CINCINNATI — The University of Cincinnati's success on the football field hasn't deterred its students from other priorities – like the Bearcats' rivalry with Xavier University.

While UC students were guarding the Oscar Robertson statue outside Fifth-Third Arena on Wednesday night, Xavier's D'Artagnan statue was hit with eggs and slices of cheese.

The incident comes days before UC plays at Xavier in the Crosstown Shootout. The game is Saturday at 8:30 p.m. on FS`1.

In what has become a tradition, UC students were deployed around the Oscar Robertson statue this week in defense of potential Xavier pranksters.

"The week before the Crosstown Shootout, Xavier fans will try to put a (Xavier) jersey on Oscar," Cam Kirzner, an Operations Mangement major, said. "So what we do is camp out all night throughout the week. We run games and activities for students, do giveaways and make sure that Xavier doesn't mess with Oscar."

D'Artagnan was picked as Xavier's mascot in 1925, when the college took the nickname the Musketeers from the classic Alexandre Dumas novel "The Three Musketeers." A statue of D'Artagnan was first placed on campus in 1968. It was replaced with a newer statue in 2000, when Xavier's Cintas Center opened.

The Robertson statue honors the Hall of Fame guard who played with the Bearcats and starred in the NBA with the Cincinnati Royals and the Milwaukee Bucks. He was the first NBA player to average a triple-double in a season and the only player until 2017, when Russell Westbrook duplicated the feat. Robertson led the Bearcats to two Final Fours and won a gold medal with the 1960 Olympic team.

Correction: The last name of Cam Kirzner was misspelled in this article. It has been corrected.

INDIANAPOLIS —

Here are some of the top moments from the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, March 20 (all times Eastern):

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7 p.m.

VCU has been pulled from the NCAA Tournament because of COVID-19 protocols.

The NCAA says the 10th-seeded Rams' first-round game Saturday against Oregon has been declared a no-contest.

The seventh-seeded Ducks will advance to the second round without playing.

The announcement came a little more than three hours before the teams were set to play in the West Region. The NCAA didn’t offer specific details, citing privacy concerns, and said that the decision came after consultation with the Marion County Public Health Department.

“The NCAA and the committee regret that VCU’s student-athletes and coaching staff will not be able to play in a tournament in which they earned the right to participate,” the statement read.

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5:30 p.m.

The NCAA Tournament’s single-elimination format creates plenty of emotional scenes in virtually each game as the losing teams cope with the reality that the season is over.

St. Bonaventure guard Jaren Holmes spoke eloquently on that subject while discussing teammate and good friend Kyle Lofton, who was in tears at the end of a 76-61 loss to LSU.

“The quote is like men don’t cry, but I believe real men cry,” Holmes said “Real men show emotion, and that’s the true showing of a man, one who wears their heart on his sleeve. He does that every time he goes on the court and every time he’s in the locker room with us.

“It’s a tough loss, but we’re going to become better from it ... and we’re going to remember this for the rest of our lives, sharing this moment together. We’ll probably laugh about it 20 years from now ... about how we were crying.”

The loss came nearly three weeks after university president Dennis DePerro died from complications of COVID-19.
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4:10 p.m.

Michigan standout Isaiah Livers wore a shirt with #NotNCAAProperty written on it at the top-seeded Wolverines’ NCAA Tournament opener against Texas Southern.

The hashtag is part of a social media effort to raise awareness about inequities in college sports.

Livers, who is out with a foot injury, is one of a few prominent Big Ten players leading the movement. Players have pushed for the NCAA to change rules banning college athletes from earning money for things like endorsements, sponsorship deals and personal appearances.

The National College Players Association released a statement Wednesday detailing the players’ goals, which included meetings with NCAA President Mark Emmert and the opportunity to meet with lawmakers who are working on passing laws that could set parameters for the association’s rules on name image or likeness.

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2:29 p.m.

Georgetown's late-season surge is over. Fifth-seeded Colorado took command with 11 3-pointers in the first half and cruised to a 96-73 win over the Hoyas.

