For other news, notes and previews of other postseason games – CLICK HERE.
While the first round of the NCAA Tournament was mostly free of upset carnage, the second round games would not be spared. Villanova and Florida State were the main victims yesterday, and even Florida surprised Virginia with the margin of victory in that contest.
Recap – Buffalo
West Virginia got off to a fast 10-0 start against Notre Dame in the first game of the day and were able to keep the Irish for getting no closer than 3 points for most of the day. They beat the Irish 83-71 and will take on Gonzaga in the West Region in San Jose next Thursday.
The biggest surprise from yesterday again involved Villanova. They reverted back to their old ways of stumbling in 2nd round games, and fell victim to a baseline runner by Nigel Hayes in the closing seconds of their 65-62 loss to Wisconsin. The Badgers move on to the East regional in New York and will face Florida on Friday.
Recap – Salt Lake City
The most controversial game took place in the game between Gonzaga and Northwestern. The Wildcats were in the process of cutting a 20-point deficit down to 5 points late in the 2nd half. However, on the ensuing Northwestern possession, a Gonzaga player stuck his hand through the rim and blocked Northwestern’s shot. Not only was goaltending NOT called, Chris Collins would get a technical for Northwestern after protesting the no-call. It completely changed the complexion of the game and allowed Gonzaga to survive with a 79-73 victory. The NCAA did concede in a written statement that there was a blown call. It was actually funny to see Collins’ facial expression in the postgame press conference while a moderator read the statement prior to Collins’ comments on the game.
In the nightcap, Arizona was able to hold off a late Saint Mary’s run and escaped with a 69-60 victory. While this denied us a potential Gonzaga-Saint Mary’s rematch in the West Region final, it does give us a Xavier-Arizona rematch from the Sweet 16 two years ago.
Recap – Orlando
If it weren’t for the Wisconsin win over Villanova, Xavier’s domination of Florida State would easily have ranked as the biggest upset of the day. The Musketeers were used to getting out to decent leads at halftime but lost a number of games this season after giving up a scoring run to the opposing team to the start of the 2nd half. This was a complete role reversal where Xavier extended their lead to 25 points and never let the Seminoles show any semblance of competitiveness in the final 20 minutes of the game. As mentioned earlier, Xavier’s reward is a trip to San Jose next Thursday to play Arizona in the West Regional.
As happy as Xavier fans were, Florida fans had to be even more elated. They played Virginia relatively even for the first 10 minutes of the game (it was a 13-13 tie at that point) and allowed the Hoos only 26 points in the game’s final 30 minutes. The Gators will advance to the East Regional in New York and will play Wisconsin on Friday.
Recap – Milwaukee
10-0. That is Butler’s record as the higher-seeded team in the NCAA Tournament after their 74-65 win over Middle Tennessee last night. The Blue Raiders got within 3 points at the 4-minute mark in the 2nd half, but never got any closer after a 3-pointer from Butler’s Andrew Chrabascz with 3:29 remaining in the game. Butler moves on to the South Regional in Memphis and will play the winner of today’s North Carolina-Arkansas game.
The best game of the day from an entertainment standpoint was the finale between Purdue and Iowa State. The Boilermakers led by as many as 19 points with 14:30 to play, but the Cyclones went on a 34-13 run to take a 2-point lead with under 3 minutes to play. Purdue never panicked and were able to reclaim the lead on the ensuing possessions. Despite a missed free throw in the closing seconds, Purdue got an offensive rebound and were able to hit 2 final free throws to seal an 80-76 win against Iowa State. Purdue advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 7 years and will play the Kansas/Michigan State winner in the Midwest Regional in Kansas City on Thursday night.
TODAY’S SECOND ROUND MATCHUPS
(7) MICHIGAN VS (2) LOUISVILLE (12:10 PM, Indianapolis, IN – CBS). This is a rematch of the 2013 national championship game and although the stakes aren’t quite that high, they’re still pretty damn high. Michigan really caught fire in the Big Ten Tournament and has been playing at a high level ever since. Louisville has been pretty solid throughout the year, but their biggest wins have come at home so this is hardly a shoe-in for the Cardinals.
