With very few upsets in the first 2 rounds, we wound up with one of the most loaded Sweet 16's in recent memory. We'd start things off with the top seed in the West, Gonzaga, taking on what I would call the "wise guy" team in the region, Florida State. Much of the focus throughout the year in the ACC was on Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia, but the 4th place team out of that conference wasn't too shabby either. They had already beaten 4 of the other teams playing in the Sweet 16 (LSU, Purdue, Virginia Tech, and Virginia) and lost by two to Duke. This was a serious team. People started to take notice after they throttled Murray State in round two. And because Gonzaga wasn't getting the respect of the other 1 seeds, there were many experts on TV choosing the Seminoles to be the first team in this year's tournament to take out a #1 seed.
On the other side of the court were the Zags. Year in and year out, they put together great seasons, testing themselves early on by playing the best of the best before heading into a weak conference schedule that always causes people to doubt how good they are. But this team was well deserving of a #1 seed, having beaten Duke despite being without one of their key players, Killian Tillie. Tillie would be available off the bench in this game, but he wouldn't have much of an impact as the starters would carry the Zags. Gonzaga got off to a good start and methodically increased their lead over the Seminoles, getting to 14 at one stage of the first half. The Zags would head to the locker room up 11. Florida State was unable to make much of a run for most of the second half, but with about 4 minutes remaining, they were able to creep within 4. Gonzaga immediately answered with a 3-pointer and it became clear that the Seminoles were never going to get over the hump. Gonzaga moves on to the West regional final with a 72-58 victory.
It will be very hard for any game to be as entertaining as the Purdue-Tennessee battle that took place in the South Region. Big leads, furious comebacks, clutch shots...this game had it all. If you watched the first 30 minutes of this game, you wouldn't have thought it would be a classic. Purdue dominated the action, leading by as many as 18 points early in the second half. We've seen teams have a really hard time holding on to huge leads in this tournament though, so it wasn't shocking to see the Volunteers claw their way back into it. What was startling was how quickly it happened. The Boilermaker rout vanished and we had a tie game with 7 minutes to go. From there it was a game of "Can you top this?". Tennessee would string together a few baskets on their end, trying to crack Purdue once and for all. On the other end, there was Ryan Cline. The Boilermaker guard would scramble around screen after screen, catch the ball outside the arc, and swish one clutch three after another, the last one tying the game at 80 with 38 seconds to go. The Volunteers went back ahead on a dunk with 10 seconds left. Purdue tried to tie it with a layup, but the shot was blocked out of bounds with 4 seconds on the clock. The Boilermakers went for the win as they inbounded the ball to star player Carsen Edwards in the corner and he put up a three. It didn't fall, but he did. The refs blew the whistle and he had a chance to win the game at the line with three free throws. He missed the first. Made the second. Made the third. Tennessee made the odd decision to try and advance the ball past half court and call timeout even though they had less than 2 seconds to do so. The timeout came with 0.1 remaining, so after the timeout, all they could do was try and deflect the ball into the hoop. That didn't happen and we headed to overtime.
In the overtime, it looked like Tennessee was a tired team. They had made a valiant comeback and were 2 seconds away from the regional final before that last foul forced 5 more minutes of play. Purdue took the lead early on in the extra period, scoring 9 of the first 11 points. That would build them a 7 point margin, the same advantage they would hold when the final buzzer sounded. Purdue moves on with a 99-92 win over Tennessee.
Purdue and Tennessee combined for 201 points in that game. Michigan, Texas Tech, Virginia, and Oregon would combine for 209 points in the two late games. They were not pretty, folks. Both Texas Tech and Virginia are known for their shut down defense and it was very much on display in the nightcaps. Texas Tech only scored 24 points in the first half, but that was good enough to hold an 8 point lead at halftime. That lead would balloon to 25 as the Wolverines could not get into any offensive flow due to the suffocating Red Raider D. Texas Tech will have their top-rated defense tested when they take on the top-rated offense of Gonzaga in the West Region final. The Red Raiders advance with a 63-44 victory.
As for Virginia and Oregon, their game was more about bad offense than great defense. Both teams seemed determined to shoot threes and neither one was very good at it. Combined, they made 18 out of 58 tries from beyond the arc. As Charles Barkley would say, turrible. Because neither team could hit much at all, the game remained close throughout. The Ducks even held a three-point lead with just under 6 minutes to go. Then they went scoreless for 5:29. The Cavs took advantage, scoring just enough to eek out a 4 point win, 53-49.
On to the standings, where one of the greatest upsets of all time could be taking place. Despite running these pools for many, many years, I have not seen my name near the top of the standings all that often. But after going 4 for 4 on Thursday, I have crept within striking range. Not in the top three yet, but lurking. Here are your leaders after Day 5:
Safety School:
- Will Peerenboom and Fred Alcaro - 71 points
- Vince Berarducci and Aiden Schweitzer - 68 points (Blogger won't let me change the 2 to a 3. Or maybe I don't know how to do it. Either way, these guys are tied for third.)
Paid For My Kids SATs:
- James Dematteo - 70 points
- Vince Berarducci - 68 points
- Nate Heffner - 67 points
To see the full standings, click here.
Friday's recap will be right behind this one. Stay tuned!
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