NCAA tournament 2017: The best and worst from Friday’s Sweet 16 games

And just like that, 68 teams have become eight.

It always seems strange to think about it in those terms once you get to this part of the tournament voyage, where the houses below that looked like specks just a few days ago have started to look like houses again. So much happens in such a short period of time during March that time itself gets distorted.

It feels like months, not less than two weeks, since the final day of conference tournament play and the release of the NCAA tournament bracket. Yet here we are, knowing that there are now just eight teams capable of realizing the same dream that 60 others had two Sundays ago.

The field was whittled down to that number on Friday after a quartet of games that featured the showcase contest of the Sweet 16 and a post-midnight thriller for the second time in as many days.

Here’s the best and the worst from everything that went down on Sweet 16 Friday.

(4) Florida 84, (8) Wisconsin 83 (OT) (East)

The evening was supposed to belong to Kentucky-UCLA, but that all changed in the 45 minutes or so following the Wildcats’ 11-point victory over the Bruins. The sports world then flipped over to TBS to watch Florida and Wisconsin play in the best game of not just Friday, but of the entire tournament.

Despite trailing by 11 in the first half, Florida led by two at halftime and seemed to be in total control of the game for nearly the entirety of the second half. That changed in the final minute when Wisconsin once again proved to be nearly impossible to get rid of in March. A few clutch shots by the Badgers, a missed layup from Kasey Hill, and a couple of ill-advised Florida turnovers all led to Bucky having one last shot to hit a three and extend the game. That’s when Zak Showalter did this:

Overtime was a total reversal of the end of regulation. Wisconsin now seemed to be the team in control, but missed free throws and some ill-advised fouls allowed Florida to make it a one-possession game in the final minute. With the Badgers clinging to a two-point lead, Khalil Iverson seemed to have broken free for an uncontested layup that would double his team’s lead. Canyon Barry was having none of that:

Both teams would add two points to their totals, leaving Florida down two with only 4.5 seconds to go. Chris Chiozza then became a March immortal:

We almost made it all the way to the Elite Eight without a memorable last-second shot, and here we get two in the same game, the second one being a true game-winning buzzer-beater.

Florida coach Mike White admitted after the game that he should have fouled at the end of regulation, but college hoops fans across the country wound up benefitting significantly from his mistake. Thanks for the entertainment, Gators and Badgers.

Kentucky

It’s been more than three months since Kentucky dropped a 97-92 decision at home to UCLA in a game that knocked UK from the top of the national rankings. On Friday night, the Wildcats showed the world which team had improved the most since then.

Kentucky’s vaunted freshman backcourt of De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk combined for 60 points (39 from Fox) to completely outshine Lonzo Ball and the rest of the UCLA guards. After playing into the Bruins’ hands at the start of the game, UK regained its composure and forced Steve Alford’s team to play at its pace for the rest of the night. The result was that UCLA played a second half where at one point it was shooting 70.8 percent but had still seen its halftime deficit balloon from three points to 11.

The Wildcats got big second chance points when they were available, they committed six turnovers to UCLA’s 13, and they ran everything through Fox, who outplayed Ball for the second time this season. North Carolina, a team Kentucky also played (but beat) earlier in the season, will present some different challenges on Sunday, namely with its offensive rebounding ability. Still, if John Calipari’s star guards stay in this type of zone, there might not be a team left standing that can take down the Cats.

Baylor

Baylor played even with South Carolina for the first 12 minutes of the first game at Madison Square Garden Friday night. Then it was almost as if the Bears collectively decided to play into every negative stereotype that fans have about Scott Drew’s program at exactly the same time.

For nine minutes and 42 seconds, Baylor played the worst basketball we’ve seen any team play this tournament. Not only did the Bears not score a point, they never really came close to scoring a point. South Carolina, meanwhile, reeled off 18 straight.

It was never a game after that. There was never a moment where Baylor made you think “hold on a second; these guys aren’t going to go down without a fight.” The team that went into the locker room down 15 was the same one that walked back out 15 minutes later, and the same one we saw on the court for the rest of the night.

It was a disappointing effort from a group that earlier this season became the first Baylor team ever to earn a No. 1 ranking.

De’Aaron Fox, Kentucky

Fox was simply unstoppable against UCLA. His 39 points were the most by any player in the 2017 tournament, and they also set a new NCAA tournament record for points by a freshman. The fact that the effort came against a fellow freshman point guard who was recently named the national Freshman of the Year had to have made the performance that much sweeter.

KeVaughn Allen, Florida

While Chiozza is (understandably) getting the bulk of postgame attention for his buzzer-beater, it was Allen who put the Gators in that position by scoring a game-high 35 points.

