Adam RittenbergMar 24, 2025, 12:07 AM ET
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- Faculty soccer reporter; joined ESPN in 2008. Graduate of Northwestern College.
MILWAUKEE — Ole Omit guard Matthew Murrell wore shades in a joyous locker room Sunday evening, after his Rebels group — and the SEC — ended the primary weekend of the lads’s NCAA match with swagger and elegance.
The sixth-seeded Rebels thumped No. 3 seed Iowa State 91-78 at Fiserv Discussion board, advancing to their first Candy 16 since 2001, the one different in group historical past. Ole Omit additionally become the 7th SEC group to achieve the Candy 16, atmosphere a match document. The ACC up to now held the mark for many Candy 16 groups from one league when it had six within the 2016 tournament.
“It displays the SEC, if it wasn’t the most productive, it is one of the crucial best possible meetings of all time,” mentioned Murrell, who scored 15 issues in Sunday’s win. “You’ll be able to say what you wish to have to mention, however you have got seven guys taking on nearly part of the Candy 16, it is one thing particular.”
In spite of being the second-lowest-seeded SEC group to achieve the Candy 16, forward of 10-seed Arkansas, Ole Omit left without a doubt, main the Cyclones via as many as 26 issues and registering its biggest margin of victory in an NCAA match sport. Murrell described the SEC as “a dogfight each and every evening,” which helped get ready its groups for March.
The SEC set an NCAA match document with 14 groups gaining berths. The league simply eclipsed the previous mark of eleven via the Giant East in 2011. However that yr, handiest two Giant East groups complicated to the Candy 16.
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“We set the target in reality top,” Ole Omit second-year trainer Chris Beard mentioned. “We need to pass within the match. We need to have a excellent seed. We need to be a type of groups that has a possibility to win the match. And Ole Omit profitable the match, I have no idea, possible? No. Conceivable? Completely.”
Beard mentioned his group is gazing a documentary at the 1983 nationwide championship group from NC State, coached via Jim Valvano. The Wolfpack additionally have been a No. 6 seed in that match.
“Gamers are like, ‘When are we going to complete this?'” Beard mentioned of the documentary. “I am like, ‘We are going to end on Sunday evening, proper ahead of the Monday [national championship] sport. So, it isn’t conceitedness. It is completely trust. If I did not consider this group was once able to proceeding to win video games on this match, then I should not be the trainer at Ole Omit.”
