Every few years, it seems, there is the narrative that this is an “off” season for the Big Ten.
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The West Region is also missing its No. 3 seed, with No. 11 Xavier, the lowest seed remaining in the tourney, moving on to the Sweet 16 along with No. 1 Gonzaga, No. 2 Arizona and No. 4 West Virginia. The worst units still alive, in terms of KenPom efficiency are South Carolina (No. 124 offense) and UCLA (No. 77 defense). For the third consecutive year, no mid-majors made it aboard the 16 lifeboats that escaped the vicious first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, when 48 seasons end.
Yes, South Carolina did the sporting world a favor and tripped up Grayson Allen and Duke late Sunday night, but while it’s nice this is South Carolina’s first Sweet 16 visit, are we really going to call an SEC school a Cinderella? “Now, do we shoot 71 percent, what did we shoot, 71 for a half?”
March Madness has been living up to it’s name quite well as a handful of upsets have made for an interesting Sweet 16 class.
MI moves on to the Sweet 16 after upsetting Louisville in the third round of the midwest region.
After a week and 52 tournament games, Villanova’s gone. The Wolverines commit the fewest turnovers in the country (9.4 per game), a skill that will come in handy against a high-energy team, Oregon, in the Sweet 16. The Bruins next face Kentucky, which has forced a total of 19 turnovers through the first two rounds of the tournament. The Bulldogs don’t beat themselves, ranking 21st national in turnover margin (plus-3.2) and shooting 47.9 percent from the field, which ranks No. 31 nationally.
10 – Turnovers Michigan has committed in two tournament games. So who are now the favorites to win the national championship and who are just playing with house money by just getting to the second weekend?
Berry injured his ankle in a first-round victory over Texas Southern, which may explain why he’s struggled to make his shots thus far in the tournament. Junior forward Justin Jackson, the seventh Tar Heel to score at least 600 points in a season under Williams, will look to get North Carolina rolling again.
Yes, there were four first weekend overtime games in 2007 too, but it resulted in the same amount of one-possession games, seven. But they realized they could approximate Duke’s talent if not its skill, and in a one-and-done setting belief is a powerful thing. It’s tough to win in March without a quality point guard, and that was something that ultimately bit a bunch of the ACC’s teams when it mattered. John Brannen started three products of the Bluegrass State in NKU’s historic Division I NCAA Tournament debut against United Kingdom, and all three acquitted themselves well. Louisville doesn’t need to see MI (in the Round of 32).
Teams are more likely to keep fouling even when trailing by 8-10 points in the final stages of games in these tournament games than they would during the regular season because there is essentially no tomorrow and the season is done with another loss. I think they matchup really well with Kansas, and I think their size can take advantages of weaknesses in the front lines of both MI and Oregon. They way that SC defends is a nightmare for teams that don’t have great point guard play and Baylor doesn’t have great point guard play. They scored 54 points in the second half against Marquette and 65 points over the final 20 minutes against Duke.
Player to watch: Sindarius Thornwell, South Carolina. Of the first 48 games of the tournament, half of them fit that description.
Stat to impress your friends: Wisconsin’s seniors are 13-3 in the NCAA Tournament. Notre Dame came up short against West Virginia, Florida State was pounded by Xavier, and Virginia managed only 39 points in a loss to Florida.
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The ACC didn’t just lose eight of its nine representatives during the tournament’s opening week, it lost them in overwhelmingly embarrassing fashion. For the two games in the Tournament, Colson averaged 22.5 points and 7.5 rebounds, doing all that he could to try to help Notre Dame advance.
