As you either watched last night (er, now two nights ago) or you are about to read here, we have officially reached maximum bracket chaos after last night's results. If your bracket is still alive, it's on life support at best. The standings after the first night of the Sweet 16 can be found here. Chubbs still has a solid lead in the Main Pool, but Vince isn't far off the pace and has a boatload of potential points remaining. Same could be said for Scott/Charlie Peerenboom, who sits in 4th. In the Gamblers Pool, the standings are very bunched, but once again, Vince has a substantial lead on the rest of the field in terms of "bracket upside potential".
The first game of the night featured the #1 overall seed, Gonzaga. Despite being fairly underwhelming in the opening two rounds, the Zags remained the Vegas favorite to cut down the nets. The #1 team in the land wasn't getting a lot from their guards, forcing them to rely heavily on their talented big men, especially late in games. If they could get more production out of their backcourt, they were going to be a tough out in this tournament. Julian Strawther was the Zag guard struggling the most, as he had missed every three-pointer he had taken on the opening weekend. About 5 minutes into the game against Arkansas, he made his first three-pointer of the tournament. Would that get him going? Not so much. He wouldn't hit another one the rest of the way. The Zag backcourt got a bunch of good looks throughout the first half against the Razorbacks, but they were ice cold from the field. The story didn't change much in the second half, but the reason for the Zags futility was completely different. During the first 20 minutes, the Zags played at the fast pace that they love and had wide open looks. In the second half, their guards were hesitant to take open mid-range jumpers. Meanwhile, Arkansas had done an excellent job slowing this game down. And even though Gonzaga's big men would get going during the second half, the best player in this game was Arkansas's JD Notae. He was a pest on the defensive end, while also orchestrating the Hogs offense. He was throwing sharp passes that led to buckets. He was stepping back and hitting jumpers. And he was getting by defenders and attacking the hoop. The most important instance of that happened with three and a half minutes to go. Notae collided with Chet Holmgren as he attempted to score and the Zags heralded freshman was called for his 5th and final foul. Arkansas had knocked out one of Gonzaga's legs and the #1 seed looked very wobbly with just Drew Timme to rely on. The Razorbacks knew where the ball was going the rest of the way and refused to let Timme beat them. For the second straight year, the Zags championship dreams fall short. Arkansas pulls off the big upset, advancing to the West Regional Final by a score of 74-68.
The Zags-Razorbacks game started earlier than the Michigan-Villanova contest, but that first game was played at a slower pace, which meant that these two games would have some considerable overlap during their respective final minutes. In fact, it looked like this game might end first as we hit the final minute. The overlap made it difficult to capture everything going on in this game, but I did see a decent amount of it. Nova looked like the stronger team in the first half, building a 7 point edge, but the Wolverines were out to show they weren't a one weekend fluke. An 11-2 run gave them the lead back. That would be the last real spurt from Michigan though as the Wildcats would take a 3 point lead into intermission and then held a 6-8 point lead for almost the entirety of the second half. Jay Wright is leading his team on another deep run as Villanova makes the Elite Eight, courtesy of a 63-55 win over Michigan.
Without a doubt, the main storyline in this year's tournament is Coach K and his impending retirement. Any game could be his last. Michigan State had plans of putting him in more AT&T commercials, but the Blue Devils made sure that Coach K would at least make it to the second weekend. Now it was the Red Raiders of Texas Tech who had designs of being the answer to the trivia question "who beat Coach K in his final game?" And they came out red hot in this one. In the blink of an eye, Texas Tech was up 10-2, the Blue Devils needed a timeout, and Coach K was in full scowl mode. Out of the timeout, Duke quickly tied the game and we were off and running in one of the best played games of this year's tournament. Both teams traded punches throughout the remainder of the first half. Texas Tech was building a decent lead (7 points) as the first 20 minutes came to a close, but they gave up an easy three-point play in the waning seconds that seemed to give Duke some life as they headed to the locker room. As the second half began, CBS reported that Coach K wanted his team to be much more aggressive in the final 20 minutes. And aggressive they were. The only problem for Duke was that the Red Raiders amped up their aggression as well. Both teams were scoring at a much higher clip than they had been in the first half, but Texas Tech was still holding on to the slim lead they had at the break. And then it happened.
"BAH GAWD! BAH GAWD! THAT'S JIM BOEHEIM'S MUSIC!"
No, the Syracuse Orange were not in this year's tournament, but Boeheim has had oodles of success bringing mediocre teams into the Big Dance and then unleashing his 2-3 zone on opponents who weren't familiar with it, causing all sorts of problems. Coach K decided that he would need to steal a trick from his rival's playbook to get his team a victory. Almost immediately, Duke was able to cause turnovers and get back into the lead again. The Red Raiders were quick learners though. After a TV timeout, they came out and broke down the zone on several straight possessions. And then after another timeout, they went one better. Texas Tech has played excellent man-to-man defense all year, but they decided to surprise Duke with a zone of their own. They got a turnover and scored. Oh how the turn tables, Coach K! Despite that strategic success, they went right back to man-to-man. Maybe they accidentally played zone for a possession? It was a strange sequence given how well the surprise had worked out for them.
Duke survived against Michigan State by making all of the big plays late, and as much as I hate them, they proved their mettle once again in this one. Specifically, Jeremy Roach took control of the game and decided that he could not be stopped. He drained clutch jumpers on consecutive possessions late as the Red Raiders failed to keep pace on their end. By the time Texas Tech started scoring again, they were forced to foul and Duke made their free throws. Coach K's got alligator blood, can't get rid of him. He'll lead his team into battle with Arkansas for a spot in the Final Four after ousting a very tough Texas Tech squad by a score of 78-73.
Thankfully there was some separation between the two late games. Coach K's possible finale was must-watch TV, but I did not want to miss Houston vs. Arizona, which promised to be a much closer matchup than the seeds might have suggested. Arizona had barely escaped TCU in round two, while Houston barely broke a sweat during the first weekend. The Cougars never trailed against UAB. As the underdog against Illinois, they trailed for a mere 1 minute and 8 seconds. It's possible that Houston could struggle if they ever fall behind for a considerable amount of time. Luckily for them, that was a problem they would not have to address against the #2 overall team in the tournament. Just as Gonzaga never seemed to figure out how to get out of their funk, Arizona looked like they hadn't recovered from being dazed by TCU. Of course, having to face one of the nation's best defenses didn't help their cause. Houston jumped out to a 14-4 lead and never looked back. Arizona pulled within a bucket a few times in the second half, but the Cougars would never let the Wildcats poke their nose in front. The #1 and #2 overall seeds bow out on the same evening as Houston heads to the South Regional Final with their 3rd consecutive double-digit win, besting Arizona by a score of 72-60.
So with only 12 teams remaining, the brackets look exactly as everyone expected:
Done dancing: Gonzaga, Arizona, Baylor, Kentucky, and Auburn
Still strutting: Miami, Iowa State, and St. Peter's
You have to love March!
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