-Yesterday appeared to get off to a sluggish start with both Miami and Duke sprinting ahead of their opponents, but Wichita State and Yale both came back to make it somewhat interesting.
-The game that should be a regular season fixture game, but isn’t, between Kentucky and Indiana did not disappoint as the two went back and forth. Indiana’s defense is noticeably better than it was earlier in the season, and they’re suddenly looking like a dangerous team. And, beating Kentucky had to be one of their most feel good wins since…well….the last time they beat Kentucky on that iconic buzzer beater, which is the last time the two met during the regular season. Indiana will now face North Carolina team who had no trouble running away from Providence in the second half yesterday.
-There were one, maybe two moments, where Gonzaga looked like an NCAA Tournament team during the regular season, but for 95% of it didn’t look like a team that deserved to be in without the automatic bid, and had they not beaten Saint Mary’s in the WCC Championship game, they probably wouldn’t be in. But, now that they’re here, they’ve been destroying the planet. They blew out a Seton Hall team that was red hot, and then blew out a Utah team who many felt was a potential Final Four candidate by even more. They now appear to have a winnable Sweet Sixteen against either Middle Tennessee or Syracuse.
-Little Rock’s Cinderella Story ended yesterday with a rather decisive loss to Iowa State, who didn’t have that much trouble in either of their tournament games. Kansas also blew by UConn. The only #1 seed that did have to sweat was Virginia, who had a remarkable shooting performance yesterday, but still couldn’t pull away from Butler until the final minute or so.
#7 IOWA VS #2 VILLANOVA (CBS, 12:10pm). Iowa’s first game was like a microcosm of their season. They looked to be in control against Iowa for most of the game, but started to unravel in the latter part of the game, but somehow managed to hold on. They have a very tall order today going up against a Villanova team that likes to shoot the ball, and who rolled through their first game. Nova has been seeded #2 or better for the past three years, but still hasn’t made it past the Round of 32, so it’s somewhat important for the perception of their program to break through today.
-#14 STEPHEN F AUSTIN VS #6 NOTRE DAME (2:40, CBS). SFA has looked impressive all season, but playing against Southland teams has a tendency to make you look impressive. I was genuinely surprised, as I was two years ago when they beat VCU, at just how aggressive they were on defense against a very good West Virginia team. They appeared to get their opponents so frustrated that by the end of the game WVU couldn’t do much. Notre Dame knocked off Michigan, which had to have felt good given the history those two schools have. The Irish have looked good most of the time for most of the season, but they’ve also gone to sleep at times. If SFA comes out with that suffocating defense today, ND may be in trouble.
#10 VCU VS #2 OKLAHOMA ( 5:15, CBS). VCU knocked off Oregon State in a well played game on Friday, and Oklahoma had some trouble with UC Bakersfield, but finally got control in the final minutes of the game. VCU likes to pressure the ball, and it should be a fun match up watching Buddy Hield go up against it. Oklahoma is clearly the more battle tested team, but VCU does come into this game with a lot of momentum.
#15 MIDDLE TENNESSEE VS #10 SYRACUSE (6:10, TNT). I’m sure this is the match up that everyone was expecting to see this round!! The winner gets Gonzaga, which means we’re guaranteed to see at least one double digit seed reach the Elite Eight. Middle’s win over Michigan State was one of the biggest surprises in the history of the tournament, and although we’ve seen a lot of lower seeds win this year, none were completely shocking like this one was. The #13s and even #14s are typically good teams who won their leagues, and in many cases would have earned better seeds had they been given the chance to play better teams during the year. The #15 and #16 seeds are typically teams from weak leagues who in some cases aren’t even the best teams from those leagues, but just ended up winning the automatic bid. Middle Tennessee had a fairly decent year, but nothing indicated that they’d be able to play with, much less beat, a Michigan State team who looked like a national title contender. On the flip side, we’ve got a Syracuse team that absolutely pasted Dayton in their game after they sort of limped into the tournament. Syracuse is a tough defensive match-up, and they appear to have superior talent, but then again, so did the Spartans.
#13 HAWAII VS #5 MARYLAND (7:10, TBS). Hawaii’s win over Cal wasn’t that astonishing of an upset when you consider that Cal has a young team and they hadn’t looked nearly as good away from their home court as they had looked on it. Hawaii was no joke either. If they win today, I also don’t think it would be one of the most surprising things in the world. Like Cal, Maryland hasn’t been the same team that they’ve been on the road, and as good as South Dakota State is, who the Terps struggled to beat, Hawaii appears to be at least as good and probably better. Maryland better eat their Wheaties this morning because this one won’t be any sort of a cakewalk.
#11 NORTHERN IOWA VS #3 TEXAS A&M (7:40pm, CBS). We won’t get to see Texas v Texas A&M match up in the round of 32. That’s because Northern Iowa took down the Longhorns with a beyond midcourt shot at the buzzer. Northern Iowa has had their ups and downs this year, but with wins over North Carolina, Iowa State, Wichita State, and now Texas, their ups have been very good. Texas A&M didn’t have too much trouble in their opening round game and entered the tournament with a lot of momentum built up as well. UNI is very good, but I think TAMU might be better. It’s still an interesting match-up and should be fun to watch.
#7 XAVIER VS #2 WISCONSIN (8:40, TNT). Xavier cruised past Weber State in their first game, whereas Wiscy had to win a rock fight against Pitt. Wisconsin is very strong defensively, and can be very frustrating for opponents to play against. They had some bad losses early in the year, but really ended up finishing strong. They went 11-1 in league play to close out the regular season, and managed notable wins against the likes of Maryland, Michigan State, Iowa, and Indiana. That’s not your typical #7 seed, so this match up could be a lot closer than what many are expecting.
#8 SAINT JOSEPH’S VS #1 OREGON (9:40, TBS). Saint Joseph’s won in one of the most crazy ways possible on Friday night when what appeared to be a game tying dunk by Cincinnati was waived off because it was a millisecond late. They face an Oregon team that’s been rampaging through everyone they’ve been facing. Both come in with a lot of momentum built up, but I can’t help but think Oregon has more momentum and has built it up against stronger competition.