Sweet 16 Day 2 Recap

Michigan rallies late to force OT and advance to Elite 8

It looked all but over when Kansas led 68-54 with less than seven minutes left in the game but that's when Michigan turned up its defense and Trey Burke played like the POY he is.  In the first half Kansas couldn't miss as they shot 68% but only had a six point lead, 40-34, despite Burke going scoreless.  The Jayhawks were scoring at will inside as Jeff Withey, Kevin Young and Perry Ellis appeared to be unstoppable in the paint.  In the second half it was more of the same for KU for the first 12 minutes but Burke was finally starting to make a scoring impact.  With Kansas up 14 late, Michigan ramped up their defense exposing the lack of point guard for KU forcing bad passes and a crucial 10-second call.  The Wolverines kept fighting back but still found themselves down ten with 2:22 and then five with 21 seconds left.   After Burke hit a layup, Elijah Johnson was at the free throw line shooting one-and-one.  He missed, which left the door open for Burke to solidify his Player of the Year status as he hit a 30-footer to send the game to overtime.  Riding that momentum, Michigan came out strong in OT creating an 87-82 lead.  Kansas still had a chance to tie only down two with nine seconds left when Johnson looked to have an open lane, but he kicked it out to Naadir Tharpe who missed the game-winning 3-pointer.  Somehow Michigan pulled out the win in this game.  Burke scored all 23 of his points in the second half and OT but it was Mitch McGary who kept this team in it the entire game.  McGary finished with 25 points and 14 rebounds as he and Burke (also 10 assists) became the fourth pair of teammates to have 20 points, 10 assists and 25 points, 10 rebounds in a NCAA tournament game.  Another pair was Glen Rice and Rumeal Robinson when Michigan won the title in '89.  For Kansas, their best player Ben McLemore finally showed up in the tournament putting in 20 points on 4-8 beyond the arc.  Also, Withey was dominate inside with 12 points, eight boards, and five blocks.  As for Johnson, he day started and ended badly.  Not even two minutes into the game he was called for a flagrant foul after hitting McGary below the belt, then to end regulation he missed a free throw to ice the game, and at the end of OT he passed on what looked like to be an open game-tying layup.  Throughout the year Michigan was on the wrong side of games like this (see Wisconsin and Indiana) but last night they showed their resiliency and pulled off the improbable comeback.  It doesn't get any easier from here on out either, but Michigan reaches the Elite 8 for the first time since 1994.

Florida ends Florida Gulf Coast Cinderella run

For the first 15 minutes Florida Gulf Coast seemed to be on their way to another upset and continuing their Cinderella run.  The Eagles were up 24-14 before the Gators ended the first half on a 16-2 run to take a 30-26 lead at the break.  After that Florida never looked back.  "Dunk City" was a great story while it lasted but they were severely over matched by the bigger and stronger Gators.  The story was offensive rebounding for Florida and turnovers for FGCU.  Florida shot only 38% but collected 13 offensive rebounds and forced 20 turnovers which led to 16 points.  In the first two games Eagles PG Brett Comer averaged 12 assists and only 2.5 TOs but the Gators guards applied the pressure throughout the game making Comer turn the ball over nine times.  Mike Rosario scored 15 for Florida and Casey Prather chipped in 11 off the bench.  FGCU's standout guard Sherwood Brown led them with 14 and 6 rebounds.  The entire country backed the small Florida school against its big brother but the talent disparity finally reared its ugly head as the Eagles tied a season low 50 points.  With the 62-50 win the Gators have still claimed every victory by double-digits.  A date with Michigan is scheduled for a trip to the Final Four.

Duke, Coach K outlasts Michigan State, Izzo

The battle between two of the best coaches in college basketball went the way we expected in the first half, a strategic back and forth game.  Duke took an eight point lead but MSU quickly cut the deficit to one before the half 32-31.  However, early in the second the Blue Devils went on a 9-0 run which Michigan State was never able to overcome as they fell to Duke 71-61.  The problem for Sparty was that Seth curry was on fire.  He came out in the second connecting on his first three attempts from long range and finished with 29 points on 6-9 from distance.  His performance was very reminiscent of his brother Stephen for Davidson in his run to the Elite 8 in 2008.  These teams matched up pretty well across the board especially with each team having two bigs, one that likes to bang (Mason Plumlee and Derrick Nix) and one that plays outside (Ryan Kelly and Adreian Payne).  They pretty much cancelled each other out (Plumlee and Kelly 23 pts 14 rebs, Nix and Payne 23 pts 19 rebs), but Michigan State had nobody to help Keith Appling on the outside.  The Spartans were only 3-12 from deep and their freshman stud Gary Harris missed both his 3-point attempts and was 2-11 from the field.  Coach K now owns a 7-1 advantage against Tom Izzo.

