Thursday, March 23, 2023

Round of 16

We start off with Michigan State and Kansas State.  By my estimate, I've seen Michigan State play about 10,000 games in the NCAA tournament since they won it all in 2000, and at no point did I ever think the Spartans were going to win the tournament again.  Sometimes they pull an upset -- like they did in the Sweet 16 over Duke in 2005, or like they did in the Elite 8 over Duke in 2019.  But since 2000, I have never considered them a major threat to win it all.  Of course, I don't consider K-State a threat to go all the way either.

87 comments:

  1. I have no idea which of these teams is more likely to beat Tennessee in the Elite Eight, so I don't know who to root for.

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  2. MSU leads 22-20 with 6:41 left in the first half. If all college basketball were like this, I'd go watch something else.

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  3. OK, so we're switching over to a real game -- UConn v. Arkansas from Vegas. For the folks out West, this game is just a warmup for the big UCLA/Gonzaga game later tonight. But to me it's a throwback to one of the great eras in basketball history. And their coaches are throwbacks as well -- if Dan Hurley (UConn) and Eric Musselman (Arkansas) had been around back in the 1970's, they would have been the sort of guys who were always engaged in odd controversies. They just have that type of personality.

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  4. Believe it or not, if UConn goes all the way this year, the Huskies will have as many national titles as Indiana or Duke.

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  5. K-State leads 43-38 at the half, so those guys scored a lot of points in the last 6:41 of action.

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  6. Kentucky played UConn in the NCAA Tournament three times between 2006 and 2014 -- once in the second round, once in the Final Four, and once for the National Championship. UK lost every time.

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  7. UConn looks very sharp so far. They're up 25-17 with 10:30 left in the first half.

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  8. Dan Hurley is going with the blazer and button-down shirt but no tie look. I admire his boldness, although I really think you have to be less than 25 years old to make that work.

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  9. UConn doesn't get enough credit for its role in college basketball history, because most folks in the media think that they basically stopped playing this tournament after Chris Webber left for the NBA. But UConn has been in some amazing games. They are the other school that was beaten by Christian Laettner at the last second in an Elite Eight Game. They are the school that lost in overtime to George Mason in another Elite Eight Game. They are the school that took the National Title from two of Coach K's best teams, in 1999 and 2004. They are the school that went all the way as a 3 seed in 2011 -- and then went all the way as a 7 seed in 2014.

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  10. Anyway, UConn now leads 34-17 with 7:42 left in the first half.

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  11. OK, give credit where credit is due. Michigan State leads K-State 60-59 with just over 10 minutes left in the game. Mike Nowell, K-State's Mr. Everything, is limping around but trying to stay in the game. Very exciting stuff.

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  12. Sorry, that's Markquis Nowell. He's really good.

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  13. Nowell was the MVP of the K-State/UK game. In that game he had 27 points and 9 assists.

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    1. Isaac Humphries and I believe he should've been whistled for taunting in the UK game.

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  14. K-State and MSU tied at 70 with 6:40 left. At no point this year did UK play as well as both teams are playing right now.

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  15. With 5:54 left, K-State leads 72-70. Since 1988, K-State has been to the Elite Eight twice. In 2010, the Purple Wildcats lost to Butler, 63-56. In 2018, they lost to Loyola of Chicago, 78-62.

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  16. With 4:34 left, K-State leads 77-73. It's so odd to see college players make three-point shots. This surprises me every March.

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  17. 3:24 left. Still 77-73 for K-State.

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  18. Five best NCAA Tournaments in this century:
    2019
    2014
    2008
    2006
    2015

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    1. Actually, 2011 was a better tournament than 2006, but George Mason's run to the Final Four in 2006 was one of the greatest things I've ever seen.

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  19. With 1:25 left, K-State leads 80-78.

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  20. Nowell makes a fadeaway with 1:03 left to put K-State up 82-78. He has 16 points and 15 assists.

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  21. MSU comes out of a timeout and makes it 82-80. Sparty had a free throw for an old-fashioned three-point play, but missed it.

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  22. With 22 seconds left, Nowell tries a 35-footer, but that's even beyond his abilities, and MSU gets the rebound. MSU calls time. K-State leads 82-80 with 22 seconds left.

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  23. MSU scores to tie it, Nowell misses a potential game-winner, and we are going to OVERTIME.

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  24. With 3:11 left in OT, MSU leads K-State 87-86.

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  25. K-State goes up 88-87 on a backdoor layup, but MSU comes back with an old-fashioned 3-point play. Sparty leads 90-88 with 2:14 left.

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  26. The teams exchange baskets. Sparty 92-90 with 1:40 left.

