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Wednesday, December 25, 2024
This year’s NCAA Tournament Final Four is set. By almost all accounts, it’s not a foursome many expected to be here collectively, and for a season and a tournament that has carried a double major in inexplicable and bizarre, that might be the best sign we have that it’s as appropriate of a group as we could’ve asked for.
What to make of the first weekend of the 2016 NCAA Tournament? If there is one thing we witnessed over those four days (six including the play-in games) that can come close to being a fair generalization, it is that this year’s tourney has no one-size-fits-all quality to it. Maybe the only conclusion one can come to is there is no conclusion.
The improbable continues to happen as the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament is in the books. Plus the ACC dominates the Sweet 16, some more coaching news, and no surprise at an early NBA Draft entrant.
Upsets dotted the landscape on Friday, and there were some dramatic finishes as well, especially late in the day. Plus coaching changes continue with two that had years left on their deals, one coach will stay put, and another arrest in Illinois.
The first two NCAA Tournament bids went out on Saturday, and you can’t blame either coach if they got a little emotional. Plus a full day of tournament action, a coach gets the dreaded “vote of confidence”, and winning was especially hard for one team this year.
Another day, more top teams go down as a record is set in that category. Plus a busy day in the Big Ten and Pac-12, and an important conference title is clinched outright – barely.
The Ivy League race may be thinning out on the last light Friday of the season. Plus a meaningless reprimand, a new coaching contract and a coaching job gets posted, and the gridiron beckons for a bruising Big 12 post player.
Even acknowledging that it took some time for the Badgers to find their way under him (remember, the team was 2-4 in his first six games), what Greg Gard has done righting a previously middling team at Wisconsin deserves serious notice, to the point where it’s hard to imagine many others could’ve done it better this year.
Is it possible Minnesota found a way to beat not just one team but two on Thursday? The Golden Gophers’ 68-63 triumph over Maryland will go down as one of the very biggest “how’d that happen?” results in a season that has had plenty of them, but did it also hurt Wisconsin?
Looking around the country with our weekly notebook, checking in on the Atlantic 10, Wisconsin, Siena, Louisiana-Lafayette and others.
