Newly minted athletic director Scott Barnes has to hire someone who can re-establish Pitt’s identity in recruiting and also have the presence to coach in a league whose teams are now a combined 12-1 in the NCAA Tournament.
Advertisement
With Kansas and Iowa State joining Oklahoma, the conference has three teams in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2009.
Michigan State, one of the title favorites, went down in the round of 64 to 15-seeded Middle Tennessee in what many are calling the biggest upset in the history of the tournament.
“Strategically I think we’ve played with more balance”.
Anyway, I’ll go ahead and re-seed the teams here just for fun. The Bulldogs of Gonzaga cruised into the tournament as an 11-seed and simply dominated two quality teams in Seton Hall and Utah en route to the Sweet 16.
That jumper with the smooth release off his hand that has helped lead Gonzaga back to a familiar place in the NCAA Tournament can be traced back to when Wiltjer was 10 years old. Only junior Tyler Roberson had more rebounds versus MTSU.
“He’s going to be great”, Coleman said of Lydon.
Middle Tennessee, bidding to become just the second No. 15 seed to ever advance to the Sweet 16, momentarily took a lead early in the second half and trailed just 40-39 with 16 minutes remaining.
The Orange (21-13) are back in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2013 after blowing out the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders 75-50, sending the tournament darlings home on Sunday.
A star for SU all season long, Michael Gbinije shook off a mediocre shooting performance against Dayton in the first round to lead the Orange with 23 points in the win over MTSU. Tyler Lydon was the only supplier of the bench points but probably had the best impact by going for 14 points and several rebounds. That offensive spree came shortly after Jaqawn Raymond, who had been guarding him much of the game, left with his fourth foul. They’ll try to find other ways to challenge the Zags.
“Are you kidding me, are you freaking kidding me?” is how Irish coach Mike Brey opened his postgame news conference. He played under control and took only good shots.
Syracuse’s defense closed the door from there, holding Middle Tennessee scoreless for more than six minutes.
“We don’t want them patted on the back”, Few said. “We need to focus on those things”. The Blue Raiders shot 29.7 percent from the field….
Syracuse let the Blue Raiders hang around in the first half, in part by shooting just 1-for-7 from the free-throw line, but the Orange used a massive 21-2 run in the second half to secure the victory.
Say this for Jim Boeheim: He can still put together a basketball team. “That was the only difference in the game”. In eight of Syracuse’s last nine NCAA tournament games, opponents shot below 40 percent.
Syracuse is just two wins from reaching the Final Four in very unlikely fashion.
JS: You played against Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament while you were at Syracuse. There’s a 5 am American Airlines flight that gets you to Chicago at 2 pm Friday for $638, and a Delta Airlines flight at 6 am that gets you to Chicago a little after 3pm for $690. But what in the name of Adam Morrison are the Zags – yes, they’re the Bulldogs, but we know them better as the Zags – doing here this year? It doesn’t always show up when you’re in the ACC…It doesn’t mean we weren’t good.
Advertisement
“We really just set up for a lot of outside shots early in the game and their zone really bothered us”, Raymond said. “There will be time to look backward someday”.