(10) WICHITA STATE VS (2) KENTUCKY (2:40 PM, Indianapolis, IN – CBS). Wichita State won a defensive struggle against Dayton and to have any sort of a chance today they’ll need to get their offense cranking. Kentucky outlasted Northern Kentucky and had some offensive struggles of their own. This is a popular upset pick and whether or not it happens it will be fun to see what Wichita’s defense can do against Kentucky’s athleticism.
(9) MICHIGAN STATE VS (1) KANSAS (5:15 PM, Tulsa, OK – CBS). Had Michigan State played as well all season as they did in their First Round game against the Miami Hurricanes, they would not be on the #9 line. This is a program that has a history of advancing deep into the tournament as a lower seed and Kansas is having their own off-the-court issues, so an upset is not entirely outside the realm of possibility. Despite all their issues, Kansas is playing at a very high level.
(8) ARKANSAS VS (1) NORTH CAROLINA (6:10 PM, Greenville, SC – TNT). UNC absolutely trashed Texas Southern on Friday and as good as Arkansas is, they still appear to be overmatched in this one. I never want to say that an upset is impossible, but the Razorbacks will have to play their best game of the year to pull this off. This is also a rematch from their 2nd round matchup in 2015 where North Carolina came out a winner.
(11) RHODE ISLAND VS (3) OREGON (7:10 PM, Sacramento, CA – TBS). Oregon was a Final Four caliber team prior to losing Chris Boucher in the Pac-12 conference tournament. Rhode Island has played really well since the start of the Atlantic Ten Tournament and quite frankly should have been playing that well all year. If they had, they’d have done much better than a #11 seed. Having said that, had they played like this all year they probably end up as a #6 seed and end up in this game anyway. An upset is likely if Rhody plays as well as they have been, but don’t count Oregon out entirely because even though they’re not at full strength they’ve still looked pretty good.
(11) USC VS (3) BAYLOR (7:45 PM, Sacramento, CA – TruTV). USC beat a very good SMU team in the Round of 64 and denied us what would have been an intriguing regional match-up between two former Southwest Conference rivals. USC has been hot and cold this year and I don’t see them having quite enough to take down Baylor, but we’ll see how it comes out.
(7) SOUTH CAROLINA VS (2) DUKE (8:40 PM, Greenville, SC – TNT). DUKE AND CAROLINA ARE FINALLY MEETING IN THE TOURNAMENT!! Oh, wait. Wrong Carolina. Duke has been red hot since they began play in the ACC Tournament and South Carolina will really have to play over their heads in order to pull off the upset. Having said that, the game is right in their backyard (not to mention that any remaining North Carolina fans will be cheering for them) and the Gamecocks are coming off one of their more impressive showings of the year, so it’s not a given for the Blue Devils.
-#6 CINCINNATI VS #3 UCLA (9:40 PM, Sacramento, CA – TBS). Cincinnati had an incredibly impressive performance against a K-State team who had been playing pretty well. UCLA wrestled with Kent State a little bit but blew it open in the final ten minutes of their game. On the court this one should be interesting. We’ve got Cincinnati’s strong defense, and UCLA’s amazing offense. Cincinnati was able to score against Kansas State and they should be able to today as well. This is just a great match-up.
Under The Radar Postseason News, Notes and Highlighted Games – Monday, March 20
For a recap of yesterday’s 2nd round in the NCAA Tournament – CLICK HERE
Yesterday’s update on the 2017 Coaching Carousel centers mainly around 2 schools – Washington and Syracuse. The initial move was a bit of a surprise – Mike Hopkins will move from head coach-in-waiting at Syracuse to take the full-time gig at Washington. He does have some roots out on the West Coast, and it will remain to be seen if he can recruit blue-chip talent like Lorenzo Romar and also improve on the win totals that have been lacking in Seattle for the past 5-6 seasons.
