NCAA TOURNAMENT NEWS AND NOTES
-It seems like the more upsets we have in the early rounds, the more chalk we have in the later rounds. That was definitely the case last night as all of the better seeded teams not only won, but won big. Duke made Oregon sweat for a half, but Oregon opened it up before the game was over. Same with Maryland, who was right in there with Kansas for the first half, but nowhere close by the end of the second half. Villanova and downed Miami and Oklahoma got by Texas A&M without too much trouble at any point. In fact, what was by far the best game of the night was NJIT’s CIT win over Texas Arlington as discussed below.
#4 IOWA STATE VS #1 VIRGINIA (Chicago IL, CBS 7:10pm, est). Virginia got a bit of a scare from Butler, but held on to win after an incredible shooting performance and defensive adjustment in the second half. Iowa State pretty much blew past both Iona and Little Rock to get here. Virginia is one of the best and most frustrating defensive teams in the nation, so it will be interesting to see how Iowa State matches up.
#7 WISCONSIN VS #6 NOTRE DAME (Philadelphia PA, TBS, 7:27pm, est). Both of these teams needed dramatic shots in the final seconds to advance past the Round of 32 with Wisconsin hitting a three at the buzzer to down Xavier, and Notre Dame hitting a shot in the final seconds to get past Stephen F Austin. Wisconsin is a very tough defensive team, and that will likely give the Irish fits. Wiscy has also won thirteen of their last fifteen and knocked off teams like Iowa, Michigan State, Maryland, Pittsburgh, and Xavier in that stretch, so although they’re a #7 seed they are a red hot #7 seed.
#11 GONZAGA VS #10 SYRACUSE (Chicago IL, CBS, 9:40pm, est). Gonzaga is the only remaining team that would not have made the tournament had it not been for the automatic bid. But, you can’t say they didn’t earn their way here. In fact, speaking strictly of the NCAA Tournament, they’ve probably had the most impressive road after blowing out a red hot Seton Hall team that had just won the Big East Tournament, and then destroying Utah who was a #3 seed. Syracuse blew past both Dayton and Middle Tennessee to get here. These are the only two double digit seeds remaining, and one will advance to the Elite Eight. Gonzaga has been clicking on offense, but Syracuse’s zone will not be fun to play against.
#5 INDIANA VS #1 NORTH CAROLINA (Philadelphia PA, TBS, 9:57pm, est). North Carolina has looked like one of the most impressive teams in the nation since just before Championship Week. Indiana has looked really good as well minus their B10 Tourney loss to Michigan. The Hoosiers come in to this on an emotional high after knocking off a highly talented Kentucky team that they have a history of not liking. UNC, on the other hand, blew past their first two opponents. As good as the Hoosiers have looked, they’ll probably have to play better than they’ve played all season to knock off the Tarheels today.
UNDER THE RADAR
There was only one game played outside of the NCAA Tournament last night, but both NJIT and Texas-Arlington put on a memorable show in Newark last night. Despite being outrebounded 45-31 and being down by as many as 11 points in the 1st half, the Highlanders were able to mount a successful 2nd-half comeback and move on to the CIT semifinals. NJIT ended up shooting over 50 percent from the field in the 2nd half, and hitting 11 3-pointers helped lead the way to a 63-60 win for NJIT. The Highlanders will play at Columbia at 6:00 PM on Sunday night, and Texas-Arlington ends one of their better under-the-radar seasons in recent memory (included early-season wins at Ohio State and at Memphis).
There were a couple of notable goings-on as it related to coaching news at UTR schools. Tim Cluess signed an extension at Iona; his contract is now scheduled to run through the 2020-21 season. As of last night, Zach Spiker is now expected to become the next head coach at Drexel, and there is also a distinct possibility that former Mississippi State head coach Rick Stansbury could be on his way to Western Kentucky to take the top job. We at Hoops HD will continue to monitor the head coaching carousel throughout March and the offseason, both above and below the radar.
EDIT: 11:15 AM
Multiple outlets are now reporting that Jerod Haase is expected to take the Stanford job; Haase has led UAB to the 2015 NCAA Tournament (including an upset of 3rd-seeded Iowa State) and the NIT this season, including a regular-season championship in C-USA in 2016 and the 2015 C-USA tournament championship.