March Madness live: Jalen Brunson vs. Collin Sexton is game within the Villanova-Alabama game

Alabama freshman point guard Collin Sexton, above, and Villanova junior point guard Jalen Brunson will go head to head in the first game of the second round of the NCAA tournament. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

2018 NCAA tournament interactive bracket

Schedule and results | Top story lines | Tournament history

It’s the clash of the point guards in the first matchup of Saturday’s second-round action, with Jalen Brunson leading No. 1 Villanova against one most intriguing NBA point guard prospects remaining in the tournament: Alabama freshman phenom Collin Sexton.

Brunson, the 6-foot-3 junior point guard who is averaging 19.3 points per game this season, is a national player of the year candidate. Sexton is a projected top-15 pick in this summer’s NBA draft and is averaging 19.2 points per game for the Crimson Tide. Both point guards have approached their careers differently, yet both have led their teams to the second round of the tournament, one win away from the Sweet 16.

For Brunson, the junior was an “ice-cold assassin” during Villanova’sovertime win over Providence in the Big East tournament final, wrote The Post’s Ava Wallace. Dropping 31 points in a championship game, Brunson made 12 of 23 shots from the floor, including four three-pointers. On Thursday, in Villanova’s first round tournament win against No. 16 seed Radford, Brunson had 16 points.

“Honestly, he’s the most mature person in the program, including me,” Villanova Coach Jay Wright said.

Sexton, meanwhile, has electrified the No. 9 Crimson Tide, stealing “the crown from Oklahoma’s Trae Young as America’s most exciting freshman point guard,” according to The Post’s Kent Babb.

The eccentric freshman phenom is one of a plethora of highly talented college freshman eager to make their stamp on the NBA, with players like Young, Missouri’s Michael Porter Jr. and Duke’s Marvin Bagley II lighting up NBA mock draft boards.

Recent mock drafts from Sports Illustrated and Bleacher Report have Sexton going No. 11 to the Los Angeles Clippers, still notably behind Young at that point guard position. But Sexton and Alabama are still in the tournament, while Oklahoma was bounced by Rhode Island in the first round, giving viewers at home just another chance to watch Sexton in action.

After UMBC upsets, more to come from Cinderella teams on Saturday?

The NCAA tournament’s first round has come and gone. Round 2 is up next, with a full slate of Saturday games featuring favorites Villanova, Duke and Kansas back on stage alongside upstarts Loyola Chicago and Buffalo in Saturday’s second-round action.

While major upsets have been plentiful in the first round of the tournament — No. 4 overall seed Arizona lost to No. 13 Buffalo, No. 11 Loyola Chicago beat No. 6 Miami, No. 13 overall seed Marshall knocked off No. 4 seed Wichita State and No. 11 Syracuse beat No. 6 TCU, none could have prepared for Friday night’s blowout of No. 1 overall seed Virginia at the hands of No. 16 seeded UMBC.

In the biggest upset in the history of the NCAA tournament — a No.16 seed downed a No.1 seed and the Internet celebrated with a barrage of dog photos as the Retrievers routed Virginia, 74-54. Less than two months ago, UMBC lost to Albany, 83-39. Virginia had entered the tournament with a 31-2 record and claimed both the ACC tournament and regular season titles. But March isn’t the regular season or a conference tournament.

[NCAA stunner: No. 16 seed UMBC makes history by knocking out No. 1 Virginia]

UMBC Twitter exploded during and after the win, as the blowout continued to sink in. With 3:29 to go in the game, UMBC up 17 points, the UMBC Athletics was tweeting about how the media dining area was all out of cookies. This was the important news of the night, clearly. According to UMBC Athletics, its Twitter following jumped from 5,000 followers to a whopping 60,000 by Saturday morning. But who wouldn’t want to follow with tweets like these?

Ahh we remember this game at Maryland in December….hopefully you enjoyed our game from your couch dude! pic.twitter.com/qwRC9zSQuE
— UMBC Athletics (@UMBCAthletics) March 17, 2018

On Saturday, the upsets are looking less likely that the opening round, though viewers should be on the lookout for Cinderella stories in Buffalo and Loyola Chicago. Back after stunning top seeds a couple nights prior, a confident, determined Buffalo team could take down No. 5 Kentucky and its freshmen-laden roster in a South Region showdown set to tip off at 5:15 p.m. EST.

[Nate Oats just coached Buffalo to a huge upset. But he’s about more than wins.]

Buffalo Coach Nate Oats has been on a fast track over the past few years, writes The Post’s Tim Bontemps. Oats was head boys’ basketball coach at Romulus High School in suburban Detroit, then became an assistant at Buffalo under current Arizona State Coach Bobby Hurley, then Oats took over the program when Hurley was hired by ASU three years ago.

Now, with the program all to himself, Oats has Buffalo believing they are the real deal. For the MAC regular season and tournament champions, they “fully expected to arrive here and go toe-to-toe with Arizona and Kentucky — as blue blood as it gets in college basketball — and come out on top,” writes Bontemps.

No. 11 Loyola Chicago will try to knock off No. 3 Tennessee at 6:10 p.m. EST, backed by the now-famous, cherished and loved by all, Sister Jean. She has spent the last 24 years serving as Loyola’s team chaplain and captured hearts of those watching at home after Loyola’s upset win over Miami. She leads the team in prayer before the game — always beginning with “Good and gracious God” — and cheers on Loyola while donning a Loyola-colored scarf. If anyone can will Loyola’s way to victory, it’s Sister Jean.

Schedule and results (All times Eastern):

12:10 p.m. No. 1 Villanova vs. No. 9 Alabama (CBS)
2:40 p.m. No. 2 Duke vs. No. 7 Rhode Island (CBS)
5:15 p.m. No. 5 Kentucky vs. No. 13 Buffalo (CBS)
6:10 p.m. No. 3 Tennessee vs. No. 11 Loyola Chicago (TNT)
7:10 p.m. No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 8 Seton Hall (TBS)
7:45 p.m. No. 4 Gonzaga vs. No. 5 Ohio State (CBS)
8:40 p.m. No. 3 Texas Tech vs. No. 6 Florida (TNT)
9:40 p.m. No. 3 Michigan vs. No. 6 Houston (TBS)

Top story lines

— Neil Greenberg will be updating his live round-by-round odds for each team to advance throughout the tournament.

— While UMBC provided the tournament’s signature moment, mid-majors didn’t fare all that well. The Post’s Chuck Culpepper bids farewell to Georgia State, the tournament’s quintessential mid-major: “The element a team such as Georgia State brings, that of mystery and enchantment and the plausible chance for a memorable upset, appears have drifted into a money-mad disfavor.”

— Every tournament needs a villain and luckily for this year’s event, Duke’s Grayson Allen has made peace with his role. The Blue Devils advanced with a victory over Iona and Allen took a razzing in Pittsburgh. “It would be really surprising to me if I didn’t get booed as I walked out onto the court,” Allen said. “I’ve kind of just accepted it. I feed off of it. I’m not only used to it, but I own it now.”

— Arizona’s stunning loss eliminated the NCAA’s biggest headache, and ended the collegiate career of star big man DeAndre Ayton, the potential No. 1 pick in this year’s draft. Teammate Allonzo Trier also said he will leave school and head to the NBA.

— And don’t forget about the other March Madness — a rush for vasectomies during the NCAA tournament.

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