NCAA Tournament 2015: Best and worst of Sunday’s madness
The Sweet 16 is set after a Sunday which saw few close games, but a pair of favored No. 2 seeds stumble.
The ending doesn’t always have to blow you away. Sometimes it’s all about giving folks the finish they both expected and needed, and then moving on.
If the final day of the NCAA Tournament's opening weekend were a movie ending, it would be The Empire Strikes Back's: nothing is resolved, nothing especially shocking occurs, everything is simply being set up for a future piece of the story which is clearly going to contain even more action and drama.
Eight games in the Round of 32 were played on Sunday, none of them were decided by fewer than six points, and more than half of them were won by double digits. Only one team seeded worse than eighth played in a game (No. 11 seed Dayton), and it lost.
Sometimes it’s just about furthering the storyline, even when that isn’t what the fans think they want.
THREE BEST SUNDAY GAMES
1. (7) Michigan State 60, (2) Virginia 54 (East)
Travis Trice scored a game-high 23 points as Michigan State put a premature end to Virginia's season for a second straight year.
The Spartans, who at various points this winter looked like a team in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament altogether, were even more impressive on Sunday than they were upsetting the top-seeded Cavaliers in the 2014 Sweet 16. Tom Izzo’s team limited UVA to just 29.8 percent shooting from the field, including 2 of 17 (11.8 percent) from beyond the arc. They trailed just once, when the score was 2-0 after the game’s opening minute, and led by as many as 12 in the second half.
This marks the seventh time in eight seasons, and the fourth straight year that Izzo has taken Michigan State to the Sweet 16. For Virginia, added frustration came in the form of them being the only ACC team not to make the tournament’s second weekend, despite the fact that they finished first in the conference’s final regular season standings, a full game ahead of Duke.
The only thing left for Tom Izzo to do at this point is to tank every regular season game before winning the Big Ten Tournament with the hope of earning a No. 16 seed and drawing the Cavaliers in the Round of 64.
2. (3) Oklahoma 72, (11) Dayton 66 (East)
The Sooners avoided the upset bug that had already bitten the top two seeds in the East by outscoring a small, thin and exhausted Dayton team 23-10 in the game’s final 10 minutes. The victory made Oklahoma’s Lon Kruger just the second head coach ever to take four different teams to the Sweet 16. Kruger also achieved the feat with Kansas State, Florida and UNLV.
For much of the afternoon it didn’t look like that was going to happen, as Dayton, playing its third game in five days, dominated the opening 10 minutes of the second half to build a 56-49 lead. Then, the shots simply stopped falling. Whether UD’s tired legs or Oklahoma’s stellar defense deserved the credit/blame, the Flyers went scoreless for the next 9 minutes and 4 seconds, a stretch which crushed their dreams of crashing the tournament’s second weekend for a second straight year.
Dayton made one final "run" with just over a minute to play. After a Scoochie Smith layup had broken a stretch of 10:32 without a Flyer field goal, freshman guard Darrell Davis recorded a steal and had an opportunity to score on the break and cut the Sooner lead to two. Buddy Hield wasn't having it. The OU star rose for perhaps the most impressive block of the big dance so far, and silenced the rowdy Flyer fans in Columbus for good.
Hield finished with 15 points and five assists for Oklahoma, which is onto the second weekend for the first time since Blake Griffin and company made the regional finals in 2009.
3. (1) Wisconsin 72, (8) Oregon 65 (West)
For a second straight year, Wisconsin held off a game Oregon team to advance to the Sweet 16. The Badgers also defeated the Ducks in the Round of 32 a season ago, 85-77.
Despite shooting their worst percentage in more than a month and finding themselves in a tie game with just under six minutes to play, the top-seeded Badgers never rattled. After Dwayne Benjamin buried a three-pointer to tie the score at 52 with 5:56 lest, Sam Dekker and Frank Kaminsky combined to hit three shots on Wisconsin's next five possessions, and stretch the UW lead back to six. It wouldn't dip below that mark again.
Dekker finished with 17 and Kaminksy had 16 for a Badger team that missed 16 of its 23 three-point attempts, and allowed Oregon star Joseph Young to go off for 30. Still, the Badgers are on to the Sweet 16 for the seventh time since 2003, and will face No. 4 seed North Carolina on Thursday in Los Angeles.
THREE TEAMS THAT WON IT THE BEST
1. Gonzaga
The Bulldogs ended their five-year Sweet 16 drought, and they appeared to be a bit angry while they were doing it.
