Sunday was Fun Day in the NCAA Tournament with two stunning buzzer beaters. First, St. John’s knocked off Kansas on a layup by Dylan Darling with 3.6 seconds left. Then Iowa shocked the basketball world with a corner three by Alvaro Folgueiras that sent defending champion Florida home.
For much of the first game, neither St. John’s nor Kansas was particularly compelling. Both were sloppy, and there was some truly ugly offense.
Down the stretch, though, things really tightened up and it took on the feel
of a heavyweight fight.
Dylan, who had been held scoreless to that point, told Rick Pitino to run a play for him, and sure enough, he pulled it off.
Then in the later game, Bennett Stirtz raced downcourt and got the ball to Folgueiras, who rose up and hit his three with a dramatic follow-through .
Even better, at one point, Folgueiras and Alex Condon got into it and were both assessed with technicals. Then Todd Golden and Ben McCollum got into it and that got rather intense. Maybe they could schedule a game next season?
As for Kansas, that team never really clicked this season. The whole Darryn Peterson business must have been exhausting, and the pieces never really fit, with or without him.
After the game, KU coach Bill Self said he would take some time and think about what he wanted to do. It didn’t necessarily sound like he was planning to retire, but he clearly hasn’t ruled it out, either.
As you probably know, Duke and St. John’s will play in the Sweet 16, and that inevitably brings up echoes of Duke’s dramatic 1992 win over Kentucky. Pitino, who coached the Wildcats at the time, said this: “I’m hoping we can get Duke at the buzzer next to make up for that Christian Laettner shot.”
Miami gave Purdue a solid game before yielding at the end, 79-69. They pushed the Boilermakers, though. It’s just Year 1 for Jai Lucas, but he’s done a tremendous job and will only get better from here.
Purdue won, but Miami got a lot of positive responses for how well the ‘Canes played.
Same goes for Virginia, which took Tennessee almost to the wire, losing just 79-72. Both programs come out of this tournament with a lot of momentum, and also tons of respect.
That’s not going to be the case for Kentucky and Mark Pope. Kentucky suffered its worst tournament loss since 1972, when Adolph Rupp’s Wildcats lost to Florida State, 73-54 in his final game.
This might have been Mark Pope’s last game, too. Like UNC fans, BBN is very unhappy with their coach. Unfortunately for Pope, they are not nearly as forgiving as Carolina fans have been with Hubert Davis, even though that patience is running out fast. It won’t surprise us a bit if they turn on Pope, and being a UK alum, he knows exactly how that fan base behaves.
The problem, though, is that when they hired Pope, it was after getting rejected by several accomplished coaches who the fans assumed would see Kentucky as an improvement.
It is a great job, but the pressures there kill a lot of the joy, and everyone they pursued understood it. Having another search just two years later is going to be risky for the same reasons. One hopes UNC is a little smarter about it than Kentucky was.
Utah State fell behind Arizona, 51-33, and in the end, that was just too big a hole for the Aggies to dig out of. They gave it a shot, though, losing by 12, 78-66. Utah State has been pretty solid lately under more than one coach, and that’s not easy to do.
Mick Cronin summed up UCLA’s problem with UConn succinctly: “Can’t score, can’t win.”
UCLA shot just 39% overall, and hit just 5-13 on their threes. Even free throws were a struggle, with the Bruins managing just 14-21 (67%).
Tarris Reed had an outrageous game against Furman with 27 points and 31 rebounds, but not so much this time: he finished with 10 points and 13 boards.
We thought that Texas Tech would give Alabama a better game than they did, but ’Bama smoked them, 90-65.
The Red Raiders are without JT Toppin, who was having a great season before he had a knee injury on February 17th. Tech has gone 4-5 since then.
Still, Alabama came out with more aggression and determination, and Texas Tech couldn’t match it.
So the Sweet 16 is set. In the East, it’s #1 Duke vs. #5 St. John’s, and #3 Michigan State vs. #2 UConn.
In the South, it’s #9 Iowa vs. #4 Nebraska, and #3 Illinois vs. #2 Houston.
The West will be #1 Arizona vs. #4 Arkansas, then #11 Texas vs. #2 Purdue.
Finally, the Midwest features #1 Michigan vs. #4 Alabama, and #6 Tennessee vs. #2 Iowa State.
One last note: Hubert Davis has had few defenders, but former Tar Heel and Dean Smith assistant Larry Brown said this:
“I understand why North Carolina fans were disappointed with our loss to VCU, but people should remember that when Caleb Wilson was healthy, this team beat Ohio State, Kansas, Duke and Virginia, and Kentucky on the road. If Caleb did not get injured, this team might be in the Sweet Sixteen. I believe Hubert Davis is the type of person and coach who should continue to lead our program. We have a great recruiting class on the way, and many of the current players want to stay to play for Hubert. I call on the North Carolina administration to do the right thing and allow Hubert to continue serving as coach.”
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