Just 8 more games in a wild first weekend of the Madness that definitely did not disappoint. No more 1 seeds in action, so let's head to the other end of the spectrum. Could we possibly see the first 16 seed in the Sweet 16? Fairleigh Dickinson would be taking on another team that had never been to the Sweet 16 either. But that game would be played much late on in the schedule. Let's start things with another team that took part in the First Four, the Pitt Panthers.
(Actually, if you don't want to hear about the 8 games that took place on Sunday, you can just access the spreadsheet here.)
When you have 16 seeds beating 1 seeds and 15 seeds getting to the second weekend for three straight years, nothing really surprises you about this tournament anymore. But it is still pretty remarkable that one of the two winning 11 seeds that plays in the First Four always seems to take home a first round victory as well. And some of them (like VCU) go much further than that. Pitt was trying to replicate VCU's Final Four run, but they would have to get by Xavier to keep the dream alive. Xavier was a bit of a team in disarray in round one, falling way behind Kennesaw State in the second half and arguing with one another before showing enough fortitude late to eke out a win. Perhaps it was first round jitters, but the Musketeers showed why they deserved to be a 3 seed in round two. Xavier's offense was high flying in the first half with guard Adam Kunkel draining 5 treys to give the Musketeers a 48-34 advantage at the break. Things didn't change much in the second half as Pitt had a hard time cutting into the Xavier lead. The Musketeers would build the lead up to 20 points, but the Panthers truly had no quit in them. The game seemed out of reach, but Pitt kept grinding away, bringing the deficit down to 8 with a minute left. But the clock was their enemy and despite never giving up in a game where Xavier was the dominant team, eventually Pitt ran out of time. Xavier moves on to play Texas in the Sweet 16.
The next game featured the big name school vs the upstart. With so much craziness in this year's tournament, Kentucky was one of the few recognizable powerhouses still standing. On the other end of the court from them was Kansas State, the team picked to finish dead last in the Big 12 before the season. But the team from Manhattan surprised everyone this season, earning themselves a 3 seed in the East Region. Old habits are hard to break though and the betting public said Kentucky was the favorite in this one. They certainly had the best player on the court in Oscar Tshiebwe, who I would argue is by far the best big man in the college game. He's hard to stop on offense and almost impossible to keep off the boards. The problem for Kentucky was the same one they had last year and the same one that Purdue had in round one. Tshiebwe is so much better than his teammates that everything runs through him and the rest of the team can be gun shy when that option isn't available. On the other side, Kansas State had a better balanced team, but it's not like they don't have a special player of their own. His name is Markquis Nowell and to say he is a playmaker would be an understatement. He made three highlight plays to end the first half that put Kansas State ahead at the break. The first was a behind the back pass on a fast break. The second was a pass through his legs to a trailing teammate on another fast break. Finally, he threw a no look lob for an alley oop right before the horn. In the second half, Kentucky fought back mainly on the shoulders of Tshiebwe, but also with some help from Cason Wallace, who made a habit of scoring after steals or rebounds. But no one played bigger than "the little kid" (as Kentucky coach John Calipari called him afterwards) as Nowell stopped passing in the final minutes and started draining dagger threes to put Kentucky away. The battle of the Wildcats goes to Kansas State as yet another big name in college basketball fails to make it to the second weekend.
Who would be up next for Kansas State? We would find out immediately as Marquette and Michigan State were on the court next. This game felt very similar in nature to the Kentucky-Kansas State game. In one corner, you had the college basketball powerhouse (Michigan State). In the other, the surprising upstart that surpassed all expectations to grab a high seed in the tournament (Marquette). Michigan State's success in March has typically been attributed to coach Tom Izzo, mainly because a lot of his teams have lacked superstars and needed time to gel together. "Mr. March" (as he's known) seems to care less about what his team's win-loss record is as long as they make the tournament and are peaking when they get there. So even though the Spartans were a 7 seed in the East region, they had to be considered dangerous. Marquette found this out the hard way on Sunday. Early in the game, the Golden Eagles were stymied on the offensive end, partly due to Michigan State's defense and partly due to some cold shooting. Marquette would soon be down by a dozen and their prospects at making a comeback were looking bleak with Big East player of the year Tyler Kolek in and out of the game with foul trouble. But in the second half, the Golden Eagles went on a run and took the lead, seemingly seizing all of the momentum. That was until they decided that shooting the ball wasn't important any more. Marquette went on a stretch of 8 possessions where they took a total of 1 shot, turning the ball over 7 times. Instead of pulling away, this sloppy stretch kept the Spartans alive and soon they had the lead back. Michigan State's lead was 5 when college basketball's dumb replay rules came into play. Kolek drove to the hoop and laid the ball up to the glass. Michigan State defender Mady Sissoko rose way up and pinned the ball against the glass. Was it goaltending? The refs decided it was not while action was going on and it could not be reviewed because it happened with 2:01 on the clock. If it happened two seconds later and the clock read 1:59, they would have reviewed it, since plays like this one can only be reviewed in the final 2 minutes. That was the end of the road for Marquette, as their magical season ends at the hands of Mr. March. The Michigan State Spartans have a date with the Kansas State Wildcats at Madison Square Garden next weekend.