Not long after Hopkins moved to UW, Syracuse and Jim Boeheim worked out a contract extension beyond next season – that was when Boeheim was originally scheduled to retire and Hopkins would take over the Orange at that point in time.
Brad Brownell will also be retained as head coach at Clemson for another year, although you have to get a feeling that his leash will be a short one if the Tigers have another rough year like they did this season.
As far as the NIT yesterday, 3 more teams advanced to the quarterfinals. Both Georgia Tech and Richmond advanced with wins at home over Belmont and Oakland, respectively. TCU-Iowa went overtime and the Horned Frogs came away with their biggest road win of the year with a 94-92 win against the Hawkeyes.
NIT
(4) CENTRAL FLORIDA at (1) ILLINOIS STATE (7:00 PM, ESPN). The Redbirds are the only #1 seed remaining in the NIT after Syracuse, Iowa and California have been eliminated. They literally have a tall order in front of them with Tacko Fall and the UCF Knights coming into town tonight.
(7) AKRON at (6) TEXAS-ARLINGTON (8:00 PM, ESPNU). This game is literally a Bracket Buster with the winner advancing to the quarterfinals of the NIT. While Akron had the higher-seed upset with their win against Houston, the Mavs probably had the higher-profile upset thanks to their win at BYU last week. This may well be the game of the day among the 4 NIT games.
(6) BOISE STATE at (2) ILLINOIS (9:00 PM, ESPN). This will be the first game that Illinois will be playing with new head coach Brad Underwood in attendance (Jamall Walker will serve as interim head coach during the NIT games) – they will only get one chance at a first impression against a Boise State team that already got roadkill at Utah last week.
(8) CAL STATE BAKERSFIELD at (4) COLORADO STATE (11:15 PM, ESPN2). The Roadrunners already have an upset of Cal in this postseason and are about to go from sea level up to mile-high elevation in the Front Range. They will also be playing a Colorado State team that is more motivated for the NIT than Cal appeared to be last week.
CBI
LOYOLA at COASTAL CAROLINA (7:00 PM). The Greyhounds of Loyola already have a road win against George Mason under their belts, but they will have to travel outside of the Beltways to take on a Coastal Carolina team that beat Hampton in their CBI opener.
UTAH VALLEY at RICE (8:00 PM). The Wolverines were one of two teams from the WAC to win their CBI openers, and they will again hit the road to take on an improving Rice squad. The Owls beat San Francisco to advance to this point while Utah Valley won at Georgia Southern to get to this point.
GEORGE WASHINGTON at ILLINOIS-CHICAGO (8:00 PM). While the Colonials got a close win over Toledo by 4 points at home last week, they will now have to hit the road to take on a Flames team that had an even closer shave at home against Stony Brook before coming away victorious.
UMKC at WYOMING (9:00 PM). The Front Range will play host to another postseason game thanks to Wyoming’s 10-point win over Eastern Washington last week. They will play UMKC – the Roos beat Green Bay last week for their first postseason victory in their program’s D-I history.
CIT
SAMFORD at LIBERTY (7:00 PM, Facebook Live). Samford advanced to the 2nd round with a 4-point win at home over Canisius last week. They will play a Liberty team that had a somewhat easier time against Norfolk State last week in the John McLendon Classic. No trophies at stake tonight – just a spot into the CIT quarterfinals.
TENNESSEE-MARTIN at CAMPBELL (7:00 PM, Facebook Live). For the 2nd straight round, Buies Creek will play host to another postseason contest for Campbell. The Camels have won 5 out of their last 6 games that include a win over Houston Baptist in their CIT opener. UT-Martin beat a tough UNC-Asheville team in their opener 89-75, but that was in the friendly confines of their home arena.
WEBER STATE at TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI (8:00 PM, Facebook Live). Despite a mid-February slump, Weber State has won 4 out of their last 5 games, and that includes a win against an improving Cal State-Fullerton team in their CIT opener. Corpus Christi is another team that overcame their shortcomings in their conference championship game with a decisive win against Georgia State in their CIT opener.