Louisville, Russ Smith, easily takes care of Oregon

Louisville jumped out to a 24-8 lead in the first 10 minutes and that's all the Cardinals needed as they cruised to a 77-69 win.  Russ Smith continued to be "Russdiculous" as he tied a career high 31 points on 9-16 from the field and 12-14 from the line.  He's now averaging 27 in the tourney and I don't think there's another player that has looked better.  Gorgui Dieng contributed 10 points, nine rebounds, and four blocks.  Louisville has been pressuring teams like crazy in the tournament, taking a NCAA record 20 steals in their first game, but only forced 12 Oregon turnovers.  Give a lot of credit to the Ducks as well because they were able to fight back in the second half and cut the deficit to six with 5:13 left but wouldn't get any closer.  Arsalan Kazemi posted another double-double with 11 and 12, and E.J. Single had 15 points.  Louisville is definitely the team to beat right now and are the only #1 seed to make it to the Elite 8.  Their rewarded with facing Duke for a Final Four bid.  The last time Rick Pitino and Mike Krzyzewski met in a regional final was in 1992 and Christian Laettner hit his game-winning shot.   These two teams met in November with Duke taking it 76-71, but that was without Dieng so Louisville is looking for revenge.



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NCAA Tournament Day 4 Recap

Florida Gulf Coast continues its Cinderella run

After disposing of the 2-seed Georgetown, Florida Gulf Coast sent San Diego State packing as well 81-71 and became the first ever 15-seed to reach the Sweet 16.  Not only has this team pulled off two huge upsets, they've done it rather easily.  Despite trailing by one at the half, 35-34, FGCU came out strong again in the second and they are averaging 50.5 points per game in the latter half of games.  Jamaal Franklin did everything he could for SDSU, 20 points and 11 rebounds, but it wasn't enough for the Aztecs.  The Eagles were lighting it up all game hitting 56% of their shots, led by Bernard Thompson and Sherwood Brown who scored 23 and 17 respectively.  Brett Comer also had a great game as a facilitator dishing out 14 assists and plenty of alley-oops for "Dunk City".  FGCU is having more fun than any other team and it shows on the court, which definitely helps their play.  They are loose and free but might tighten up as they go deeper into the tournament and the pressure mounts.  Next they face the University of Florida and who would have thought the first matchup between sunshine state foes would be against Florida Gulf Coast in the Sweet 16, not Miami in the Final Four.

Aaron Craft lifts Ohio State over Iowa State

The South Region was busted wide open before Ohio State took the court Sunday with the number 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8 seeds all being knocked out.  The Buckeyes almost joined that list but Aaron Craft made the last seven points for OSU including the game-winning 3-pointer with one second remaining to advance 78-75.  The game was tight the entire first half but with 6:07 to go in the game Ohio State took its biggest lead of the game 69-56.  Immediately, Iowa State went on a 13-0 run to tie the game.  Later, with the game tied at 75, Craft missed the potential go ahead jumper with 30 seconds left but the Cyclones couldn't come up with the rebound (the ball looked like it might have been knocked out by Deshaun Thomas but there is no review in college, we will revisit this in a moment).  So Ohio State, and Craft, were given another chance and he delivered.  Craft finished with 18 points and 6 assists while Thomas added 22 as the Buckeyes shot better than 50% from the field and beyond the arc.  ISU was led by Korie Lucious (19) and Will Clyburn (17) but lost their best defender and solid outside shooter, Chris Babb, late in the first half.  OSU will now play the only other team in their region to not be upset in the rounds of 64 or 32, 6-seed Arizona.

