NCAA Tournament 2015: The best and worst of the tournament’s first 2 weeks
There are just three games left to play in the 2014-15 college basketball season, and that should make you sad. To make you happier, let’s look at how fun the 64 we just experienced were.
It’s funny how after spending two weeks of being proven consistently wrong, we all still always think we’ve got the Final Four figured out. Who cares if our bracket was busted by 3 p.m. on the opening Thursday, Kentucky is definitely going to roll over Duke in the final, or Kentucky is definitely not going to complete history this weekend.
We still don’t know anything, but before diving any more deeply into what we think will or will not happen this weekend in Indianapolis, let’s take a quick look back at just how wrong we’ve already been and just how fun it was to see it all play out.
Here’s the best and worst of the two weeks that led us to this place.
Five Best Games
1. (1) Kentucky 68, (3) Notre Dame 66 (Midwest, Elite Eight)
Notre Dame led Kentucky by four with 12:44 to play when Willie Cauley-Stein’s attempted tip-in rolled off the rim and into Zach Auguste’s waiting arms. It was the situation every team, especially one of the most offensively efficient squads in all of college basketball, dreams about before taking the court against John Calipari’s Goliath. The Fighting Irish knew they could keep scoring, they’d already proven they could hold their own on the glass, and they had put UK in a position where it was forced to win a game with what many had pointed to all year long as its potential Achilles’ heel: halfcourt offense.
Kentucky did not miss a shot again. Nine attempts, nine makes, each one of them equally paramount in a 68-66 Wildcat triumph.
As is the case with any NCAA Tournament classic (a title Saturday night's thriller took immediate ownership of), the game wasn't "about" just one thing. It wasn't just about Notre Dame giving a gargantuan effort in its first regional final appearance in 36 years. It wasn't just about one of the greatest all-time "what if" shots from Jerian Grant at the buzzer. It wasn't just about official Joe DeRosa getting the biggest block/charge call of the season correct with six seconds to play. And it wasn't just about Kentucky making every single play it had to down the stretch in order to become the first team in college basketball history to move to 38-0 -- but it was more about that than anything else.
With everything it had spent the last eight months working for hanging in the balance, the Wildcats made every shot they took in the final 12 minutes and 16 seconds of Saturday’s game. They shot 75 percent in the second half. They blocked a Notre Dame three-point attempt and forced a shot clock violation (the only Irish turnover of the second half) to set up what proved to be the game-winning free throws on the other end of the court. They defended Grant’s final attempt at a knockout punch as well as it could have possibly been defended.
“Very cruel,” Fighting Irish coach Mike Brey said about his team’s season ending. “It ends so fast, man. We emptied the tank tonight, and that’s all I asked them to do before the game.”
Emptying the tank would have been more than enough to take care of most of the other 67 teams in this year's tournament, but not the biggest one. A regional runner-up trophy and the potential to be forever referenced as the team that gave the 2014-15 Kentucky Wildcats their biggest scare are your still-too-bitter-to-open parting gifts for your efforts in one of the more memorable NCAA Tournament games in recent memory.
SB Nation presents: Notre Dame finally gave Kentucky a challenge and it was amazing
2. (14) Georgia State 57, (3) Baylor 56 (West, Round of 64)
There were very few times during the opening Thursday afternoon when it seemed like this game could be destined to wind up on anybody's "best games" list. Playing without star point guard Ryan Harrow and getting next to nothing out of leading scorer R.J. Hunter, Georgia State fell behind Baylor 16-6 early, and still trailed by 10 with just 1:56 to play.
Then, a perfect storm of Hunter remembering who he was and Baylor refusing to do anything to put the game away took place. In 16 seconds, Hunter scored seven points and the Bears turned the ball over twice. Just like that, 56-46 became 56-53, and the world was sent scrambling to try to remember which channel they had been watching the game on.
After another Panther free throw and Baylor inexplicably pushing the ball and missing a dunk instead of milking the clock and waiting to be fouled, this happened:
It was going to take a lot for the attention following Georgia State's second NCAA Tournament win ever to not fall directly on Louisville transfer Kevin Ware, and this certainly did the trick. The situation, the shot, the father (whom the son injured while celebrating the team's conference tournament championship) falling off his stool ... there have been few March moments better than this one.