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  27. K-State makes two FT's and we are tied at 92 with 1:29 left. Nowell has 18 points and 17 assists.

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  28. MSU misses, and Nowell quickly gets his 18th assist on a half-court alley-oop. 94-92 K-State with 1 minute left.

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  29. Nowell's last assist was amazing -- he was out at half court, talking to his coach, and then all of a sudden he zipped a perfect alley oop pass for a reverse dunk.

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    1. He's absolutely the best player of the tournament so far for me.

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  30. With 42.8 seconds left, Michigan St. makes one of two free throws. K-State up 94-93. K-State ball.

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  31. With 17.2 seconds left, Nowell shoots what appears to be a 35-foot air ball. K-State claims the ball was tipped, and they've gone to the monitor.

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  32. K-State keeps the ball. 4.5 seconds on the shot clock. 17.4 seconds left on the game clock. Timeout Michigan State.

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    1. This timeout triggered a minor wave of boos from the Tennessee fans who are ready for their game to start.

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  33. Meanwhile, UConn is just hammering Arkansas. The Huskies are up 71-46 with 10:29 left.

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  34. K-State hits a long two-point jumper to go up 96-93 with 12 seconds left. MSU calls time.

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  35. Up three, K-State chooses not to foul. MSU is whipping the ball around looking for a 3-point shot. Suddenly Nowell has knocked the ball loose! He picks it up, runs the length of the floor, and SCORES AT THE BUZZER! K-State wins 98-93 in overtime!

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  36. Markquis Nowell, who was born on Christmas Day in 1999, and who grew up in Harlem, returns to NYC to score 20 points, set an NCAA record with 19 assists, and have 5 steals.

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  37. K-Pom has believed in UConn all year. He has them ranked 4th in the country, even though they were a number 4 seed in the West. He says that they are 312th in luck. And now he looks like a genius, because they lead Arkansas 86-61 with 1:45 left.

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  38. By the way, UAB beat Vandy 67 to 59 last night in Memorial Gym, and the Dores go out in the quarter-final of the NIT for the second straight year. Can C-USA pick up another win over the SEC when Florida Atlantic takes on Tennessee?

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  39. UConn rolls, 88-65, and the Huskies will await the winner of UCLA/Gonzaga.

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  40. UConn has won three games in the tournament by an average of 20.7 points per game.

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  41. Since 1999, UConn has reached the Elite Eight eight times. Here's how they've done:

    1999: NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
    2002: Lost to Maryland in Elite Eight
    2004: NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
    2006: Lost to George Mason in Elite Eight
    2009: Lost to Michigan St. in Final Four
    2011: NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
    2014: NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

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    1. Once they get this far, the Huskies are tough to beat.

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  42. With 11:10 left in the first half, UCLA leads 22-19. Drew Timme already has 15 points for Gonzaga.

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  43. UCLA has scored 29 points in the first quarter. They lead 29-21 with 10:04 left in the first half.

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  44. Tennessee leads FAU 27-22 at the half. Tennessee has only made the Elite Eight one time. That was in 2010, and the Vols lost to Michigan State 70-69.

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  45. What a schedule UK played this year. Of the eight teams playing tonight, UK played six: Tennessee (twice), Arkansas (twice), Gonzaga, UCLA, Michigan State, and Kansas State. UK went 3-5 in those games.

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  46. UK went 22-12 on the year, and 19-6 against teams that didn't reach the Sweet 16.

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  47. Based on how K-Pom classifies games, UK went:
    8-7 in "A" Games
    5-2 in "B" Games
    9-3 in other Games. The three losses were South Carolina at home, at Georgia, and Vandy at home.

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  48. UCLA looks awesome. They lead 46-33 at the half.

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  49. Watching these games, you can see that Ken Pom had UK exactly right. On Ken Pom, UK is number 26 in the country, and Michigan State is 25. When they played, MSU won in double OT. Arkansas is 22 and K-State is 20. All that seems right to me -- the Cats were pretty evenly matched with both of those teams. But UCLA is 4 and Gonzaga and 7, and that also seems right. The Cats weren't really competitive with either of those teams.

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  50. The only anomaly is that Tennessee is number 6, and UK beat the Vols twice. But for the most part, UK's ranking is exactly where it should be, and our results in the tournament were exactly what you should have expected.

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    1. Personally, I think this is the only year in my life as a fan that Kentucky cared about the games with UT more than UT did.

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  51. CBS is reporting that Markquis Norris is the first player with at least 20 points, 19 assists, and 5 steals in any NCAA game since 1996.

