March Madness 2018: The best and worst from Friday’s Sweet 16 games

Just like that, 68 teams have become eight.

It always seems strange, maybe even wrong, to think about how quickly this massive elimination process goes down. So much happens in such a short period of time during March that you almost lose your sense of time.

It feels like months, not less than two weeks, since the NCAA tournament bracket was released on Selection Sunday and we were all trying to peg who was going to be upset and who was going to crash the Final Four. Now here we are, staring at eight teams with the chance to realize the dream that 60 others had just two Sundays ago.

Let’s look at how we got our second quartet of regional finalists. Here’s the best and the worst of everything that happened on Sweet 16 Friday.

(1) Villanova 90, (5) West Virginia 78 (East)

It feels odd to give the Best Game honor to this one when there were two others decided by closer margins. But Kansas-Clemson only got mildly interesting late, and though Duke-Syracuse was fairly competitive throughout, it was far from aesthetically pleasing.

So we’ll roll with Villanova-West Virginia, which was awesome for about 33 minutes before the Wildcats started punching in cheat codes and pulled away. Even if the contest wasn’t in doubt in the closing moments, it still gave us the most competitive half and the best array of highlights of any game from Friday.

This is sort of like a lifetime achievement award, except for a single performance on a single night. A nighttime achievement award if you will.

Villanova

Villanova continues to light it up from the outside and is putting together a run that looks eerily similar to the near-perfect one the team made in 2016.

The Wildcats buried 13 of 24 three-pointers in their 90-78 win over defensive-minded West Virginia Friday night. Jay Wright’s team has now made 44 three-pointers in the 2018 Big Dance, the most of any team through three rounds in the history of the NCAA tournament.

While Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges continue to (deservedly) eat up the lion’s share of the headlines, freshman big man Omari Spellman continues to be the front-court presence the team was desperately lacking a year ago. Spellman refused to let the West Virginia post players bully him, and scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half. Had the versatile 6’9 forward been eligible last season like he was supposed to be, it’s not hard to envision the Wildcats making it past Wisconsin in round two and getting back to the Final Four.

Instead, it looks like they may have just had to wait an extra year.

Purdue

The Boilermakers didn’t play an awful game by any stretch of the imagination, and we all recognize how much it sucks that they had to give it a go without Isaac Haas.

Buuuut.

Someone has to go in the space, and when you’re the only team of the night to lose to an opponent with a worse seed ... well, you’re not leaving us much choice.

Jalen Brunson, Villanova

The potential national player of the year dished out four assists and scored a game-high 27 points in Villanova’s 90-78 win over West Virginia.

Marvin Bagley III, Duke

Bagley dominated inside in a game where Duke really needed him to. The Blue Devils went just 5-for-26 from beyond the arc, but Bagley made it up for it by posting 22 points and eight rebounds.

Gabe DeVoe, Clemson

DeVoe did everything he could to help Clemson claw out of a 20-point second half deficit and make things interesting in the final moments of an 80-76 loss to Clemson. The senior guard played all 40 minutes and finished with 31 points, nine rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Carsen Edwards, Purdue

Edwards was also tremendous in a losing effort, scoring 30 points over 32 minutes.

Omari Spellman, Villanova

The big man did a little bit of everything for the Wildcats, finishing with 18 points, eight rebounds, three assists, three blocks, and two steals.

1. Texas Tech making its Elite Eight debut

The sixth time was the charm for Texas Tech, which had lost in all five of its previous Sweet 16 appearances before Friday night. A resounding 78-65 win over 2-seed Purdue now has the Red Raiders headed to a regional final for the first time in program history.

Bob Knight couldn’t get there in seven years on the job, and Tubby Smith couldn’t get there in three. Chris Beard made it happen in year two. That’s not bad.

Texas Tech, which now faces No. 1 seed Villanova for the East Region title, is the only member of the last eight standing that will be playing in a regional final for the first time.

2. Sagaba Konate’s block of Mikal Bridges

The Sagaba Konate two-handed volleyball block has been one of the most exciting plays in college basketball all season long.

Mikal Bridges got a firsthand taste of the phenomenon Friday night.

Until next year, two-handed volleyball block.

3. Chalk

The madness on the other side of the bracket is fun, and it’s cool to know that there’s going to be at least one “what the hell?” team in the Final Four, but we needed the big dogs to advance on Friday.

Villanova-Texas Tech and Kansas-Duke should both be terrific regional finals, and that setup all but guarantees that we’re going to have at least one tremendous game on Final Four Saturday. That’s a comforting thought when the possibility of the other national semifinal being Kansas State vs. Florida State is still very much alive.

1. The lack of a thrilling game

Is this greed talking? Of course it is, but you can’t hit us with thriller after thriller for basically a week and a half straight and then take it all away on the tournament’s second Friday night.

All four games on Friday had moments where they were interesting, but none delivered the total package, and none brought us to the edge of our collective seat in the final seconds. Even though Clemson and Syracuse were both within striking distance during the final minute of their respective games, you never got the sense that Kansas and Duke weren’t more or less in complete control.

This is going to happen from time to time in the tournament. Not every night can be loaded with hysteria-inducing content. That doesn’t mean we can’t jeer it.

2. Duke slapping the floor while playing zone

When keeping it on brand goes wrong.

I AM SO F—-ING JACKED TO GUARD THIS SPECIFIC AREA OF SPACE THAT I HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED.

3. The “Matt Haarms Hair Adjustment Counter”

The fixation on Matt Haarms’ fixation on his hair hasn’t just jumped the shark, it’s made a successful SpaceX-funded launch and is now orbiting the shark.

My problem isn’t that Turner/CBS is over-saturating a “March Moment” (although it does tend to do that). My problem is that we already did this with Luke Kennard last year. Sure Duke only played two games in the tournament (heh), but it was still a thing that was already annoying by the time March Madness had rolled around.

Would I still love Sister Jean if there had been a lovable 98-year-old team chaplain guiding South Carolina to the Final Four last year? Of course. Don’t compare nuns to hair. I don’t want to hear it.

1. Omari Spellman, Villanova

Bonus points for starting the sequence with the unnecessarily emasculating block.

2. Eric Paschall, Villanova

3. Shelton Mitchell, Clemson

1. Guess how it ended.

2. Sometimes all you can do is watch.

3. Survival, death.

“He’s been everything. He just gave me a chance, some guy from Maywood, Illinois. Didn’t have a lot of looks ... He just saw something in me that a lot of people didn’t.” — West Virginia senior Jevon Carter on Bob Huggins

South Regional Final | Phillips Arena, Atlanta

No. 9 Kansas State vs. No. 11 Loyola-Chicago, 6:09 p.m.

Announcers: Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller, Dan Bonner, Dana Jacobson

West Regional Final | Staples Center, Los Angeles

No. 3 Michigan vs. No. 9 Florida State, 8:49 p.m.

Announcers: Brian Anderson, Chris Webber, Lisa Byington

East Regional Final | TD Garden, Boston

No. 1 Villanova vs. No. 3 Texas Tech, 2:20 p.m.

Announcers: Ian Eagle, Jim Spanarkel, Allie LaForce

Midwest Regional Final | CenturyLink Center, Omaha

No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 2 Duke, 5:05 p.m.

Announcers: Jim Nantz, Grant Hill, Bill Raftery, Tracy Wolfson