Even though Hunter and Panthers’ journey wound up ending two days later, they’re always going to have this moment. People are always going to talk about it, and each and every March that video is going to be replayed all over the country. Immortality is cool, and this Georgia State team achieved that.
3. (14) UAB 60, (3) Iowa State 59 (South, Round of 64)
A few of the upsets and close calls in the opening round were events that at least seemed reasonably possible when the brackets were released Sunday. I’m not sure this one falls under that same umbrella.
Iowa State was the Big 12 Tournament champion that had struggled to realize its Final Four potential all season long, but had hit its stride at the absolute perfect time. UAB was the fluke automatic bid thief from Conference USA, the youngest team in the field of 68, and one which had entered the postseason with an overall record just one game above .500 (16-15).
The Cyclones were a 13.5-point favorite for a reason.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about the tournament's first shocker was that the underdog seemed to be the better team for the entirety of the game. There was no fluke finish, there was no random player going off and having the game of his life; the Blazers were more physical than Iowa State, they defended Georges Niang as well as any team has all season, and they hit the big shots -- most notably freshman forward William Lee's go-ahead jumper with 26 seconds left -- when the game was on the line. The Blazers deserved to win this game, a statement that's difficult to make more times than not when it comes to March stunners.
After the game, UAB head coach Jerod Haase spoke to the youth of his team by noting that as recently as a month ago, "four or five" of his players had no idea that the Conference USA Tournament champion earned an automatic bid, and that another player had no idea what Selection Sunday was. They know now, and they also know they earned a victory for their school and their athletic program, which meant more this year than it would have in any other.
4. (7) Michigan State 76, (4) Louisville 70 (OT) (East, Elite Eight)
Of course Tom Izzo vs. Rick Pitino in the Elite Eight went to overtime.
The Cardinals had a chance to settle things in regulation, as Mangok Mathiang was fouled on a put-back attempt with 4.9 seconds to play. His first free throw rattled around the rim, went straight into the air and then fell through the net to tie the game at 65. His second attempt did a similar dance, but came down off the rim. Travis Trice's halfcourt runner as time expired found nothing but glass, and the two teams played five more minutes for a trip to Indy.
That trip was won by the Spartans, who raced out to an early six-point lead and then put the game away on the most Michigan State play of all time: a Branden Dawson put-back of a missed three-point attempt.
5. (3) Notre Dame 67, (6) Butler 64 (OT) (Midwest, Round of 32)
The Fighting Irish’s first trip to the Sweet 16 in 12 years did not come easily.
After turning a six-point second-half deficit into a three-point lead, the Irish failed to score a point in the final 3:17 of regulation. They never trailed in the extra five minutes however, as back-to-back three-pointers from Pat Connaughton and Steve Vasturia spurred them to a 67-62 victory.
Despite waiting until overtime to make his first and only field goal of the game, Connaughton felt like the hero for Notre Dame after swatting away Kellen Dunham's potential game-winning shot in the closing seconds of regulation. The senior guard also successfully calmed down his teammates after a costly double dribble by Zach Auguste had given the Bulldogs a final shot to win before overtime.
Despite playing with an injured left knee, Roosevelt Jones poured in 23 points for Butler, but ultimately it wasn't enough to keep Notre Dame from moving on to face Wichita State in the Midwest Regional semifinals.
The Three Best Storylines
1. Ron Hunter/Georgia State
The shot, the fall, the emotional postgame press conference after the loss to Xavier; we’ll always remember it all.
2. A loaded Elite Eight leads to loaded Final Four
As much fun as the opening weekend upsets can be, too many times they result in Elite Eight, or even Final Four, matchups that wind up being less than desirable. That wasn’t and won’t be the case this season, as the bulk of the elite teams in the field took care of business, leaving us with an extremely enjoyable quartet of regional finals, and what should be a tremendous final three games of the season.
