The 2017-18 season is having an NCAA Tournament that fits what the regular season was like. It has been wild, wacky and unpredictable. History has been made along the way.
Sunday was no different, and the Sweet 16 has plenty of what we have seen all year long.
Let’s start with perhaps the two biggest results on Sunday, both involving ACC teams. Early on in the Midwest region, No. 11 Syracuse went from the bubble to the Sweet 16 by holding off No. 3 Michigan State 55-53, then in one of the last games of the night, in the West region No. 9 Florida State finished the game on an 18-4 run to come back and beat No. 1 Xavier 75-70.
Syracuse once again was able to confound a team with its zone defense. It’s hard to understate how shocking this end result is, because the Orange are not deep at all, struggle to score, and Frank Howard fouled out with 6:39 left on Sunday against a team many felt was a national title contender before the season. Michigan State, who took a four-point lead right after Howard fouled out, shot below 26 percent from the field, and they settled often for three-pointers, to the tune of attempting a school record 37 of them. They made just eight, and their last field goal came with 5:43 left.
Nashville ended up being a home of heartbreak for teams from Cincinnati. In the South region earlier in the day, No. 2 Cincinnati was shockingly ousted by No. 7 Nevada after the Bearcats blew a 22-point lead; we’ll get to that in more detail. The Bearcats’ arch-rival, Xavier, looked to be relatively in control against Florida State, leading by 12 with under 11 minutes left and having enough answers to keep the Seminoles at arm’s length for a while. Then the Seminoles didn’t allow a field goal in the final 3:42 and outscored the Musketeers 31-14 after being down by 12. It made the Musketeers the second No. 1 seed to go down this weekend.
Oh, and that Cincinnati game? The Bearcats, who like Virginia had one of the best defenses in the nation, led 65-43 with 11:37 left. From that point on, Nevada outscored them 32-8, finished the game shooting 49 percent and committing just two turnovers, and pulled out a 75-73 win to knock off another top four seed in the South region. The Wolfpack have trailed in five straight games and are improbably in the Sweet 16.
So the end result is a Sweet 16 that for just the fourth time ever, and the first time since 2004, has fewer than three No. 1 seeds. In addition, the South region has some history, as it is the first one to ever have four teams that are all outside the top four seeds heading into the second weekend. And we already had the first No. 1 seed ever to lose to a No. 16 (and on that note, UMBC gave No. 9 Kansas State all they could handle for about 38 minutes before succumbing 50-43 in the South region) and the first major conference since the formation of the Big 12 to not get a single team into the round of 32 (Pac-12).
This all makes sense after the way this season went. We saw unranked teams consistently beat top 10 teams, we saw the SEC and Big 12 put on great shows from a competitive standpoint (and even the Pac-12, though it was a decidedly down year there), and by the time February rolled around, it was clear that trying to predict anything was futile more than any other year in recent memory. The NCAA Tournament had to be no other way than what it has been thus far.
The conference count, if you are wondering, looks like this: ACC and Big 12 have four teams each, Big Ten and SEC have two each, and the Big East, Missouri Valley, Mountain West and West Coast Conference all have one.
Side Dishes
On Sunday, Adam Glatczak alluded to how Loyola-Chicago has had a bit of patience rewarded in keeping Porter Moser around as head coach and now reaching the Sweet 16. Later on Sunday, we saw that with one of the four ACC teams to advance. At this time last year, there were questions about Brad Brownell’s job at Clemson, but the fifth-seeded Tigers demolished No. 4 Auburn 84-53 in San Diego to advance in the Midwest region. Anyone who has paid attention knows that Brownell runs clean, winning and classy programs, and the Tigers have made out well by giving him another year.
One ACC team that won’t go any further is No. 2 North Carolina, who No. 7 Texas A&M more than handled 86-65 in Charlotte to advance in the West region. The Aggies started to open the lead up late in the first half, taking a 42-28 lead into the locker room, and never let the Tar Heels get much of a comeback going in the second. The Tar Heels shot just 33 percent from the field, while the Aggies shot nearly 52 percent to win despite more than twice as many turnovers. Texas A&M now looks more like the team they did earlier in the year.
The first game of the day was a good one between two in-state rivals that frequently meet in the Crossroads Classic, but it was overshadowed by others later on. No. 10 Butler led for a significant portion of the first half before No. 2 Purdue came alive to take the lead, then the Boilermakers had to constantly hold off the Bulldogs en route to a 76-73 win. Bookending that, and also in the East region, was one other blowout, No. 5 West Virginia taking care of in-state rival No. 13 Marshall 94-71.
Speaking of Purdue, big man Isaac Haas is not ready to concede that his college career is over after he fractured his elbow in their first round win. Haas did not play on Sunday, but is holding out hope that with a few days of rest, his elbow will feel well enough that he can play on it later this week.
Tonight’s Menu
For a few days, the other three tournaments take center stage, with all three having action this evening.
- Second round action in the NIT is on tap with four games to lead the way: Stanford at Oklahoma State (7 p.m), LSU at Utah (9 p.m.), Washington at Saint Mary’s (11 p.m.) and Western Kentucky at USC (11:30 p.m.)
- The quarterfinals of the CBI are also slated for this evening. New Orleans visits Campbell (7 p.m.), Mercer goes to North Texas and Jacksonville State visits Central Arkansas (8 p.m.) and out west, Utah Valley travels to San Francisco (10 p.m.)
- One game is on tap in the CIT, a second round matchup with Eastern Michigan traveling to Sam Houston State (7:30 p.m.)