Kyle Wiltjer scored 24 points and Domantas Sabonis added 18 as Gonzaga decimated Iowa in a game that was never really in doubt past the midway point of the first half. Wiltjer, who won a national title at Kentucky in 2012, was nearly perfect, connecting on 10 of 12 shots from the field, including 4 of 6 from behind the three-point line. The backcourt duo of Kevin Pangos and Gary Bell Jr. did its part as well, combining for 26 points and seven assists.
As a team, Gonzaga shot 61.5 percent against an Iowa squad that had been holding opponents to right at 39.0 percent from the field for the season. They were especially dominant in the paint, where they scored 40 points, the most of any Hawkeye opponent this season.
Now it’s on to the second weekend for just the third time since 2002, where No. 11 seed UCLA is waiting. A victory would give the Bulldogs their first trip to the regional finals since 1999. Brace yourself for the Adam Morrison clips this week.
2. Wichita State
Wichita State finally got a chance to play the team its fan base claims has been “ducking them” for years, and the Shockers took full advantage, pounding Kansas 78-65 in a game where the underdogs looked like they should have been the No. 2 seed.
Tekele Cotton scored 19 points and Fred VanVleet added 17, as Wichita State earned its second trip to the Sweet 16 in the last three years. The Shockers made the Final Four as a No. 9 seed in 2013, but were "upset" by Kentucky as an undefeated No. 1 seed in last year's Round of 32. Gregg Marshall's team is now potentially one victory away from getting a shot at revenge against the unbeaten Wildcats in the Elite Eight.
3. Louisville
Plagued by shooting woes the entire season, the Cardinals now suddenly appear to be a major threat to crash the Final Four for the third time in the last four years.
Louisville played arguably its best game of the season on Sunday, shooting 45.8 percent from the field and scoring 66 points on a Northern Iowa team that came into the game allowing opponents an average of just 54.3 ppg, good for fourth-best in the country. Terry Rozier, who had been mired in a month-long slump heading into the big dance, was especially brilliant, hitting 8 of 13 from the field to register a game-high 25 points, which went along nicely with his seven assists.
Rick Pitino's team had seemed to be a lost cause when starting point guard Chris Jones was dismissed exactly a month ago, but on Sunday, the Cards looked like a squad that was light years ahead of where they had been with Jones during the first four months of the season. The performance allowed Louisville to join Michigan State as the only teams which have made the Sweet 16 in each of the last four years.
SB Nation presents: The most important things in life go head-to-head
THREE BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS
1. Kansas
I still think it could be a No. 1 seed if a couple of things fall into place.
2. Maryland
The Terrapins got bullied on Sunday, and they didn’t respond especially well.
West Virginia played the physical, "ugly" type of game that Bob Huggins is known for, and wound up forcing their opponents into 23 turnovers, including eight from senior standout Dez Wells. Wells and backcourt mate Melo Trimble combined to give the ball away 11 times, while dishing out only three assists.
“Everywhere we go people say, `Well, it’s not pretty,” Huggins said after his team’s 69-59 win. “I think it’s beautiful.”
Next up for West Virginia is Kentucky, a team the ‘Neers will be facing in the Big Dance for the third time in the last six years. WVU stunned the top-seeded Wildcats in the 2010 Elite Eight, and then lost to Coach Cal’s squad in the round of 32 a year later.
3. Virginia
We mentioned it earlier, but it has to sting for a Virginia team that went 30-4 and won the ACC outright for a second straight year to look at the bracket and see themselves as the “1” with an 11-1 conference record. The Cavaliers’ second straight loss to Michigan State in the dance left the East Region without its top two seeds advancing to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2004.
THE ALL-SUNDAY TEAM
Jahlil Okafor, Duke
San Diego State had no answer for the soon-to-be All-American, who went 12 of 16 from the field, scored 26 points and blocked three shots in the Duke rout.
Joseph Young, Oregon
Young became the tournament’s first 30-point scorer since the opening Tuesday in Dayton by hitting the number exactly in his final collegiate game.
Terry Rozier, Louisville
Northern Iowa had zero answers for Rozier, who got into the lane at will and finished with a game-high 25 points and seven assists.
Travis Trice, Michigan State
Trice set the tone for the entire game by scoring 13 points in the opening six minutes to help build a 15-4 Spartan advantage. He finished with a game-high 23 points.
Fred VanVleet, Wichita State
VanVleet missed a game-winning shot at the buzzer against Kentucky in last season’s Round of 32, and he seemed to be committed to not letting things get to that point this go-round. The junior guard finished with 17 points, six rebounds, six assists and four steals as the Shockers ran away from Kansas.