Freshman Jabari Walker had a career-high 24 points to lead Colorado, which went 16 for 25 from long range — that's 64% — was 34 of 56 from the floor. Colorado also had 27 assists. D’Shawn Schwartz had 18 points and made four of his five 3s in the first half to put Colorado into cruise control.

Coached by former star Patrick Ewing, Georgetown made March Madness with a four-wins-in-four-days streak through the Big East Tournament but was no match for the Buffaloes.

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12:48 p.m.

The second full day of the NCAA Tournament is underway. Georgetown started it by kneeling during the national anthem.

The Hoyas locked arms and took a knee during “The Star-Spangled Banner” ahead of their opening game against Colorado.

Coached by former star Patrick Ewing, Georgetown is a 12 seed after making March Madness with a four-wins-in-four-days streak through the Big East Tournament.

No. 1 seeds Gonzaga and Michigan will also be in action Saturday.

Friday’s action featured three big upsets — pulled off by No. 12 Oregon State, No. 13 North Texas and No. 15 Oral Roberts. Two of the upset victims — Ohio State and Purdue — were from the Big Ten.

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Dunk City's thrilling NCAA Tournament run as a No. 15 seed in 2013 gave a rocket-boost to Andy Enfield's coaching career that landed him at USC after just two seasons with Florida Gulf Coast.

When 15th-seeded Hampton shocked Iowa State in 2001, the image of Steve Merfeld celebrating — arms and legs extended, lifted off the floor by one of his players — became one of the lasting images of March Madness. Merfeld's time at Hampton lasted one more season before he jumped to a bigger job.

In 2016, Kermit Davis led 15th-seeded Middle Tennessee to an upset of No. 2 seed Michigan State in his 14th season with the Blue Raiders. Two seasons later, Davis jumped from Conference USA to the Southeastern Conference and became coach at Mississippi.

A bracket-busting NCAA Tournament victory can change the trajectory of a coach's career. With a 75-72 overtime stunner of second-seeded Ohio State on Friday, Oral Roberts coach Paul Mills' stock likely went soaring.

Oral Roberts became just the ninth No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2 since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

"Once the buzzer went off, it's more a feeling of relief, probably, than anything else," Mills said.

Four of the last five coaches to win in the NCAA Tournament with a No. 15 seed jumped to another job in a bigger conference within three seasons of their big win.

Mills, a former Baylor assistant under Scott Drew, is in his fourth season at Oral Roberts. The Golden Eagles have made steady improvement during his tenure, reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2008.

But their first tournament victory since 1974 made Oral Roberts and its 48-year-old coach the biggest story in sports for at least a day.

"Paul Mills to many of us was an outstanding coach four hours ago," ESPN analyst and former college coach Fran Fraschilla said. "But the fact that he's knocked off Ohio State the way Oral Roberts did has given him great currency.

"A win like this validates Paul Mills not only with the general public, but it validates him with his peers. It validates him with basketball fans and it validates him, unfortunately for Oral Roberts, with the next AD thinking of hiring a guy like Paul."

Mills wasn't the only former Baylor assistant to Drew to make a mark on the first day of the first round: No. 13 seed North Texas and fourth-year coach Grant McCasland also beat a Big Ten power in overtime, knocking off fourth-seeded Purdue.

"It does open up an unbelievable amount of opportunity because it's instant equity, a win like that and an upset like that in the NCAA Tournament," former Nebraska coach Tim Miles said.

Merfeld had Hampton back in the tourney as Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champs the season after that memorable win against Iowa State. The next year, he landed at Evansville in the Missouri Valley, but it never quite clicked there and he was let go after five losing seasons.

In 2012, two No. 15s advanced out of the first round. Lehigh stunned Duke with future NBA star C.J. McCollum and Norfolk State bounced Missouri.

Anthony Evans spent one more season as Norfolk State coach in the MEAC before becoming head coach at Florida International in Conference USA. Five losing seasons later, he was out. Lehigh coach Brett Reed stayed put and just finished his 14th season at the school.

No coach has parlayed an unexpected star turn in March into a meteoric rise like Enfield. Florida Gulf Coast's "Dunk City" team in 2013 became the first 15 seed to reach the Sweet 16.