3. Notre Dame
College hoops fans had been hopeful all season long that the Fighting Irish would eventually make a deep run in the tournament, simply because they play a brand of basketball that’s fun to watch and is good for the sport to spotlight. Those wishes were answered, as Mike Brey finally has his guys into a regional final, the first time Notre Dame has been there since 1979. They also captured the world’s attention once they got there, coming as close as anyone has all season to ruining Kentucky’s run at perfection.
The whole thing was an especially feel-good story when you toss in the fact that Brey’s mother died of a heart attack on the morning of his team’s win over Butler last Saturday. He handled the entire situation with as much dignity as you’d expect someone with Brey’s reputation to, and his players followed suit.
The Three Worst Storylines
1. The end of UCLA/SMU
I'm not going to get into the rulebook or how I feel about the accuracy of the goaltending call, because I think regardless of a person's stance on the sequence, we can all agree that it was a pretty atrocious way for a tournament game to end:
Whether it was the correct call or not, UCLA won the game on a shot that had no chance of going in. Add that to the fact that the young man who is now forever on the wrong end of one of the more controversial endings in recent tournament history is a senior who will never play another college game, and the whole thing just sits even more unfavorably.
To his credit, Yanick Moreira took full blame for the play both during a tough-to-watch postgame press conference and on Twitter later in the night:
The whole thing would be absolutely brutal in any scenario, but it’s even more so when you consider that the Mustangs would have been a win over UAB away from going to the Sweet 16 and winning multiple games in the tournament for the first time since 1956.
2. The technical foul call on Ed Cooley
I’m still not over it.
With his team still clinging to life late in its game against Dayton, Providence head coach Ed Cooley drew a technical foul for doing this:
That is just an atrocious decision by the official, who deserves every bit of the criticism he’s been taking for the whistle.
3. The state of Texas
The Longhorn state put five teams -- Texas, SMU, Stephen F. Austin, Baylor and Texas Southern -- into the field of 68 this year. After one day of play, they were all back home.
Pre-Final Four All-Tournament Team
Sam Dekker, Wisconsin
Dekker has become the player everyone thought he could be all season during this tournament, and he’s probably made himself a decent amount of money in the process. He’ll head to Indy averaging 21.4 ppg and shooting 60.4 percent from the field in the big dance.
Travis Trice, Michigan State
The West Regional MVP is leading the seventh-seeded Spartans in a way reminiscent of how Shabazz Napier carried his seventh-seeded UConn squad to the Final Four last season. They did OK once they got there, too.
Karl-Anthony Towns, Kentucky
He may have only scored one point in the blowout of West Virginia, but when his team needed him the most two days later, he was unstoppable, hitting 10-of-13 from the field and dropping 25 in the win over Notre Dame.
Justise Winslow, Duke
Tyus Jones may have been named South Region MVP, but fellow freshman Winslow has been the difference-maker for the Blue Devils through two weeks of tournament play. He's blocked at least one shot in all four games, and is 7-of-12 from beyond the arc.
Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin
We can’t leave off the tournament’s leading scorer. Big Frank has 91 points through four games, just edging out his teammate Dekker, who has 87.
Best Dunk
1. Willie Cauley-Stein, Kentucky
Cauley-Stein should have been simultaneously thrown out of the tournament and named its Most Valuable Player for doing this:
Three Best Quotes
1. "It was something like, 'Hey, I like your shoes,' and he's like, 'Oh, I also like your shoes.' And that's just pretty much what happened." --Xavier's Matt Stainbrook on what he said to Ole Miss' M.J. Rhett that earned him a technical foul.
2. “It was important for us just to give the city something to cheer for. They were down about football, and it’s something that we’ve all kind of talked about, but it’s something that we wanted to just give the city, and especially our UAB community, something to cheer for, something exciting.” --UAB’s Robert Brown
3. "It's funny when you watch the TV on ways to beat us. They seem to keep on -- like, what else are they gonna add? Like, 'You gotta have rocket shoes so you can jump up and get their balls before they go in the hoop!' What else are they gonna come up with? You're just gonna have to beat us playing straight basketball and play out of your mind and let us play out of our mind and go down to the end. That's how you're gonna beat us." -- Kentucky center Willie Cauley-Stein
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