March Madness lives on. Following the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament, The Post projected the final bracket and will spend the rest of the week presenting round-by-round results produced via online simulation, thanks to our friends at whatifsports.com.
The hype was warranted — for Seton Hall and the Big East.
The Pirates added to their best regular season since 1992-93. The powerful conference broke through with a major March performance.
In The Post’s simulated NCAA Tournament bracket, coach Kevin Willard’s third-seeded team pulled away from No. 6 Penn State in the second half, cruising to a 79-62 victory in Albany and a Sweet 16 matchup with No. 2 Florida State.
The Pirates are joined in the second weekend by No. 2 Villanova, an 84-75 winner over seventh-seeded Michigan State, and No. 9 Marquette, which stunned No. 1 Gonzaga, 89-86, behind Markus Howard’s 32 points.
For the first time since the new Big East was forced to remake itself amid conference realignment, it has three teams in the Sweet 16. For Seton Hall, this is the first time it has advanced past a sub-regional since 2000.
It got there with defense, limiting Penn State to 38.7 percent shooting from the field and just 5-of-22 from 3-point ranger. The Nittany Lions led by six early in the second half, before Seton Hall ripped off a 24-7 run, cruising from there behind a balanced scoring effort that saw five Pirates reach double figures. Quincy McKnight scored a team-high 21 points, and Sandro Mamukelashvili was at his versatile best — notching 10 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. Myles Powell also scored 16, as his memorable career was extended.
An all-Jersey Sweet 16 showdown came close, but No. 10 Rutgers fell five points shy of Florida State, 75-70, trailing the entire second half. Shooting was the Scarlet Knights’ downfall in Tampa, Fla. They were just 8-of-17 from the free-throw line and made 6 of 23 attempts from beyond the arc, as their first trip to the tournament since 1991 came to an end.
Marquette was the Big East’s big surprise, shaking off a late-season slump to oust Gonzaga. It led by a many as 14 points in the second half and held off a late Zags charge, surviving when Killian Tillie was unable to hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer. The Golden Eagles, back in the Sweet 16 for the first time in seven years, will meet fourth-seeded Oregon in the regional semifinals.
Villanova, meanwhile, hit 13 of 26 3-point attempts to rally from a nine-point, second-half deficit to get by Michigan in a rematch of the 2018 national championship game and set up a blockbuster Sweet 16 meeting with No. 3 Duke in the East Regional semifinals at the Garden. Collin Gillespie led four Wildcats in double figures with 19 points and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl added 13 points and 11 rebounds.
The Big East’s remaining two teams lost in lopsided fashion. No. 3 Creighton fell to 11th-seeded Wichita State, 94-78. No. 5 Butler was trounced by No. 4 Maryland, 78-53.