After just 69 games as a college head coach, Enfield went from making $157,000 per year in the Atlantic Sun Conference to a Pac-12 job with an annual salary of well over $1 million.

"It's a lot easier to hire a hot name out of the NCAA Tournament and if he doesn't work out the athletic director can always say, 'Look, we thought we were hiring a superstar based on what he did at X school,'" Fraschilla said.

The Trojans are in the NCAA Tournament this season for the third time in eight seasons under Enfield, a No. 6 seed-facing Drake on Saturday afternoon.

Davis was the antithesis of Enfield, an established, veteran coach with a long track record of success — just not in the NCAA. Then his Middle Tennessee team beat mighty Michigan State as a 15 seed.

"Rightly or wrongly, the emphasis is on the NCAA tournament," Miles said. "It's almost like the guy's an overnight sensation and it only took him 15 years to get their. But that's just the way it is."

Fraschilla led Manhattan College to a 13-over-4 upset of Oklahoma in 1995. Two years later, he took the St. John's job and then went to New Mexico, but never won another NCAA Tournament game.

Whether Friday's upset turns out to be the peak of Mills' coaching career or the first of many March moments, he might never top the feeling of leading Oral Roberts past Ohio State.

"It will be one of the greatest days of his career no matter what happens from here," Fraschilla said. "He can go to the Naismith Hall of Fame in 25 years and he'll remember this day forever because of what it means to him, his team, his school and his family."

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If the pregame prayer sounded more like a scouting report, it was. And if Sister Jean didn't have any plans for next weekend, well, she does now.

Loyola Chicago carried out its 101-year-old superfan's plans to a T on Sunday, moving to the Sweet 16 with a 71-58 win over Illinois, the first No. 1 seed bounced from this year's NCAA Tournament.

Cameron Krutwig delivered a 19-point, 12-rebound masterpiece and the quick-handed, eighth-seeded Ramblers (26-4) led wire to wire. They befuddled a powerful Illinois offense to return to the second weekend three years after their last magical run to the Final Four.

A hard habit to break for these Ramblers. And a classic case of nun-and-done for the Illini.

Loyola Chicago will next play either Oklahoma State or Oregon State, who were set to meet later Sunday.

"We just executed, played our game and controlled the game from the start," Krutwig said. "Nobody was really doing anything out of body or out of mind. We just stuck to the game plan."

Who wrote it?

Some of Loyola's wisdom comes from Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the venerable team chaplain, who headlined the team's 2018 run to the Final Four and received both COVID-19 vaccination shots so she could travel to Indianapolis to see what inspiration she could provide in 2021.

Before taking in this game from the luxury suite — sitting in her wheelchair and decked out in her trademark maroon and gold scarf — Jean delivered a pregame prayer that could've been stripped straight from a John Wooden handbook.

"As we play the Fighting Illini, we ask for special help to overcome this team and get a great win," she said. "We hope to score early and make our opponents nervous. We have a great opportunity to convert rebounds as this team makes about 50% of layups and 30% of its 3 points. Our defense can take care of that."

From her mouth to their ears.

Illinois (24-7) earned top seeding for the first time since its own Final Four run in 2005, but fell behind by 14 in the first half and never got within striking range. The Illini committed 16 turnovers and scored 23 points fewer than their season average. A team that lives for easy buckets in transition got two fast-break points.

Illinois' 7-foot second-team All-American Kofi Cockburn finished with 21 points on 7-for-12 shooting, but worked hard for every shot against the pestering presence of Krutwig and Co.

Loyola's handsy guards, Lucas Williamson (14 points) and Keith Clemons (two steals), kept first-team All-American Ayo Dosunmu from ever finding his comfort zone. He finished with nine points, 11 under his season average. Illini guard Trent Frazier went 1 for 10 for two points.

Loyola held its lead in the 8-to-12-point range through most of the second half, and though Illinois made a few 4-0 flurries, it never made this a one-possession game.

"We tried everything in the bag," Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. "Everything that's made us one of the most efficient offensive teams, today, just for whatever reason, didn't work."

Krutwig is also an All-American — a third-teamer who looked all-world in this one.

