- The first game of the night was a Big 12-ACC showdown between #1 seed Kansas and #5 seed Clemson. The Jayhawks were not overly impressive during the opening weekend of the tournament, beating but not blowing out Penn and Seton Hall. Clemson, on the other hand, hadn't broken a sweat in either of their two games. They held an 18-point lead in the second half of their game against New Mexico State, which was minuscule compared to the 41-point margin they had on Auburn in round two. They would face a lot more adversity in the Sweet 16. For starters, the Tigers were basically playing a road game as no team got a nicer road to the Final Four than Kansas. They didn't have to leave their home state for rounds 1 and 2 and they only had to travel to neighboring Nebraska for the regional. The Jayhawks fed off the home crowd to build a 13-point lead at the half. Their advantage would grow to 20 before Clemson made one last valiant run to get to the Elite Eight. A late 13-2 run would trim the lead to six with under 2:30 to play. The comeback would effectively stall out there. Clemson would hit a basket in the final seconds to bring them within four, but Kansas would move on after holding on for an 80-76 victory.
- West Virginia came into their Sweet 16 game riding the same type of momentum that Clemson had after crushing their first two opponents last week. They would get the acid test against #1 seed Villanova. The Wildcats have taken over the mantle of tournament favorite ever since Virginia was shocked in round one. This contest was tight throughout the first half, with Villanova holding a slim 2-point edge at the break. The teams traded the lead for the opening 8 minutes of the second half before the Mountaineers were able to create a little bit of separation, taking a 6-point lead. That seemed to fire up the favored Wildcats as they scored the next 11 points of the game. Villanova showed their superiority the rest of the way, gradually increasing their lead and pulling away for a 12-point victory, 90-78.
- Game #3 was not just an all-ACC battle, it was an all-zone defense battle. Zone defense is Syracuse's bread and butter. No team in the country plays it better than the Orange. The fact that very few teams in the country play zone defense makes Syracuse's zone even more potent come tournament time as their opponents constantly seem befuddled by it. You wouldn't expect that to be the case with Duke, as they had seen it in conference play. Not only had the Blue Devils played against it, they had adopted the zone defense as well. Duke was one of the worst defensive teams in the nation during the first half of the season, so they switched to the zone to try and cure their defensive woes. In general, it has worked, although their offensive output has lessened likely due to the amount of energy they are spending on the defensive end. It should come as no surprise then that this would be a relatively low-scoring battle. Duke was down 3 late in the first half, but they would score the last 10 points before heading to the locker room, opening up a 7-point lead. Syracuse would hang tough in the second half. Knowing the zone as well as they do, they were able to find holes in the Blue Devils' defense. Meanwhile, Duke seemed to be passing up easy opportunities to score. It wasn't until they put stud player Marvin Bagley III on the free throw line that they started clicking. The key to beating the zone is feeding the ball to the middle to a player who isn't afraid to knock down open mid-range jump shots. Bagley started doing it repeatedly late in the second half. The game looked to be over with Duke holding an 8-point lead and only two and a half minutes on the clock, but the Orange "had alligator blood...can't get rid of them". They got within 3 and had the ball with 10 seconds to go, but they didn't have enough awareness to realize that Duke would foul and not let them get off a shot to tie the game. Syracuse only made 1 free throw, Duke would make their next 2, and the Blue Devils move on with a 69-65 win. They will play Kansas to see who will represent the Midwest region in the Final Four.
- The last game of the night would be between two unheralded high-seeded teams. Purdue was ranked in the top 3 of the polls for a long stretch of this season, while Texas Tech led the Big 12 standings for a good portion of the year. They would play each other in the 2-3 matchup in the East region. The first half would be low scoring, but pretty entertaining to watch as both teams had a lot of energy on both ends of the floor. They just weren't knocking down a whole lot of shots. Purdue took a 20-15 lead when the Red Raiders went six minutes without a bucket, but Texas Tech would close the half on a 15-5 run to take a five-point edge to the break. The Boilermakers had several chances to grab the lead in the opening minutes of the second half, but they missed on a couple of fast break opportunities. That was the beginning of the end for them as Texas Tech slowly built up to a 9-point lead. Purdue would make one last charge to get within 3 with about 6 minutes to go, but the Red Raiders would pull away yet again. After a 78-65 victory, Texas Tech moves on to the final of the East region where they will face Villanova.
Not too many changes in the standings with just 7 games to go in this year's pools. Jen Shields still has a 3-point edge over Scott Brown in the main pool, while Jenn Nichols remains one point further back in third place. Jimmy O'Connor is back on top in the gambler's pool, with a one-point edge over Jenn. Big Nick is another point back in 3rd, but he has the most dangerous looking bracket remaining.
You can see the entire standings here.
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