Kevin Luthringer
Yet another weekend of the NCAA tournament down and it is clear to me that this thing simply is impossible to predict. As we head into the Final Four, and the last weekend of this great tournament, the title March Madness seems to fit once again.
The first night of the Sweet 16 lacked any real close games. The Aggies disappointed, and Buddy “Buckets” from Oklahoma impressed once again as OU rolled easily.
Kansas continued to look the part of the number 1 overall seed as they beat Maryland by 16.
To end the night, ’Villanova did what they do and beat Miami handily.
A little surprisingly, Duke failed to give the number 1 seed Oregon much of a game. Coach K, however, did not fail to give us something to talk about. In the press conference, Dillon Brooks, an Oregon Forward and a very good player, told a reporter that Coach Krzyzewski came up to him after the game and told him that he was “too good of a player to be showing off in the end.” Coach K, in his press conference, denied that he said it, and that people can believe what they want to. What Coach K failed to realize is that nothing is private in today’s world. Audio of the after game conversation came out the next day and it was clear that what Brooks said was indeed true. The Duke coach later came out publicly and said that he reacted wrongly to a reporter after the game when asked about the incident. He also said he had since called the Oregon Coach and apologized for talking to his player. Ok, enough “Real Housewives of Durham”, back to the basketball….
In some of these less exciting games we had North Carolina continue to look like the best team in the tournament as they beat Indiana by 15 and Virginia beating Iowa State by 13 despite the Cyclones senior Georges Niang scoring a game high 30 points.
Then to round out the Sweet 16 we had two close games. Syracuse continued their improbable run and beat Gonzaga in a comeback win despite trailing the majority of the game. Michael Gbinje hit the go-ahead bucket with just 22 second left and Syracuse was able to survive and advance. The other game was Notre Dame and Wisconsin and this was tight throughout. Wisconsin’s offense staggered late and turned the ball over multiple times in the last couple of minutes. The Irish scored the final 8 points of the game in a span of 18 seconds and held on to beat the Badgers.
In the Elite 8 we finally got to some better games. Kansas and Villanova came down to the wire, with Villanova winning by 5. The Wildcats really showed how versatile they were on defense holding Kansas’ senior star Perry Ellis to just 5 points on 1-5 shooting from the floor. That same day you had the aforementioned Buddy Hield, who basically put the Sooners on his back, going for 37 with 8 three pointers. Oklahoma was able to beat Oregon by 12 in a game they seemed to be in control of the entire time.
On Sunday we saw the last two tickets punched into the Final Four, with North Carolina again showing that their overall talent and length is just too much for opponents (at least so far). Notre Dame played them tough, but in the end the Tar Heels were just too good.
The best game of the weekend, and maybe even a bigger collapse then Northern Iowa just a week before, saw 1 seed Virginia with a comfortable lead most of the game. Suddenly Syracuse exploded. Starting the second half down 16, and lead by freshman Malachi Richardson (who scored 21 of his 23 in the second half), Syracuse eventually would go on a 29-8 run that would make them the first 10 seed to ever make the Final Four.
At the end of the day you had a Final Four made up of Villanova, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Syracuse. With just one more weekend left to play and most of the brackets completely busted (especially yours truly), we are set for a great finale to the college basketball season.