Notre Dame didn't really ever put Akron away, and as someone who picked ND to make the final four, that made me a little nervous. And as they're a jump shooting team, that's the type of offense that can disappear for a game, but they are darn good at it. They create good looks for themselves.
Villanova's game went kind of like their whole year. They started out well, and it looked like their 3-guard lineup would run George Mason ragged. But as the game went on their offense disappeared for stretches, and they gave up too many points in the paint, so George Mason never went away. In the end, they couldn't put enough plays together to make something of this game (or their season), and you're left wondering whether they underachieved or you were just looking at them through the filter of their past recent successes.
Duke's not going to lose to a 16 seed. It's just not going to happen for a Coach K led team (a Bill Self led team? Maybe). And it didn't, they smoked poor Hampton. Now that we got that out of the way, can we stop with the arguments over whether Kyrie Irving should be playing? Yes, he's missed a lot of time and yes, it may bog down the offense short term, but the guy is the presumptive #1 overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft. You don't hold him out because you're runnign smoothly without him. You're not looking to make the Elite 8/Final Four, you're looking to win the whole thing, and you need Kyrie Irving in some form to do that. How is this even a question?
Likewise, Ohio State has been labeled the #1 seed least likely to lose to a team they shouldn't going into this tournament, and they were never in trouble against the third of the four First Four graduates.
The Memphis-Arizona game was interesting (and one of only 2 games that came down to the end). Arizona had the better talent, but Memphis used their speed to jump out to a big early lead, and then hung around as Arizona found themselves and came back to hold a small lead for most of the rest of the way. Memphis fought hard, but their lack of size doomed them, as seen by their final shot getting blocked by AZ's best player. Good fight, and you have to root for them now that Hurricane Calipari has left light recruiting classes, sanctions, and vacated Final Fours in his wake.
The Florida State-Texas A&M game was mostly a defensive struggle. Florida State's defense is legit, they are quick and they are dogged. A&M responded at first by simply raining 3-pointers, and were able to hold a lead at halftime with this strategy. FSU adjusted to a zone to take away the three pointer (which is interesting, as your basic zone usually gives up a lot of outside looks), but A&M didn't have any sort of post game and by the time FSU went back to their man-to-man, A&M lost any sort of touch from behind the arc. Not the prettiest of games, and the Notre Dame-FSU matchup next round will be interesting, as Notre Dame has an elite offense to counter Florida State's elite D.
And as I post this Bill Self's Kansas team is struggling to pull away from Boston University. No, not Boston College, BU. And no, I'm not watching hockey. Color me unsurprised.
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