Posting up, pivoting, dishing when necessary and causing all kinds of trouble on defense in the paint, the 6-9 senior played bigger. He also had five assists and four steals. Krutwig was with Loyola for the last Final Four trip, and has since become one of only four players in Missouri Valley Conference history to record 1,500 points, 800 boards, and 300 assists.

And there's a chance for more.

It's a turn of events that Sister Jean could see happening. Before the game, she suggested Loyola, the MVC champs who have the nation's best defense (55.7 points per game) and were ranked 17th in the final AP poll, might have gotten a raw deal with a No. 8 seeding that put it up against a 1 so early.

There was only one way to deal with that — by winning. To anyone outside of Champaign — or now holding a freshly obliterated bracket — it's hard to argue this Loyola team isn't the breath of fresh air this tournament-in-a-bubble sorely needed.

Sure, there have been upsets, some drama and little teams doing big things.

But there's nobody quite like Sister Jean to put the whole thing in perspective. The Ramblers and March Madness — what an inspiration!

"It's amazing what happens when you get a group of young men who believe," coach Porter Moser said. "And these guys believed."

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IN THE CROWD

On other days, for other teams, Jerry Harkness might have been the biggest celebrity spotted in the crowd for Loyola Chicago. The point guard sparked Loyola's national-championship run in 1963 — a win, of course, that Sister Jean watched on an 11-inch TV loaned to her by a friend.

Sweet 16 games kicked off Saturday. Here are some of the highlights (all times Eastern).

6:19 p.m.

Picked to finish dead last in the Pac-12, Oregon State instead might be the last one standing.

Led by unflappable guard Ethan Thompson, whose 20 points included a pair of clinching foul shots with 35 seconds left, the No. 12 seed Beavers and their brilliant defense shut down eighth-seeded Loyola Chicago in a 65-58 victory on Saturday that sent their long-suffering program into the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.

It's Oregon State's first regional final since 1982 — one that was later vacated by the NCAA — and sets up a showdown with second-seeded Houston or No. 10 seed Syracuse on Monday night for a spot in its first Final Four since 1963.

Original story follows:

What to watch on Saturday at the NCAA tournaments in Indiana and Texas:

TOP GAMES

Men: No. 1 seed Baylor (24-2) vs. No. 5 seed Villanova (18-6), South Region semifinal, Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indianapolis. Tipoff: 5:15 p.m. Eastern on CBS.

Villanova is seeking its third men’s national title in the last six years after winning it all in 2016 and 2018. The Wildcats have withstood a season-ending injury to point guard Collin Gillespie to get back to the Sweet 16. Baylor guards Jared Butler, Davion Mitchell and MaCio Teaue are averaging a combined 55 ½ points through the first two rounds.

Women: No. 1 seed UConn (26-1) vs. No. 5 seed Iowa (20-9), River Walk Region semifinal, Alamodome, San Antonio. Tipoff: 1 p.m. Eastern on ABC.

This matchup features two of the most dynamic freshmen in the game and they happen to be good friends. UConn’s Paige Bueckers is just the third freshman to earn first-team honors on the AP All-America women’s team. Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, a second-team All-America pick, leads the nation in points per game (26.8), total assists (209) and total 3-pointers (112).

WHAT ELSE TO WATCH FOR

Men: The other men’s games include Loyola Chicago-Oregon State, Arkansas-Oral Roberts and Houston-Syracuse.

Oral Roberts’ Kevin Obanor is averaging 29.5 points in two NCAA Tournament games. That’s the highest average of any player remaining in the tournament.

The Oregon State-Loyola game marks just the second matchup between a No. 8 seed and a No. 12 seed in tournament history. No. 12 seed Missouri beat No. 8 seed UCLA, 82-73, in 2002.

Women: The rest of the women’s schedule includes Baylor-Michigan, North Carolina State-Indiana and Texas A&M-Arizona.

Michigan is making its first Sweet 16 appearance.

Texas A&M has produced plenty of suspense thus far in the tournament by squeaking past No. 15 seed Troy 84-80 and erasing a 12-point deficit to edge Iowa State 84-82 in overtime. The Aggies never led Iowa State in regulation and won on a buzzer-beater from Jordan Nixon, who scored 35 points.

