak and didn’t really start putting it all together until the end of the season. In taking down No. 7 Kansas and No. 2 St. John’s in the tournament’s opening weekend, the Razorbacks are suddenly looking very much like a typical Calipari team.

Next up for Arkansas is high-powered Texas Tech. The Red Raiders averaged 80 points per game during the regular season and are led by forward JT Toppin. Tech cruised past UNC-Wilmington and No. 11 Drake in its opening games of the tournament – it’s expected that the Razorbacks will be a much more even talent matchup than either of those mid-majors.

The team that everyone loves to hate might be unstoppable.

Led by Cooper Flagg, a finalist for the Naismith Trophy as the best player in men’s college hoops, the Blue Devils absolutely rolled through the first weekend of the tournament. First, it was a 93-49 trouncing of Mount St. Mary’s in the opening round and then – on a day full of drama in most of the other games – it was a 89-66 stomping of Baylor that sent them to the Sweet 16.

The scariest thing for Duke’s opponents is the number of options they have that can beat you. Sure, everyone is thinking about Flagg, but the standout player of the opening weekend was Tyrese Proctor, who scored 25 and 19 points against Baylor and Mount St. Mary’s respectively. If you slow either of them down, Kon Knueppel –the freshman who averaged 14.1 points per game in the regular season – might take up the scoring mantle instead.

So far, the Blue Devils have improved on their regular season shooting percentage and 3-point shooting percentage and dropped their turnovers in their opening two games of the tournament. If Arizona and star guard Caleb Love – a transfer who once played against the Blue Devils at archrival North Carolina – can’t slow down Duke’s well-oiled machine, then head coach Jon Scheyer may have an easy path to San Antonio and the Final Four.

“I think it goes back to something – like you said, this is just something I dreamed about ever since I was a little kid,” Flagg said Wednesday of playing in the NCAA tournament. “These are the moments that I imagined myself being in when I was in the driveway, things like that. Just a surreal feeling to be here in these moments and have these opportunities. I just feel really blessed.”

Just a quick refresh on how we got to these matchups – here are all the results from last weekend’s round of 32:

Saturday

• No. 4 Purdue 76, No. 12 McNeese State 62
• No. 10 Arkansas 75, No. 2 St. John’s 66
• No. 5 Michigan 91, No. 4 Texas A&M 79
• No. 3 Texas Tech 77, No. 11 Drake 64
• No. 1 Auburn 82, No. 9 Creighton 70
• No. 6 BYU 91, No. 3 Wisconsin 89
• No. 1 Houston 81, No. 8 Gonzaga 76
• No. 2 Tennessee 67, No. 7 UCLA 58

Sunday

• No. 1 Florida 77, No. 8 UConn 75
• No. 1 Duke 89, No. 9 Baylor 66
• No. 3 Kentucky 84, No. 6 Illinois 75
• No. 2 Alabama 80, No. 7 St. Mary’s 66
• No. 4 Maryland 72, No. 12 Colorado State 71
• No. 6 Ole Miss 91, No. 3 Iowa State 78
• No. 2 Michigan State 71, No. 10 New Mexico 63
• No. 4 Arizona 87, No. 5 Oregon 83

Here are all the men’s Sweet 16 matchups, times and channels starting on Thursday:

Thursday

• No. 2 Alabama vs No. 6 BYU (7:09 p.m. ET on CBS)
• No. 1 Florida vs No. 4 Maryland (7:39 p.m. ET on TBS/truTV)
• No. 1 Duke vs No. 4 Arizona (9:39 p.m. ET on CBS)
• No. 3 Texas Tech vs No. 10 Arkansas (10:09 p.m. ET on TBS/truTV)

Friday

• No. 2 Michigan State vs No. 6 Ole Miss (7:09 p.m. ET on CBS)
• No. 2 Tennessee vs No. 3 Kentucky (7:39 p.m. ET on TBS/truTV)
• No. 1 Auburn vs No. 5 Michigan (9:39 p.m. ET on CBS)
• No. 1 Houston vs No. 4 Purdue (10:09 p.m. ET on TBS/truTV)