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The Sweet 16 includes teams from the Atlantic 10, Horizon League, Ivy League, Missouri Valley Conference and West Coast Conference. And there's one team from the Pac-10, which only looked like a mid-major conference this season. Conclusion: year of the Cinderellas.
Now the tournament takes a three-day hiatus before regional semifinals begin Thursday in Salt Lake City and Syracuse, New York. And college basketball fans can probably use a break after watching one of, if not the most, entertaining opening weekends in NCAA tournament history.
Cornell becomes the first Ivy League team to reach the regional semifinals since Penn advanced to the 1979 Final Four, where the Quakers lost to Michigan State led by some guy named Earvin "Magic" Johnson in the national semifinals. After going 4-63 all-time against teams ranked in The AP Top 25 poll, the Big Red upset No. 12-ranked Temple and No. 16-ranked Wisconsin in their last two games. Up next for the Big Red? Kentucky and freshman sensation John Wall (I can already see Ashley Judd doing the John Wall dance).
Michigan State is the only team alive from last year's final 4 and their journey is nearly as remarkable as Cornell's. In a game that saw four lead-changes in the final 39 seconds, the 5th-seeded Spartans beat 4-seed Maryland 85-83 on Korie Lucious' 3-pointer at the buzzer in a second-round game in Spokane, Washington, on Sunday. Michigan State won after losing star guard Kalin Lucas with about 2½ minutes left in the first half. Tom Izzo told reporters after the game that Lucas, a two-time All-Big Ten selection, probably tore the Achilles tendon in his left leg and will miss the rest of the tournament. The Spartans will play 9-seed and "giant killer" Northern Iowa next. Without Kalin Lucas in the game for the Spartans UNI might just move on to the elite 8 but there is no doubt the Spartans will be fighting the whole game.
The Spartans weren't the only Big Ten team playing short-handed on Sunday. Purdue, which lost star forward Robbie Hummel to a season-ending knee injury on Feb. 24, defeated Texas A&M 63-61 in overtime in Spokane as well (the fourth time in five years the Aggies have lost in the NCAA tourney by two points or less). Senior guard Chris Kramer scored six of the No. 4-seeded Boilermakers' eight points in overtime, including the winning layup with 4.2 seconds to play. They'll have to get past 1-seed Duke (my pick to win the tourney) to keep their hopes alive. The Blue Devils reached the Sweet 16 for the 25th time on Sunday by routing No. 8-seeded California 68-53 in a second-round game in Jacksonville.
Syracuse, the No. 1 seed in the West Regional, didn't have any problems reaching the Sweet 16, either. The Orange routed 8-seed Gonzaga 87-65 in the second round on Sunday, after beating No. 16-seeded Vermont by 23 points in the first round on Friday. Syracuse forward Wesley Johnson went off for 31 points and grabbed 14 rebounds against the Zags. The Orange play No. 5-seed Butler in Salt Lake City next. The Orange should be able to dominate that game as well but don't be surprised if Butler makes it close or pulls off the upset.
With its 71-68 win over No. 3-seed Pittsburgh Sunday night, Xavier became one of two programs in the entire country to advance to the Sweet 16 the past three years and are demanding some respect. The other is Michigan State. They're labeled as a "mid-major" but this is a team with major talent that could go to the Final Four. They'll be in tough though as they go up against that other Kansas team that plays in "the little apple" the 2-seed Kansas State Wildcats from Manhattan who would have been a #1 seed had they not lost to their in-state rivals, the Kansas Jayhawks, 3 times this year including in the Big 12 tourney final.
Saint Mary’s, a tiny Catholic school of fewer than 5,000 students, led by big man Omar Samhan, has moved past the first round of the NCAA tournament only once before. The Gaels made the Elite Eight in 1959 when only 23 teams were in the field. They'll try to do it a second time behind their big man Samhan, who is averaging 30.5 ppg and 9.5 rpg for the tourney, when they face a high octane offense in 3-seed Baylor. It'll be a matchup of an uptempo offense (Baylor) versus half court sets (St. Mary's).
2-seed West Virginia also advanced on Sunday to face 11-seed Washington in Syracuse. It marks the fifth time the Mountaineers reached the final 16, and first since 2008. Don't be fooled by UW's ranking, they are a much better team than an 11th seed and although they disappointed this year in terms of not being a top 3 seed they are playing their best basketball down the stretch led by Pac-10 tournament MVP 5'9" Isaiah Thomas. WVU will have to limit their turnovers like they did against Missouri on Sunday if they want to win or else UW and it's plethora of "freak" athletes will run them out of the gym.
In the first half, Ohio State looked average. Then the Buckeyes decided to run. That change in mindset led to an 18-6 run in the first seven minutes of the first half that extended Ohio State's lead to 46-32. Rather than settling for challenged jump shots, Ohio State led off the 2nd half with three dunks and several layups on their way to a 75-66 win over a disappointing Georgia Tech squad. The Buckeyes will now take on 6-seeded Tennessee, if they play the whole game like they played the 2nd half in the GT game they should cruise past the Vols. However, Tennessee is a tough minded team that just seems to grind out wins so they most likely won't go down easy if they go down at all.
Those are all the matchups and we can only hope the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight are as exciting as the first two rounds. That might be asking for a lot though after what we all witnessed this past weekend. There was heart and heartbreak, ultimate joy and ultimate dissappointment, tears and smiles. All in all it has been everything that the NCAA tourney is about and college basketball fans would have it no other way.
Peace and Much Love to Ya :)
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