Men’s March Madness live scores, schedule and updates: Sweet 16 games today and bracket

SALT LAKE CITY – Nolan Hickman tried to tune out the noise. So did Ryan Nembhard. And so did Graham Ike and the rest of the Gonzaga Bulldogs.

Coaches and administrators may tell you to put the phone down. You may be told not to pay attention until time is up. But this is the era of social media, where multiple platforms exist with a 24/7 cycle. Gonzaga is a disciplined and well-led unit. It’s the reason the No. 5-seeded Bulldogs are still alive in the NCAA Tournament and have a date with top-seeded Purdue in Friday night’s Sweet 16. But, when it comes to teenagers and young men, at some point, they are I’m going to listen to the naysayers.

“They said we were on the bubble and we weren’t the same Gonzaga we had been,” Ike said. “We do our best to ignore it, because we know what we have inside the walls. But sometimes it’s hard to do.”

The Gonzaga we saw last weekend thrived on both ends of the floor. The Gonzaga we saw last weekend in the first and second round overwhelmed McNeese State and Kansas with a team that played as a five, turned out the lights, proved to be unyielding defensively and generally turned in one of the best performances weekend collectives.

But that wasn’t Gonzaga in November, December or even January. There were times when the Bulldogs looked disjointed. There were times when it seemed like they lacked the firepower and overall talent to make their 25th consecutive NCAA Tournament, much less make a run in March. But on Friday night, the Zags will be in their ninth straight Sweet 16, and the way they’re playing, they have as good a chance as anyone to advance even further in the tournament. They will do it because resilience cannot be measured.

“The important thing is that it took us some time to gel and come together as a unit,” Hickman said. “There will always be a time when we needed to integrate many new pieces into our squad. “We heard a lot of what was said about us, but we just tried to ignore it and keep playing.”

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