INDIANAPOLIS —

The matchup between Arkansas' Eric Musselman and Baylor's Scott Drew in the South Region final Monday night features coaches who've built on their dads' successes.

Musselman's late father, Bill, coached at Minnesota in the early 1970s and made stops at the highest and lowest levels of pro basketball. Drew's father, Homer, was coach at Valparaiso for 22 years and went to the NCAA Tournament seven times.

Eric Musselman coached pro ball for nearly a quarter-century before he entered the college game nine years ago. Drew, who worked for his father at Valpo, took over then-scandal-plagued Baylor 18 years ago and turned it into a Big 12 power.

The 56-year-old Musselman said there never was a question he would get into coaching.

"My father was my idol, my best friend," he said. "For Halloween, I wanted to be a coach. After school, when I was in grade school, my mom would drop me off at my dad's practices, and I'd stay until 10:00 or 11:00 at night until he'd finish breaking down film or having staff meetings. I just wanted to walk in his footsteps."

The next generation of coaching Musselmans is being developed. Michael Musselman is in his second season as Arkansas' director of recruiting. That followed his one year as a graduate assistant for his dad at Nevada.

"I have a younger son in college," Eric said, "and I know he wants to get into coaching when he graduates from the University of San Diego."

Musselman said a lot of coaches' sons avoid the business because they understand how stressful a life it can be.

"It's a conversation that my mother and I had several, several times when I decided to get into coaching, just how difficult it is," he said. "Coaches get fired, and it affects family. But it's what I loved. But I was warned by my mom, I promise you that."

The coaching bug also bit Scott Drew's brother. Bryce Drew, 46, is in his first year at Grand Canyon after head coaching stints at Vanderbilt and Valpo.

"We have a great mentor," Scott said of their dad. "There's a reason he's in the Hall of Fame. Both of us were blessed to learn from him. As good a coach as he is, he's a better father."

HOOP CITY

Spokane, Washington, already was going to get plenty of attention in this tournament thanks to No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga.

Surprising Elite Eight team Oregon State also has a strong connection to the Lilac City. The 12th-seeded Beavers will face No. 2 seed Houston on Monday in the Midwest Region final, while Gonzaga will play in the West Region final on Tuesday.

Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle reminisced Sunday about growing up in Spokane in the 1980s when the city's basketball scene began taking off. That's when John Stockton starred at Gonzaga before his Hall of Fame career with the Utah Jazz.

Tinkle starred at Ferris High School in the early 1980s before playing at Montana. Tinkle's daughter, Elle, played at Gonzaga.

Tinkle said he shared a birthday text with Stockton recently and had a chat with Gonzaga coach Mark Few when they ran into each other at Victory Field in Indianapolis.

"There's a lot of good athletes that come out of Spokane, not just basketball," Tinkle said. "But it does make me proud that I once had a hand and part of the history there as far as basketball goes."

HOOSIER CONNECTIONS

There might not be any Indiana teams left in the tournament. There still are some Hoosiers.

Two former Indiana coaches, Houston's Kelvin Sampson and Oregon State associate head coach Kerry Rupp, previously worked in Bloomington, and Arkansas' Justin Smith played three seasons with the Hoosiers before transferring.

Rupp spent two seasons on the staff of Mike Davis, who was Bob Knight's successor in 2000. Sampson replaced Davis in 2006. Smith was recruited by Tom Crean, who replaced Sampson in 2008, and played for the recently fired Archie Miller.

And if UCLA wins, assistant coach Michael Lewis would join the list. He was a captain on Knight's final Indiana team in 1999-2000 and graduated as the Hoosiers' career assists leader with 545. Lewis is now second all-time behind Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell (633).

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AP Sports Writers Tim Booth and Steve Megargee contributed to this report.

INDIANAPOLIS —

Gonzaga's countdown to perfection has ticked to two.

The Bulldogs are back in the Final Four, two wins from becoming the first undefeated team since the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers.

And, after all those upsets, the March Madness apex in the Hoosier State will be a high-seeded affair.

Gonzaga is a No. 1 seed. So is Baylor. Houston, a 2. UCLA is an 11, but it's also the all-time leader in national championships.