Time to swing out to West region action in...Albany, NY? The regions don't really make sense in the first two rounds anymore as Albany was hosting games for the Midwest and West regions this weekend. At least this game had one team from the West playing in it. St. Mary's looked for most of the season like they were on the verge of replacing Gonzaga at the top of the WCC. They had a top 10 defense, they beat Gonzaga in their first matchup, and held a two-game lead in the standings for a while. But a late loss in a league game followed by a loss to Gonzaga in the rematch got them a tie as the conference champs. And when they met Gonzaga in the championship game of the WCC tourney, they got steamrolled. So despite a very strong resume, it seemed like few people were expecting the Gaels to beat Connecticut in round two. The Huskies, like the Gaels, were darlings of those who track advanced metrics for basketball. And the trajectory of their season was similar to that of St. Mary's. Early on they were blowing people out, before struggling a little bit in league play in the Big East. Yet those losses weren't perceived as bad as the ones that St. Mary's had suffered. Connecticut showed why they were favored in this one by repeating what they had done in round one. They trailed at the half vs Iona. In this game, they needed a three pointer with 5 seconds to go in the half to take a one point lead into the locker room. But what Connecticut has done better than any other team in this tournament is force their will in the second half. It's almost like a football team who struggles to run the ball in the first half, but as the game goes on, they wear the opponent down and start tearing off runs of 7-8 yards at a time. A 1 point lead would balloon to as high as 18 points in the final stages of this one. Connecticut will attempt to wear down the Arkansas Razorbacks in their next matchup Thursday in Las Vegas.
Princeton was still waiting to see who their opponent would be on Friday night. Due to some odd scheduling, most of the teams who won on Saturday had to wait a day to find out who they would be playing next weekend. The Tigers would get the winner of Baylor and Creighton. Baylor had played like Connecticut in their first round game: meek in the first half, dominant in the second half. Creighton was coming off of a bullsh...brilliant win against NC State, ensuring that I will never know joy as a sports fan. The Bluejays were a bit like Arkansas this season (they actually played a very tight game early in the season in the Maui tournament with Creighton winning by 3). They were in the preseason top 10, they got off to a hot start, and then suddenly they lost 6 in a row. They recovered somewhat in Big East play, at least enough to make the tournament. Which Creighton team would show up in this one? Answer: the preseason top 10 version. This game was never that close, much like Princeton's the day before. The Bluejays built an early 10 point lead. Baylor tried to chip into that lead time and time again, but had little success doing so. In fact, the lead would grow to 18 in the second half. The Bears would make the final score look respectable, but 85-76 belies how badly Baylor was beaten in this game.
Time for the game of the night! I'm sure at the beginning of the season, people were wondering when we might get an FDU/FAU battle. In the second round of the tournament, duh! Two rosters filled with mostly little guys (taller than me, I know) on a stage that no one expected them to be on, duking it out for a spot at Madison Square Garden next weekend. Hard to even describe what an opportunity this was for each of these schools. Florida Atlantic was the big favorite here based on having 32 wins on the season and the suspicion that Fairleigh Dickinson played their Super Bowl the other night and might have nothing left for round two. But the Knights weren't lacking energy in this one. Florida Atlantic scored the first 9 points of the game, but Fairleigh Dickinson immediately responded with a 14-6 run to let the Owls know they had a fight on their hands. And FDU also had Dayton's band behind them. Because FDU didn't have a band of their own, Dayton's band decided to follow the Knights from the First Four to make sure they had musical support. Those tunes seemed to be working as Fairleigh Dickinson would go ahead by as much as 5 points in the second half. But as is the case in many of these games, one player decides to take over and that player was Florida Atlantic's Johnell Davis. Davis became the first player in an NCAA tournament game with at least 20 points (he had 29), 10 rebounds (he had 12), 5 assists, and 5 steals. The Owls pulled away late, leading to Fairleigh Dickinson raising the white flag and not fouling as the final seconds ticked off the clock. But Florida Atlantic's Alijah Martin decided to put an exclamation point on the win by going in for an uncontested 360-degree dunk. Not only was it in poor taste, it looked especially dumb when Martin was rejected by the rim (boos rained down from the crowd). FDU's coach, Tobin Anderson was livid while shaking hands with FAU's coach after the game, but even that seemed a bit rich for a guy who's been talking shit publicly about Purdue and Florida Atlantic. Speaking of talking shit...the most hilarious moment of the night came in the postgame interview with Johnell Davis. He was giving a genuine answer to Jamie Erdahl's question when he accidentally said 'shit' on live TV. He immediately apologized, but the best part was Erdahl's immediate response: "That's alright, we're on TruTV, man!" (translation: no one could find this game on TV if they tried). It was a light-hearted moment that might have balanced out the bad karma of the gratuitous dunk attempt. At least Florida Atlantic hopes so as they will need as much luck on their side as possible when they face the Tennessee Vols in the Sweet 16.
