Not one, but 2 upsets in the late games, and neither game was that close.
Mizzou runs the "40 minutes of Hell" defense made popular by Nolan Richardson at Arkansas, and it was just as hellish for Memphis as the final minutes of the final game last year. Missed most of the game (in the northeast we got Nova-Puke), but what I did see showed Memphis making terrible (sorry, I'll cue up my Bill Walton voice: TERRRR-IBLE!!!) decisions against the full court pressure, leading to easy Missouri baskets. Combine that with bad free throw shooting, and that's a recipe for an early trip home. Though to be fair, Mizzou wasn't much better from the stripe, aside from deisgnated free throw shooter Kim English, who was 6 for 6.
Nova-Duke was another ugly first half full of "great defense" (read: bad offense). If Villanova had hit a layup or three point shot in the first half, they would have won by 30. As it is, they turned it on in the early second half when they started pushing the ball and driving by the Duke defenders, much like their game against American. The main problem for Duke? 3 pointers. 18.5% shooting won't cut it when you live and die by the three. To be fair, Villanova did play some outstandign defense, but if Duke had hit just a couple of their open 3 looks in the first half, it could have been a totally different game.
4/8 spots are spoken for, and in both cases the regional final will feature a 1 seed versus a 3.
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