Sindarius Thornwell, South Carolina

It’s not difficult to make the case that Thornwell has been the best player in the tournament up to this point. The Sindarella story (I’m not even sorry) continued on Friday when he scored 24 points and grabbed six rebounds in South Carolina’s rout of Baylor.

Justin Jackson, North Carolina

The Tar Heel star was the best player on the court against Butler, scoring 24 points to go with five rebounds and five assists in UNC’s 92-80 win.

Nigel Hayes, Wisconsin

Playing in his final college game, Hayes scored 22 points and had seemed to score the game-winning points with his two free throws near the end of overtime. Then some stuff happened, and they weren’t the game-winning points anymore.

1. Chiozza’s postgame text scroll

We get it. People like you.

2. The SEC

When the brackets came out 13 days ago, the entire country was talking about a high-profile conference rematch to end the season. The two teams everyone had circled were Duke and North Carolina, not South Carolina and Florida or the winner of that game facing Kentucky for the national title. But that’s where we are now. There are three SEC teams in the Elite Eight, and one of them is guaranteed to make the Final Four.

So let’s break this down for a second.

In 2016-17, the ACC:

—Produced college football’s Heisman Trophy Winner, produced more bowl wins than any other conference, and produced the sport’s national champion.

—Sent just one team to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament.

In 2016-17, the SEC:

—Had a losing overall record in bowl games, produced a champion that lost to the ACC’s champion in the national title game.

—Sent three teams to the Elite Eight, is guaranteed to send one team to the Final Four, and has gone 6-2 against other power conference opponents so far, including a pair of wins over teams from the ACC.

Just like we all predicted.

Also, if Steve Spurrier doesn’t toss up the opening tip for Florida/South Carolina on Sunday, then what are we even doing here?

3. Lovable Frank Martin

The softer side of one of college basketball’s most intimidating coaches came out when he was hit with a legit postgame question from a 12-year-old reporter:

On a related note, this is a tremendous video:

1. The missed dunk trend continuing once again

You keep doing it, this is going to keep happening:

Congrats Kamar Baldwin. You’re on the list.

2. Three games decided by 11 points or more

Look, I almost feel bad about complaining after what Wisconsin and Florida did for us, but the rest of the evening was simply substandard. North Carolina-Butler and South Carolina-Baylor were never competitive, and they were going on at the same time. That’s no way to celebrate the final day of the tournament when we have multiple games being played at the same time. No way.

3. The state of UCLA

Steve Alford has never been to a regional final, falling to 0-4 all-time in the Sweet 16 after Friday night’s loss to Kentucky. There’s reason to believe that Alford not cashing in with this particular Bruins team is going to hurt him and the entire UCLA program even more than it seems like at the moment.

Regardless of exactly how many players from this year’s team declare for the NBA draft, UCLA is going to lose the bulk of its production heading into next season. It’s bringing in another top-five recruiting class, but there isn’t another player in that class who seems to have the potential to be nearly as transcendent as Lonzo Ball was this year.

Speaking of which, the lowest-rated member of that class happens to be one of Lonzo’s two younger brothers, LiAngelo. With LiAngelo seeming destined to either not see much of the court or see too much of the court without producing numbers to justify the playing time, there’s almost a guarantee that the LaVar Ball sideshow act is going to continue into 2018. Only this time, it has the potential to get a little bit uglier and potentially more detrimental to the UCLA team.

Maybe Alford sticks around in Westwood and he has an even better season than he did in 2016-17. Maybe, but it certainly doesn’t seem likely.

BONUS CHEER:

This is social media in March done right:

This was a slow night for crams, but UCLA’s Gyorgy Goloman threw us a lifeline here:

This is a game-winning, three-point shot that went in:

Unreal.

Florida coach Mike White was a guard on the Ole Miss team that was upset at the buzzer by Valparaiso in 1998. He was asked Friday night if his Florida team’s buzzer-beater made up for the one hit by Bryce Drew.

“Hell yeah. With an emphasis on the hell. Yeah. Absolutely. What a neat game to be a part of, especially when you’re on the winning end.”

Not done yet.

6:09 p.m. TBS: No. 1 Gonzaga vs. No. 11 Xavier

Brian Anderson / Chris Webber // Lewis Johnson

8:49 p.m. TBS: No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 3 Oregon

Kevin Harlan / Reggie Miller / Dan Bonner // Dana Jacobson

2:20 p.m. CBS: No. 4 Florida vs. No. 7 South Carolina

Verne Lundquist / Jim Spanarkel // Allie LaForce

5:05 p.m. CBS: No. 1 North Carolina vs. No. 2 Kentucky

Jim Nantz / Grant Hill / Bill Raftery // Tracy Wolfson