The West Region avoided the major upset bug during the first weekend of March Madness.
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My guess is what Hield proceeded to do, clinched the NPOY honor as it more importantly, led his Sooners to a 4- point win and their second-straight Sweet Sixteen appearance. The obvious tactic when a defender isn’t helping is to station the star player in question, Hield, to the side of of the court the team’s most proficient driver prefers and work to get as many layups as possible before the defense starts to crack. It looked for a time Sunday like he might be enduring a similar game against a similar team in VCU.
Can Hield-Powered Sooners survive once more?
Buddy Hield started slow, but came through for the Oklahoma Sooners when they needed him with 29 second-half points. Guards Jordan Woodward and Isaiah Cousins added 17 and 15 points, respectively.
There likely will be more days like this for Hield, but he will take as many as he can get.
The Sooners were victorious over Cal State Bakersfield 82-68 in the First Round.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Buddy Hield let Oklahoma’s fans witness one last vintage hot streak.
Forget Texas A&M’s Houdini-like escape against Northern Iowa. Defensively, Oklahoma Sooner yields 70.4 points against the opposing teams. They had VCU down 14 early, 13 at halftime and eight with 2:10 left in the game. That’s another three. Melvin Johnson switches onto him and gambles for an open-court steal? The Aggies are playing with buckets of confidence after a historic comeback, and will continue dancing thanks to big nights from Danuel House and Jalen Jones.
Prediction: Texas A&M 77, Oklahoma 73.
Both teams have senior leadership in their starting units. They don’t have any dynamic scorers nor a shutdown defense. If it won’t be Dillon Brooks or Elgin Cook overpowering wings, it’ll be Tyler Dorsey or Casey Benson succeeding in dribble-drives. “So I mean, it’s just hard to guard a player that makes shots consistently”. And they might just be able to “find” their way into the Elite Eight.
Allen has carried the Blue Devils offensively all season long. They’re 7-3 ATS in their past 10 games and 21-9 on the year, including 5-3 as the underdog. They were a top seed, so their first-round game was a breeze. “I’m excited about going to the Sweet 16 for the second time”.
Before the first media timeout against VCU, Lattin had an offensive rebound put-back, a block, and two dunks off the same play. They then built a 26-point lead against Yale but watched it dwindle to a mere three points. Valentine averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.8 assists in leading the Spartans to a No. 2 seed in the Midwest before bowing out unexpectedly to Middle Tennessee in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.
Next thing you know, OU was up 21-7 with 11:45 left in the first half, but Hield had yet to record his first point. Duke has been off and on all year.
This should be an excellent game between a pair of strong teams. Frank Kaminksy, Sam Dekker and Bo Ryan are gone from back-to-back Final Four teams, and Koenig is one of the few remaining starters.
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