Miami FL escapes against Illnois

Possibly the most controversial game so far, Miami FL looked to be in control of this game early but needed Shane Larkin and a little help from the refs to comeback late to beat Illinois 63-59.  Let's just fast-forward to the end, with less than two minutes left Illinois held a 55-54 lead.  Shane Larkin hit a big 3-pointer for Miami to give them the 57-55 edge with 1:00 left.  On the ensuing possession, D.J. Richardson missed a 3 of his own and with both teams going for the rebound the ball gets knocked out of bounds.  The officials give it to the Hurricanes but the replay clearly shows Kenny Kadji being the last to touch it which would give Illinois another chance to tie or take the lead.  Instead they are forced to foul and the U hit their free throws.  This was the second game of the day where there was a questionable call with a ball going out of bounds late in a close game.  The Ohio State call would have been tough to overturn but was definitely worth a look, however there was no question Kadji touched it last.  Look for college to adapt the NBA rule of being to look at possession in the last two minutes of games on replay.  Now I'm not saying Illinois would have won if they got the ball but you never know what can happen, especially with a shooter like Brandon Paul.  Their chances would have been better if Paul (18 points) could have received a little help from their second leading scorer, Richardson, could have hit a few shots as he went 1-11 from the field.  Larkin had 17 for the Hurricanes but reserve Rion Brown came up big with 21 points on 5-10 from deep.

Indiana rallies late past Temple

The Indiana Hoosiers were less than two minutes away from being eliminated early as Temple's Khalif Wyatt almost single-handily made IU the second #1 seed to fall.  But Victor Oladipo wouldn't let that happen.  Wyatt was hot from the tip as the Owls held the halftime lead 29-26 and maintained that lead for most of the second half.  Indiana crawled back to take a 53-52 edge and with 15 seconds left Oladipo all but ended the game with a dagger 3-pointer.  The Hoosiers ended the game on a 10-0 run to earn a 58-52 victory.  Oladipo finished with 16 points and eight rebounds, while Cody Zeller added 15 and six.  For the Owls, Wyatt dropped 31on 12-24 from the field but was only 3-12 from distance.  His teammate and second leading scorer, Scootie Randall, went 0-12 as Temple shot only 34% as a team.  Randall's performance tied UConn's Khalid El-Amin for the worst shooting performance in the tournament since the field expanded in 1985.  Every year the team that wins it all needs to squeak by at least one opponent, Indiana is hoping this will be the only one.

LaSalle beats the clock to reach Sweet 16

The only game that featured two teams that pulled off upsets in the second round came down to the last possession as LaSalle's Tyrone Garland hit a running layup with three seconds left to send Ole Miss home, 76-74.  The was tight throughout and the lead switched hands multiple times down the stretch, luckily for the Explorers they held the ball last and were able to finish it off.  Garland scored 17 but it was Ramon Galloway that led the way with 24 on 6-10 on 3-pointers.  For the Rebels, Marshall Henderson put in 21 and Murphy Holloway added 14 and 13 boards.  The craziest stat from this game I saw was that in two tournament games, Henderson had 64 touches and only passed the ball 18 times.  I know he can score but that's ridiculous.  Especially when you have solid post players like Holloway and Reginald Buckner.  This team could be so much better if Henderson deferred more often.  Now, LaSalle moves on to the Sweet 16 to play Wichita State.  This is the first time ever two teams ranked 13 or lower reached the Sweet 16 as LaSalle and Florida Gulf Coast made it to the second weekend.



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NCAA Tournament Day 2 Recap

Florida Gulf Coast drops Georgetown

We almost had a 16 beat a 1 yesterday but today we had the pleasure of watching 15-seed Florida Gulf Coast take down 2-seed Georgetown.  This game was played in Philadelphia and the Eagles seemed to have a little Rocky Balboa in them.  The amazing thing about all these upsets is that the lower seeded teams are winning the games outright.  We aren't seeing any miracle Bryce Drew shots, except in the commercials.  The only buzzer-beater we've seen is from Marquette to prevent an upset.  FGCU closed the first half on a 13-2 run to take a 24-22 lead at the break.  Then with the game tied at 31, the Eagles went on a 19-2 run in a four minute span.  This is not something the 15-seed is supposed to be doing!  Nor do they usually make highlights like Chase Fieler did.  But when you control the pace of the game like FGCU did, you can do that.  They knew the Hoyas like to play at a slower pace so they sped the game up and it worked.  Georgetown tried to make a run at the end but it was way too late as they fell 78-68.  Sherwood Brown scored 24 while Brett Comer added 12 points, six rebounds, and 10 assists.  Florida Gulf Coast became the 7th 15-seed to beat a 2-seed and the 3rd in the last two years.  Let's not forget that they had a win over another 2-seed, Miami FL, earlier this year.  As for Georgetown they end their season on another disappointing loss.  This is the 4th straight year they have been ousted by a double-digit seed in the tournament.  Big East player of the year, Otto Porter Jr., had a rough night.  Although he had 13 points and 11 boards, he was only 5-17 from the field.