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  52. Meanwhile, FAU has taken a 48-41 lead over UT with 7:22 left. So Tennessee may not be ranked number 6 after tonight.

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    1. This was a great run. Tennessee's three-point shooter hit a couple at the start of the half, and its backup center scored a lengthy jumper. Otherwise, the Vols seemed to spend every trip trying to figure out how to intimidate Florida Atlantic into backing down. Meanwhile, the Owls had about six or eight guards on the floor throwing in three-pointers or slashing for pretty bank shots high off the glass. And their big kid--who had remarked before the game that Tennessee appeared in the films to sometimes play dirty--just simply ignored or absorbed all of the Vols' ploys and drew a bunch of fouls.

      Florida Atlantic beat WKU by 14, seven and, then in the first round of the Conf-USA tournament, by 24. Then the Owls beat Middle Tennessee State and Alabama-Birmingham in the semifinals and finals of the conference tournament to advance. They went 18-2 in the league. Now they're 34-3 and winners of 10 in a row. I'll be rooting for Florida Atlantic against Kansas State on Saturday.

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    2. By the way, here are the last 10 Conf-USA men’s tournament winners:

      2013 Memphis (over Southern Miss)
      2014 Tulsa (over Louisiana Tech)
      2015 UAB (over MTSU)
      206 MTSU (over Old Dominion)
      2017 MTSU (over Marshall)
      2018 Marshall (over WKU)
      2019 ODU (over WKU)
      2021 North Texas (over WKU)
      2022 UAB (over Louisiana Tech)
      2023 Florida Atlantic (over UAB)

      The only ones of those teams who appear to be part of the Conf-USA slate for 2023-24—but we’ll see; “TRUST NO ONE!”—are WKU, MTSU and La Tech. The incoming obstacles for Coach Lutz and the Tops figure to be Jacksonville State (RayRay!), Kennesaw State, Liberty, New Mexico State and Sam Houston State; the other holdovers are Florida International and Texas-El Paso.

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  53. Gonzaga goes on an 8-0 run to cut the UCLA lead to 54-50 with 14:09 left. Drew Timme now has 29 points.

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  54. UCLA leads 59-54 with 11:48 left, but the Bruins are down two starters due to injuries and the Zags are suddenly getting all the lose balls. The Zags lead 32-21 in the rebound battle.

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  55. With 10:22 left, Timme has 33 points, and the Zags have closed to within 59-58.

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  56. UCLA has gone cold, and the game is tied at 59 with 9:20 left.

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  57. FAU finishes off Tennessee, 62 to 55. I think this may be my favorite Vol season of all time. They lost twice to Kentucky, they lost in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament, they beat Duke, and they lost to Florida Atlantic. I couldn't have ordered it better.

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  58. UT was outscored 40-28 in the second half. For the game, they went 15-40 on 2-point shots, 6-23 on 3-point shots, and 7-12 from the line.

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  59. Meanwhile, the Zags lead 61-59 with 7:45 left. Like Tennessee, UCLA is struggling to score.

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  60. UCLA is 5-22 in the second half and hasn't made a FG in almost 7 minutes. Zags lead 63-61 with 5:36 left.

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  61. With 4:07 left, the Zags hit a 3 to go up 68-62. Timme has 35 points. UCLA calls time.

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  62. After falling behind 72-63, UCLA has stormed back. The Bruins now trail 75-73 with 25 seconds left. Zags ball.

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  63. Timme goes to the line with 25 seconds left. Timme misses the first FT. He misses the second FT. UCLA has the ball.

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  64. UCLA HITS A THREE! They've taken a 76-75 lead with 12 seconds to go. UCLA calls time.

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  65. This unbelievable. UCLA was down by 9 with less than 3 minutes to go.

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  66. Zags are 8-15 from the line. Unbelievable.

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  67. Here come the Zags. 12 seconds left. Julian Strawther takes a long three -- AND MAKES IT!!! Campbell comes racing back the other way for UCLA -- AND STRAWTHER STEALS IT! Gonzaga leads 78-76 with 1.1 seconds left, and Strawther is going to the line.

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  68. Strawther misses the first FT. He makes the second. Zags by 3. Campbell shoots a three at the buzzer -- NO! GONZAGA WINS: 79 TO 76!

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  69. Stunned to learn this result. I thought UCLA was going to win the tournament.

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    1. I know that UCLA lost two starters to injury, and that they were playing shorthanded. And I have no way to prove the next statement. But I'm pretty sure that somehow, Mark Few stole this game from Mick Cronin.

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    2. After watching how UConn dealt with Gonzaga, I'm even more convinced that Few outcoached Cronin.

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