2023 March Madness Sweet 16 bracket breakdown
No. 6 Creighton vs. No. 15 Princeton聽
Creighton entered the tournament playing the way everyone thought it could and has continued to stay hot. Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 31 points to match NC State guard Terquavion Smith鈥檚 32 points in the second round of the tournament. Meanwhile, the Bluejays had three other starters score 10 points, giving Creighton the win even with extremely poor three-point shooting (15%). Creighton flipped the script in its second–round matchup against Baylor, shooting 45.8% from three and 47.3% from the field while being perfect from the free-throw line (22-22). This time it was guard Ryan Nembhard鈥檚 turn to score 30 points as the Bluejays took advantage of a bad Baylor defense.聽
Princeton has been one of the Cinderellas of the tournament after beating No. 2 Arizona in the first round. The Tigers then were able to slow down the athletic and high–scoring Missouri Tigers in the Round of 32. Princeton has been great at slowing down the pace of the game and forcing its opponents to play the way the Tigers want to. That was most prevalent in Princeton’s second-round matchup where the team led Missouri for the majority of the game.聽
The problem with Princeton keeping this Cinderella run going is Creighton has displayed in both of its games that it has the talent and the personnel to play different styles. The Bluejays can beat Princeton at its own game or speed the tempo up. Creighton should win this game.