THREE SUNDAY JEERS
1. Charles Barkley
It sometimes sounds like Barkley hasn't even been watching the game he's talking about when he gives his thoughts on the tilt at halftime. The latest exhibit in this argument is Barkley claiming that Kansas center Cliff Alexander had been "playing pretty good" in the first half against Wichita State. Alexander has been suspended since late February while an NCAA investigation takes place, and he didn't even travel with the team to Omaha.
2. No games decided by fewer than 6 points
I know I kind of defended it earlier, but Sunday was pretty much the worst anchor performance possible. It was like me subbing in for Ryan Lochte (is that reference still relevant?). I can't do a dive and I'm not sure that what I do in the pool could even legitimately be classified as "swimming," but I mean, it's gonna get done, and I'm probably not going to die. Probably.
3. Kansas governor Sam Brownback’s bandwagoning
Brownback sported a shirt with both the Kansas and Wichita State logos during Sunday’s game, and then put on a Shockers shirt OVER his original choice following the team’s win. He’s also a Kansas State grad.
THREE SUNDAY CHEERS
1. Darion Atkins' straight-forwardness
Most athletes go their entire careers without making any sort of reference to “d-ck swinging contests” or “playing like p-ssies.” Virginia’s Darion Atkins achieved both feats in less than 48 hours. That’s some serious free-speaking.
2. Gonzaga’s postgame celebration
When you make it to the Sweet 16 for the first time in five years, your coach does handstands ... or roundoffs.
This is how we're feeling right now!!! Not done yet!!! #Sweet16 #ZagUp pic.twitter.com/wehf6gMHWg
— Kyle Wiltjer (@kwiltj) March 23, 2015 3. The No. 1 seeds advancing
As interesting as it would have been to see Duke and/or Wisconsin get stunned on Sunday, there’s no question that the second weekend will be far more interesting with these top seeds still dancing.
THREE BEST SUNDAY DUNKS
1. Domantas Sabonis, Gonzaga
2. Montrezl Harrell, Louisville
3. Jahlil Okafor, Duke
THREE NOTABLE SUNDAY QUOTES
1. “We don’t have McDonald’s All-Americans, we don’t have guys that have been in the spotlight, and been given that pedestal. We work for everything we’ve got, from managers to coaches to our preacher to, you know, whoever. We’ve scrapped and fought our whole lives.” --Wichita State guard Fred VanVleet
2. “I’ve always wanted to win a national title. That’s why we came to Duke, to have an opportunity to win a national title. That is where all of my focus has been this season, and that is what it still is.” --Duke center Jahlil Okafor
3. “I wish I could sit here and tell you we’re definitely going to win. I can’t do that. But I can tell you we’re not going to be scared.” --West Virginia coach Bob Huggins on his team playing Kentucky
FULL SWEET 16 LINEUP
Everybody breathe. We’ve got three days to get ourselves together.
| Regional Semifinals - Thursday, March 26 (Beginning at 7 p.m. ET)
| ||||
Tip | Network | Site | Game | Play-by-Play/Analyst//Reporter |
7:15 p.m. | CBS | Cleveland I | Notre Dame vs. Wichita State | Marv Albert/Chris Webber/Len Elmore//Lewis Johnson |
7:47 p.m. | TBS | Los Angeles I | North Carolina vs. Wisconsin | Kevin Harlan/Reggie Miller/Dan Bonner//Rachel Nichols |
After Conc. I | CBS | Cleveland II | Kentucky vs. West Virginia | Albert/Webber/Elmore//Johnson |
After Conc. I | TBS | Los Angeles II | Arizona vs. Xavier | Harlan/Miller/Bonner//Nichols |
| Regional Semifinals - Friday, March 27 (Beginning at 7 p.m. ET) | ||||
Tip | Network | Site | Game | Play-by-Play/Analyst//Reporter |
7:15 p.m. | CBS | Houston I | Gonzaga vs. UCLA | Jim Nantz/Bill Raftery/Grant Hill//Tracy Wolfson |
7:37 p.m. | TBS | Syracuse I | Louisville/NC State | Verne Lundquist/Jim Spanarkel//Allie LaForce |
After Conc. I | CBS | Houston II | Duke vs. Utah | Nantz/Raftery/Hill//Wolfson |
After Conc. I | TBS | Syracuse II | Michigan State vs. Oklahoma | Lundquist/Spanarkel//LaForce |
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