LaSalle holds on late against Kansas State

The First Four play-in has only been around three years, but each year we've seen one of those teams win multiple games.  In 2011 it was VCU, 2012 South Florida, and this year LaSalle.  This was definitely a tale of two halves for the Explorers.  In the first they jumped out to an 18 point lead at the half 44-26 hitting 18 of 31 shots.  Then in the second half Kansas State finally decided to show up.  The Wildcats steadily cut into the deficit and took their first lead of the game with 7:05 left, 57-56.  From that point on, LaSalle did not make a shot (3-18 in the 2nd half) and K-State made one layup.  However, Jerrell Wright made 7-8 free throws including two with 30 seconds left to give the Explorers the lead back as they closed it out 63-61.  Wright was the leading scorer with 21 as he went 6-6 from the floor and 9-10 from the line.  LaSalle is reminiscent of the 2011 VCU team that made the Final Four as they play a four guard lineup and like to get up and down the court.

Ole Miss continues the 12-seed special

When filling out your bracket everybody knows to pick at least one 12-seed to beat a 5-seed.  For the first time ever three 12-seeds were able to pull off the upset as Ole Miss knocked out Wisconsin 57-46.  All the talk before the game was if Wisconsin can stop Marshall Henderson, and his mouth.  They stopped him for the most of the game as he started 1-13, 0-6 from distance.  But once he hit his first 3-pointer, with just under 12 minutes to play, it brought the Rebels within three, 36-33, and started a 17-5 run for Ole Miss that gave them a 47-41 lead and ended up winning 57-46.  Henderson finished 6-21 from the field with 19 points, but it was the work of their big men, Murphy Holloway and Reginald Bucker, that kept the Rebels in the game early when Marshall was off.  They combined for 19 points, 21 rebounds and six blocks.  If you ask me, this team could be a lot better if Henderson would defer more to his rocks inside.  Coming into the tournament the Badgers weakness is going in scoring droughts and they were held to their worst shooting performance of the year going 15-59 (25.4%) from the floor and 7-30 (23.3%) from deep.  Up next for the Rebels are the previously mentioned LaSalle Explorers in a 12 vs 13 matchup.  Who had that one in their bracket?

Kansas has a bracket busting scare

The Kansas Jayhawks must not have paid much attention to Gonzaga's first game as they too took their 16-seed opponent lightly and it almost bit them.  The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, with one of the best mascots in college, actually held the lead at halftime 31-30.  They were able to limit turnovers (9 for the game) and slow the pace down, but had no answer for Kansas center Jeff Withey.  The Hilltoppers two most efficient players tonight, George Fant (10 points) and Aleksejs Rostov (11 points), couldn't stay on the court because Withey (17 point, 7 blocks) had them in foul trouble all game.  WKU struggled shooting the ball as well, 32% from the field and 3-20 from downtown, which is not what you need when trying to pull off a monumental upset.  Kansas needs to shake this off and get back on track because they play a rejuvenated North Carolina team next.  Roy Williams, meet Kansas.  Do you guys know each other?

Iowa State dismantles Notre Dame

Lower seeded teams that can do damage in the tournament are ones that take and can make a lot of 3's, and that's what Iowa State does.  The Cyclones took and made more 3-pointers than any other team in the country.  Tonight though it was their post players, Georges Niang and Melvin Ejim, who led the way with 19 and 17 points respectively.  ISU was able to score consistently inside as Notre Dame showed almost no resistance.  They were also able to neutralize one of the best rebounders in the country, Jack Cooley, as he could only grab five boards.  The fact that this Cyclone team was able to win going away playing a style of basketball they are not known for (they still hit nine 3's) shows that this team should not be overlooked by Ohio State.  Especially in the unpredictable West Region, where we've seen five upsets in the second round.



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