HoopsHD continues its simulation of what would have happened in TTTW (The Tournament That Wasn’t). Up next it is time to continue with the First and Second rounds of the NCAA Tournament as we take a look at the second of four pods in the East Region. The Maryland Terrapins and Butler Bulldogs entered the NCAA Tournament as the 4 and 5 seeds respectively in this portion of the East Region. Both teams had ups and downs all season long, and it was time to see who would emerge from this group to battle Dayton in the Sweet 16. Standing in both teams ways were a pair of very dangerous mid-majors — the Ivy League champion Yale Bulldogs and the Colonial champion Hofstra Pride.
FIRST ROUND – EAST REGION – GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA
(5) Butler vs (12) Yale
With two of the three 12-seeds already having pulled off first round upsets, the Big East’s Butler Bulldogs were certainly not going to be taking the Ivy League champion Yale Bulldogs for granted. Butler entered the game having won 22 times overall on the season, and finishing in 5th place in the final Big East standings. However, Butler had been on pace for much better things than that early in the season. Six losses in February and March had caused the Bulldogs to slide down the overall seed list a few seed lines. Yale had been close to dominant during the Ivy League season, although losing twice to Harvard and then having to play the conference tournament on the Crimson’s home court did make their fans a little uneasy. Yale responded in a big way though, avenging their two prior defeats with a blowout win in the conference title game, earning the Bulldogs a spot in the Big Dance and in this Battle of Bulldogs against Butler.
Butler may have known that they needed to be playing their best basketball to win this game, but that did not necessarily help them much. Yale used an 8-2 run to close out the first half to turn a tie game into a 37-31 lead at the break. The second half saw things get even worse for Butler as Yale was able to extend the lead to 17 by the under-12 media timeout. The Bulldogs of Yale did not let their foot off the gas pedal the rest of the way, and cruised to a 76-61 win and a spot in the Round of 32. Paul Atkinson led Yale in scoring with 18 points, and his team was moving on to face the winner of the game between Maryland and Hofstra.
Final Score: (12) Yale 76, (5) Butler 61
(4) Maryland vs (13) Hofstra
The final first round game in Greensboro, North Carolina saw the Maryland Terrapins facing off against the Hofstra Pride. Two current ACC teams, Virginia and Duke, had both failed to advance to the Sweet 16 out of the Greensboro pod in the West Region. Now it was up to a former ACC (and current Big Ten) team to try to advance from this city. First up for the Terps was the Colonial Athletic Association’s regular season and tournament champions, Hofstra. The Pride entered the game with 26 wins, including a road win at UCLA, and the knowledge that they had the talent to potentially pull off the major upset.
The first half of the game saw Hofstra hanging tough with the Terrapins. The Pride in fact built an early 8-point lead, but Maryland was able to fight back to take a narrow 40-37 edge into the halftime break. Five minutes into the second period, the game was knotted up at 46 and the upset alerts bells were beginning to ring across the country. Maryland was able to turn it up another notch, however, and a 23-12 run put them on top by double-digits. The Terps never looked back and were able to cruise home to a 92-78 win and a berth in the second round against Yale. Anthony Cowan has a monster game with 32 points while teammate Jalen Smith was nearly as dominant, scoring 20 points and pulling down a dozen rebounds.
Final Score: (4) Maryland 92, (13) Hofstra 78
SECOND ROUND – EAST REGION – GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA
(4) Maryland vs (12) Yale
After defeating Butler in the first round, the Yale Bulldogs had their sights set on the Maryland Terrapins. Maryland, a team that had tied for the Big Ten regular season title and entered this game with 26 wins on the season already, knew that they could not overlook the Bulldogs. At stake for the winner was a berth in the Sweet 16 in New York City and a matchup with the 1-seed Dayton Flyers. However, neither team was ready to think about Dayton yet when they took the court for their second round matchup.
Maryland had struggled for a half against Hofstra before turning up the intensity and running away with their first round game. The first half script seemed to be the same against Yale as the Bulldogs used a late first half 10-2 run to propel themselves to a 41-34 halftime lead. Unlike the first round game against Hofstra, however, Maryland never was able to get going in the second half. The Yale Bulldogs led the game the rest of the way and won by a final score of 81-70. Azar Swain scored 18 points and Jordan Bruner had a 13-point, 13-rebound double-double to propel head coach James Jones’ Bulldogs into the Sweet 16. For Maryland, despite 25 points and 10 rebounds from Jalen Smith and 23 points from Anthony Cowan, the season was over.
Final Score: (12) Yale 81, (5) Maryland 70
