Former Titans debut in NCAA Tournaments Friday

A trio of former Eastern Florida State College basketball players will be playing in March Madness on Friday.

Former Titans Amelia Hassett, L'or Mputu and Owen Aquino will play Friday in first round games in the NCAA Tournament.

Hassett and the University of Kentucky will tip off in the women's basketball tournament Friday at 12 p.m. in  Lexington, Kentucky. The Wildcats are the No. 4 seed in the national tournament and will open against No. 13 Liberty.

Hassett, who was the FCSAA Women's Basketball Player of the Year in 2024 and a third team All-American, has started all 29 games for Kentucky this season. The Albury, New South Wales, Australia native is averaging 8.8 points and eight rebounds per game heading into the tournament.

Kentucky, who lost in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament, will open the tournament at noon on ESPN.

Former Titan L'or Mputu has started 30 of the 33 games for the University of South Florida and will also open the NCAA Tournament Friday. Mputu, who was a first team All-American in 2023, will play No. 5 seed University of Tennessee at 8 p.m. in Columbus, Ohio. The game will be shown on ESPN.

Mputu, who heped the BUlls win the American Athletic Conference Championship, is averaging 9.4 points and 8.1 reboudns this season with the Bulls.

Aquino has started all 34 games for Liberty University and will open the NCAA Tournament Friday night against No. 5 Oregon. The game will be played at 10:10 p.m. in Seattle, Washington.

Aquino, who was the FCSAA Men's Basketball Player of the Year and a first team All-American last season at EFSC, has started all 34 games and is averaging 8.8 points and 5.6 rebounds per game for the Flames.

Liberty, who is the CUSA Champion, comes into the tournament as the No. 12 seed. The first-round game will be on TruTV.

It is the first time a pair of Titans have been playing in the NCAA Tournament.