There also will be a trip down Southwest Conference memory lane.

But the Zags will be the team to beat.

Gonzaga (30-0) has been an offensive juggernaut rarely seen in college basketball. Fast moving and free flowing, the ultra-efficient Zags have steamrolled everyone in their way, winning a Division I-record 27 straight games by double digits.

An 85-56 dismantling of Southern California in the Elite Eight stretched their win streak to 34 games over two seasons and put them back in the Final Four for the second time in the past four NCAA Tournaments. Gonzaga came up short in a loss to North Carolina in the 2017 national title game, but has its sights set on finishing it off this time — and grabbing a piece of history.

“Everyone wants us to keep moving forward, but that’s not how we roll,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “This is a heck of an accomplishment. We’re going to take it and savor it for what it is. That doesn’t lessen our desire to win this game, the next game or win two more games.”

11:25 p.m.

For the 30th straight time this season, Gonzaga answered that question with a resounding “No.”

The Bulldogs got on a roll and put on a show, cruising into the Final Four with an 85-66 beatdown of a Southern California team that was nowhere near ready for what it ran into Tuesday night.

Drew Timme had 23 points and five rebounds and, after one dunk, pretended to slick down his handlebar mustache for the few thousand fans in the stands.

“This is a really, really big deal,” coach Mark Few said of the program's return to the Final Four after a four-year hiatus. “And Zags know how to celebrate, OK?”

The top-seeded and top-ranked Bulldogs will be the third team to bring an undefeated record into the Final Four since the bracket expanded to 64 teams in 1985. The last team to go undefeated was Indiana in 1976. On Saturday in the national semifinals, the Zags will face the winner of a later Elite Eight matchup between UCLA and Michigan.

9:30 p.m.

Official Bert Smith collapsed on the floor early in the Elite Eight game between Gonzaga and Southern California and had to be taken off the court on a stretcher.

Smith had just set up on the baseline as the Trojans were moving onto offense when he collapsed and hit his head on the floor.

He stayed down for about five minutes, and then was able to stand up and move to a nearby stretcher. He was alert and sitting up with his arms crossed as he was taken off the court.

In a statement, NCAA spokesman David Worlock said Smith is "alert and stable," and won't be transported to a hospital. Worlock also said Smith has been in contact with his family.

Worlock's statement didn't specifically state the nature of Smith's "medical issue," though CBS Sports rules analyst Gene Steratore said on the TBS broadcast that Smith was feeling "lightheaded," leading to the fall. He said Smith was being treated by trainers in the locker room.

Smith was officiating his second Elite Eight. He was replaced by an alternate, Tony Henderson, who had been at the scorer's table. Additionally, Tony Chiazza — the standby official for the UCLA-Michigan game later Tuesday — would also serve as the standby official for the remainder of the USC-Gonzaga game, Worlock said.

The matchup was the 70th game Smith has worked this season, according to kenpom.com. He has officiated in multiple conferences.

The referee who collapsed during the Elite Eight game between Gonzaga and Southern California in the 2021 men's NCAA tournament reveals it was caused by a blood clot in his lungs.

Bert Smith revealed the diagnosis in an interview with Gregg Doyel of the Indianapolis Star, which was released Friday.

Smith told Doyel he doesn't recall the collapse that occurred on March 30 nor remember what happened immediately afterward.

Still, he did remember why he looked disgruntled while on the stretcher: the doctor tricked him into sitting on the stretcher and strapping him in.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Smith said the collapse probably saved his life.

After the collapse, he was checked out by medical personnel but was cleared by them to return to the hotel.

While at the hotel, his colleagues, NCAA doctors, and his wife urged him to go to IU Methodist Hotel in Indianapolis to get his head and spine checked out.

Smith told SI that his head hit the court so hard that it left a giant bump on the back of his head.

Once at the hospital, Dr. Katie Trammel conducted several tests and found the cause: a pulmonary embolism.

Smith spent two days in the hospital and was discharged after blood thinners eliminated the clot.

According to SI and Doyel, Smith is back home in Kentucky with his family.

He plans to return to the hardwood for the 2021-22 season.