Back to Albany, capital of the Midwest. Indiana was taking on the last ACC team remaining in the field, the Miami Hurricanes. The Hoosiers were led by one of the best (some say the best) big man in the country this year, Trayce Jackson-Davis. If your best player is a center, you would expect that team to clean up on the glass, but Miami did something in this game that I can't recall having ever seen in a game, much less a second round game in the tournament. The Hurricanes had more offensive rebounds than the Hoosiers had defensive rebounds. That means for every missed shot Miami put up, they were more likely to come away with the ball for a second possession than Indiana was to head down the other end. That's insanely good rebounding, especially when the other team has a huge All-American patrolling the lane. All of those extra opportunities gave Miami a huge edge. It led to a 14-2 run that broke the game open. And when Indiana started pressing to try and get back into it, their problems got worse. Miami's guards were way too fast, leading to easy scores once they broke the press. The ACC does not get shut out of the Sweet 16 as the Hurricanes overcome the Hoosiers by a score of 85-69. What inspired such a performance? Coach Jim Larranaga said in the postgame interview that they were embarrassed by how they played on Friday (in a game they won). Houston better hope that the Miami players weren't embarrassed by how they played in this one as they'll be facing the Hurricanes on Friday night.
The last game of the night featured maybe the most polarizing program in college basketball: Gonzaga. Fans of schools from the major conferences say Gonzaga skates by on their easy conference schedule and gets seeded way too high for March Madness. Zag defenders respond by saying that Gonzaga's tournament performance proves they are as good as any other school in the nation. The Zags were putting a streak of seven consecutive Sweet 16 appearances on the line against TCU. That streak makes them the only non-ACC school to make more than 5 consecutive appearances in the Sweet 16 since the field expanded to 64 (and now 68, I guess) teams. Early on, that streak appeared to be in danger as the Horned Frogs jumped out to a 10 point first half lead. Gonzaga cut that lead in half by intermission, then got rolling in the second half. At one point, the Bulldogs scored 13 in a row to take charge, never falling behind again the rest of the way. But the best part of this game was the finish. You may have seen the "bad beat" on social media featuring the last play of the game, but this gambling nightmare was way more soul-crushing than that clip might have let on. Let's pretend you bet on Gonzaga. The Zags were laying 4.5 points to TCU and led by 7 with 30 seconds left and TCU in possession of the ball. Not ideal. If they hit a 3, you might be screwed. And the Horned Frogs were firing from beyond the arc. They missed one trey and then another. <Phew!> But the ball went out of bounds and is staying with TCU. <No!> Except Gonzaga was pretty sure the refs made the wrong call and asked for a review. The refs somehow missed the ball hitting the arm and the leg of the TCU player. After a fairly quick review, the call was overturned. Zags up 7, with the ball, 15.6 seconds away from cashing your bet. <Pay Daddy> With so little time left in a 3 possession game, it was possible that TCU might even let Gonzaga run out the clock. Instead, they defended the inbound play really well, causing the Gonzaga player to absurdly just throw the ball to no one in particular underneath his own hoop. A TCU player grabbed it, was fouled, and made two free throws. Still up 5 with only 13.7 seconds left. And things got better when Gonzaga scored a breakaway dunk with 8.4 seconds to go, making the lead 7 again. <Woo hoo!> Except now you knew TCU was going to be putting up a three that could kill your bet. And sure enough, they hit a three with 3.0 seconds left to trim the lead to 4. <Come on!> At this point, you're ready to rip up your ticket, since TCU probably ain't fouling. But they did! And it wasn't even the first guy who touched the ball. Gonzaga got the ball in, completed a pass, and TCU still fouled, leaving 0.8 seconds on the clock. The Zags went to the line, drained both free throws, and were up 6 once again. <It's a miracle!> Except you know how this story ends. TCU slowly rolled the ball up the court. No one touched it as Gonzaga celebrated. As the ball trickled past half court, a Gonzaga player realized the horn hadn't sounded yet, looked at the TCU player following the ball up the court and gave them the "pick up the ball, dude, the game's over" look. TCU guy picks it up inside the logo just past half court, fires from deep, and swishes it. <LOSER!> Gambling is so much fun.
Luckily for you, all of the heartbreak from this year's pool probably already happened. Most of the brackets have been smashed meaning you will have to pull off some sort of TCU-like cover play to catch the folks at the top of the standings if you fell behind on opening weekend. Who are you chasing? In the Main Pool, Princeton Fred has a big margin on the field, leading 2nd place Christopher by 5 points and me by 6. In the Gamblers Pool, Natalie Schweitzer (aka Teen Angst) looks to follow in her mom's footsteps as a pool champion. She leads me by 1 point and Matt Brayko by 3 points.
Another link to the spreadsheet can be found here.
That's it for the first weekend! Not sure I can remember a Sweet 16 that feels like this one. Who's the favorite? Alabama or Houston, the remaining #1 seeds? UCLA, Michigan State, or Connecticut, the teams with banners hanging in their gyms? It seems like you could make a strong case for 14 of the remaining teams, with Florida Atlantic (33 wins) and Princeton (outplayed a PAC-12 and a SEC team in the first two rounds) as the two not-the-craziest-longshot teams remaining in the field. Should be interesting. Tune back in on Thursday to see how it plays out!
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