The college basketball season came to a close last night as the 1st overall seed UConn Huskies defeated the Purdue Boilermakers to repeat as national champs for the first time in 17 years. Like several of UConn's games this tournament, the game was tight through the first half. But the Huskies asserted their dominance in the second half to pull away early and retain their lead through the end. Rather than focusing on Purdue's big man, Zach Edey, UConn's philosophy was to let Edey go one-on-one in the post and prevent Purdue's perimeter players from beating them.
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The Final Four took place on Saturday night in Phoenix, Arizona. And despite valiant efforts from the underdogs, the higher seeds proved to be too much in the end. Both games followed similar trajectories with the game remaining close until halftime, with the 1-seed pulling away in the second half. As a result, (1) Purdue took down the Cinderella, (11) NC State in the first game, and (1) UConn defeated (4) Alabama in the second matchup.
Two more teams punched their ticket to the Final Four on Easter Sunday. And the response for each of those teams couldn't be more different. (1) Purdue benefitted yet again from very questionable officiating to beat (2) Tennessee from the foul line. Zach Edey shot more free throws than the Vols combined to score 40 points in an essentially 1v1 game between him and Dalton Knecht, who had 37. The big issue is not solely the special treatment Edey gets on offense, but the fact that he is allowed to do whatever he wants on defense and positioning for rebounds without anything ever called against him. He had just one foul the entire game, whereas Tennessee's main big man, Tobe Awaka, fouled out in just 13 minutes of game time.
Half of the Final Four is now set, as two teams punched their tickets to Phoenix on Saturday night. (1) UConn ballooned a 28-23 halftime lead into a 53-23 lead in the second half after going on an unbelievable 30-0 run against (3) Illinois. UConn has now won their tournament games by an average of 27 points and looks like the best team in the nation by a wide margin.
Friday had another action-packed night of basketball as eight teams attempted to secure the four remaining spots in the Elite Eight. We started with a shocking wire-to-wire upset from (11) NC State over (2) Marquette in the first game of the evening. NC State took advantage of an abysmal shooting night from the Golden Eagles to continue their magical March run.
The first night of Sweet 16 action was not kind to the favorites. And as a result, not kind to many of the brackets in the BSSR Mega March Madness Matchup Monstrosity. The first game of the night was between (6) Clemson and (2) Arizona. And Clemson impressively led for nearly the entirety of the game to survive a late push from Arizona and claw their way to a win in the battle of the felines.
The tournament field is down to 16 teams after the eight games that took place on Sunday. And for just the fifth time since 1979, all the 1- and 2-seeds have cracked the Sweet 16. Sunday's games were pretty much a 50/50 split between close, down to the wire contests and blowout affairs. We'll talk first about the teams who flexed their muscles on their way to easy wins in the Round of 32.
Saturday's slate of games featured very little parity, as the favored team won every game. The first half of the games in the early part of the day were not very competitive for the most part, as (2) Arizona, (5) Gonzaga, (1) North Carolina, and (2) Iowa State strolled into the Sweet 16.
Brackets were busted during the second half of the NCAA Tournament's first round games, which took place on Friday. Namely, for those who picked Auburn to go far in their bracket. As one of those people, I ask the NCAA to please launch an investigation on Auburn's basketball program. Because I'm convinced their players threw the game down the stretch against (13) Yale. The Tigers had four players go to the free throw line in crunch time, and three of those players (who shoot 88 percent, 83 percent, and 78 percent from the line on the season), went 0/4. And one of those was the front end of a one-and-one.
March Madness is officially here. And with it, the return of the Bucket Squad Sports Reports Mega March Madness Matchup Monstrosity for the third consecutive year. And the field for our bracket challenge is the biggest its ever been as BSSR's reach has exploded across the internet. Before we get into the BSSRMMMMM leaderboard, I'll give a quick breakdown of yesterday's games. But if you only care about where you stand in the race for $100, you can scroll to the end. |
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April 2024
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