Tournament Thoughts: Second Round Sunday

#3 Iowa State 85 #6 North Carolina 83
I moved the best game of the day to the top of the column because that's the billing it deserves.

What an unfortunate ending to such a great game though. I think it was the right decision, the clock clearly did not start on time when the ball was in-bounded. I wonder what would have happened if the clock started late and UNC had tried for and made a shot instead of trying to call timeout.

Which by the way was a boneheaded move by Ol' Roy. There was not nearly enough time in 1.6 seconds to dribble up the court, call time out, inbound again and have time for anything against a set defense. Totally stupid.

Here's where it got away from UNC: Four minutes to go they're up 8 and have the ball, Marcus Paige took a quick jack and missed a 3 they didn't need. Huge mistake. Iowa turned into it a Naz Long 3.

Then McAdoo commits a foul and Iowa State turns it into a Monte Morris 3.

On the next possession again UNC in a rush. Kennedy Meeks grabs an offensive rebound and doesn't even come down with it. Shot missed, Iowa State turns it into a Melvin Ejim layup on the break. A few seemingly mild mistakes and the lead goes from 8 to zero in less than 2 minutes. I blame the coaching here too. I hate the stall offense some teams employ, basketball's version of the prevent, but it's prudent to at least be patient and make the defense work.

But the biggest mental breakdown of all, the one that cost them the game way letting DeAndre Kane leak out for the go ahead basket with 30 seconds left. You can't let a basket that easy decide the game. Though they did come back and score, and made Kane work for the real game winner, but he made a great play.

I'm not sure what the answer was but all the drama was sucked out of this game by 3 separate reviews, one on an out of bounds play, another on a 3-point shot and of course the game-ender. I know we want to get the calls right, but we can't review everything, it ruins the game.

#10 Stanford 60 #2 Kansas 57
This was a result certainly a surprise to me. I thought Kansas had enough players to knock off Stanford, even without Embiid. Every time Kansas started to make a run, grab some offensive rebounds or hit some shots, Stanford fought back.

I did think it was pretty low rent for CBS to zoom in on a crying kid. Not just once, several times. Kids are different than coach's wives.

Andrew Wiggins scored couldn't make a shot and had as many points as turnovers. That led Jim Nantz to go on a rant about how its not the best players who win a game. It's the best team. There is a lot of merit in that argument, and Damino and I have been discussing it in regards to Duke. But coming out of Nantz's mouth it seemed like he was being an old fuddy-duddy who doesn't like one-and-dones and prefers teams that have 5 four-year players in their starting lineup.

I agree that college basketball would be better off, teams and games would be better if there weren't so many players coming in and leaving after one good year. But there's really only one logical, fair thing to do to prevent that, go back to the days when the most NBA-minded players didn't have to go to college at all. But seeing as how that's the NBA's call, it doesn't seem likely to happen.

In pointing out that the two most heralded freshman, Wiggins and Parker combined to win 1 tournament game, Nantz seemed to be gleeful at the triumph of team over talent. But like any other factor in the tournament, nothing is a guarantee of success. Sometimes the team full of savvy veterans beats the collection of talented underclassmen. Sometimes they don't.

#8 Kentucky 78 #1 Wichita State 76
Wichita State has nothing to be ashamed of. They didn't blow a perfect regular season. And they didn't go 35-0 on a fluke. They are a damn good team.

Fred Van Vleet can run my team any day.

And this wasn't a matchup of athletes vs. grinders, these Wichita State guys can play. Cleanthony Early is a great player, and he's got mad hops.

If there was one area where Kentucky had an advantage it was size inside. They only got 7 offensive rebounds, but it seemed like every time they needed one, they got it.

Nick Wiggins had more points than his brother, 5-4.

This was a really great game and if Kentucky keeps playing this way they can beat anyone.

What percentage of TVs in Kentucky will be tuned into the Kentucky-Louisville game?

#11 Tennessee 83 #14 Mercer 63
The SEC is now 7-0 in this tournament. Two for Florida, two for Kentucky and now 3 for Tennessee.

This is the third time in four years than a play-in team not only one their first round game as well, but made the Sweet 16.

Mercer was a nice story but they just ran out of gas.

#4 UCLA 77 #12 Stephen F. Austin 60
Same thing happened to SFA. They just didn't have the same pep as they had against VCU. They also missed a ton of shots. Without Thomas Walkup (people in NYC hate this guy) the rest of the team made only 10 of 40. For an underdog to be a Cinderella and win two games they've got to be near perfect. They were anything but.

The Pac-12, another much-maligned conference, is also sending 3 teams to the Sweet 16, Arizona and Stanford as well. And Oregon also acquitted itself nicely before succumbing to Wisconsin.

3 #1s made the sweet 16, only 2 #2s and 1 #3, but all 4 #4s will be there.

#6 Baylor 85 #3 Creighton 55
Total domination. This did seem like a team of better athletes playing against an old slow group of jump shooters. Maybe Creighton just never saw a team as big and athletic as Baylor in the new Big East.

A shame for Doug McDermott to end a fantastic career here. I love watching the spectacular freshman, but just as much as anyone I like to watch a guy grow and improve for 4 years. And he's technically a walk-on this year. His dad, the coach, is paying his way so someone else can have the scholarship.

He didn't play badly, though his 15 points on 7-14 looks better than it is. During the brief time that this game was in doubt, he couldn't even get a shot off.

Classy move by Coach McDermott to use a dead ball to take his players out one by one for a nice ovation from the crowd and a hug from the coach.

It's nice for Doug McDermott to be the 5th leading scorer in college history, but remember it's a different era. Yeah he appears to be "only" 500 points behind Pistol Pete, but he played 60 more games. McDermott's 21.7 ppg average is nice, but it's less than half of Maravich who averaged 44.

#1 Virginia 78 #8 Memphis 60
Total domination from the jump. Virginia trying to prove that it's not just a plodding defensive team, they can actually score.

Virginia won the ACC regular season, conference tournament and now they're the last team standing. I think that proves they were the league's best team this season.

They got off to a bad start with 4 losses in non-conference before New Year's but 3 of them came against VCU, Wisconsin and Tennessee. Maybe those losses weren't as bad as we thought.

#1 Arizona 84 #8 Gonzaga 61
This wasn't even that close. I had this game on in the background while writing this post and Arizona just dropped one amazing play after another. They are incredibly good.

So there was some wildness to this first weekend, Syracuse, Duke, Wichita State and Kansas all get knocked off, but the most popular Final Four selections: Florida, Arizona, Michigan State and Louisville are all still alive and looking good.