March Madness bracket 2016: Kansas tops Maryland, advances to Elite Eight

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A look at the updated 2016 March Madness bracket after Kansas beat Maryland to move on to the Elite Eight

The Kansas Jayhawks entered March Madness as the No. 1 overall seed in the 2016 NCAA Tournament and clearly as one of the favorites to win it all. As their Sweet 16 matchup against the No. 5 seeded Maryland Terrapins on Thursday approached, though, the doubt began to creep up about if the Jayhawks had what it took to advance to the Elite Eight.

Through the first half between Kansas and Maryland, the concerns about the top seed seemed warranted as Diamond Stone and the Terps’ frontcourt were doing a fantastic job of shutting down Perry Ellis and, subsequently, limiting Kansas’ ability to do what they like to do. However, they play two halves in college basketball and there was certainly a different narrative in the second 20-minute period.

Ellis finally got things going in the second half, as did Wayne Selden who has really stepped up thus far in March Madness. That allowed the Jayhawks to build quite a cushion and ultimately just hang on against the Terps for the remainder of the game to earn a statement win in a hard-fought contest.

With Kansas moving past Maryland and into the Elite Eight, let’s take a look at the updated 2016 March Madness bracket to see where things stand.

Screen Shot 2016-03-24 at 11.48.23 PM
Screen Shot 2016-03-24 at 11.48.23 PM /

The matchup between Kansas and Villanova in the Elite Eight is undoubtedly going to be one to watch with a ton of veteran experience on the floor and much more March Madness to follow.

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