For those of you who didn't stay up until midnight you might have awoken up to your bracket being busted. Harvard, a 14-seed, picked up their first ever NCAA tournament victory over 3-seed New Mexico 68-62. Apparently, they not only have brilliant minds attending their school but ball players as well. The Crimson was able to slow down the pace of the game and hit key 3-pointers, led by Laurent Rivard who went 5-9 from deep with 17 points. New Mexico is known for its offensive struggles and it showed as Mountain West player of the year Kendall Williams went 1-6 from the floor for eight points. The Lobos were discussed as a possible Final Four candidate but that's out the window now that Harvard knocked them out.
Marquette storms back over Davidson
3-seed Marquette looked to be the first casualty in this years tournament at the hands of 14-seed Davidson. The Wildcats were up pretty much the entire game and held a 54-48 lead with 1:10 to play. The Golden Eagles proceeded to hit three 3s to pull within one, 58-57, with 10 seconds left. After the inbound, Davidson tried to play keep away while running the clock and ended up turning the ball over. Marquette's Vander Blue then hits a driving layup with 1 second to spare as the 3-seed is able to survive. Davidson had this game wrapped up if they would have just held onto the ball and got fouled. They are the best free throw shooting in the country at 79.5% but only managed 14-22 for the game including a crucial miss in the last minute. Marquette came up big though making their last three 3s after starting 1-12. And ask St. John's if Blue's shot looked familiar. They now move on to play Butler.
Southern pushes Gonzaga to the brink
Sooner (hopefully) or later we will see a 16-seed pull off the ultimate upset over a 1-seed. Southern University, the champions of the SWAC, was in it all the way down to the wire against top seeded Gonzaga. The Jaguars were only down three at the half and even tied the game at 56 on a Derrick Beltran jumper with 3:47 left. The very next play, the Bulldogs Gary Bell Jr. hit a big 3 to take back the lead. After two Beltran free throws, this time it was Kevin Pangos with an even bigger 3 to push the Zags lead to four with just under two minutes to play. Southern would fail to score the rest of the game and lose 64-58. The 6-point win in the closest in a 1 vs 16 game since 1990 when Michigan State beat Murray State 75-71 in OT. Most people weren't sold on Gonzaga being a top seed and this effort did nothing to silence their critics.
Oregon pulls off the first upset and looked good doing it
Oregon was not given much credit for winning the Pac-12 tournament as they received a 12-seed and faced 5-seed Oklahoma State. The Ducks must have took offense to this because they jumped out to a 37-26 lead at halftime. They balanced scoring as usual, with four guys in double figures led by Damyean Dotson with 17. But it was Arsalan Kazemi who had 11 points and 17 rebounds that stood out for Oregon. They also played great defense holding Marcus Smart and the Cowboys to only 40% from the field. They play Saint Louis on Saturday which will be a tough test but the Ducks seem to have a chip on their shoulder so look for this to be a close one.
Cal gives payback to UNLV
Oregon isn't the only Pac-12 team that can pull off the famous 5-12 upset. The Cal Bears took out UNLV, marking the first time two teams from the same conference won as 12-seeds. This was a rematch from December, a game UNLV won 76-75, and again it came down to the last minute. The Bears were led by Pac-12 POY Allen Crabbe who had 19 points and nine boards but it was reserve big man Robert Thurman who scored eight straight for Cal on four dunks. The Bears will now try to use their "home court advantage" (they are player in San Jose) against Syracuse.
Louisville showed they are ready to make a run
The #1 team overall is Louisville and they did not want to leave any doubt in their game as they cruised to a 79-48 victory over 16-seed North Carolina A&T. The pressure D that made the Cardinals the best defensive team in the country was in full force as they set a NCAA tournament record with 20 team steals. Yes, 20, including eight by Russ Smith who also scored 23 points. Louisville is said to have the hardest bracket, but also has the popular vote to win the title. It's so easy to overlook teams (see Gonzaga) but with handling business they way they did, look for the Cards to be focused no matter who is their opponent.
VCU and Syracuse run opponents out of the gym
The VCU Rams are not sneaking up on anybody like they did back in 2011, but apparently the Akron Zips didn't get the memo. VCU had an impressive showing with an 88-42 win. Now I understand that Akron didn't have their starting point guard Alex Abreu (6 apg) but they were still MAC regular season and tournament champs. Not having a PG is huge against a high pressure team like VCU, but the Rams were on point offensively as well. They shot 54% from the field and 8-16 from downtown, 6-11 from Troy Daniels who scored 23. That is exactly what VCU had going for them when they made their Final Four run in 2011, they pressed the heck out of you and were on fire from 3. Michigan is up next, who has Trey Burke (the best assist/turnover ratio in the country), so it will be interesting to see how he handles the press.
Syracuse was another team that impressed as they crushed Montana 81-34. Cuse was paced by Brandon Triche on offense as he put in 20. But it was Jim Boeheim's patent 2-3 defense that shut down Montana from the outside as they only hit 4-31 (13%) from distance. The Orange held the Grizzlies to 20% shooting overall and nobody on the team had more than five points. Their next game against Cal will basically be a road game but if Syracuse can continue to lock up on D and be efficient on the offensive end this team is dangerous.
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