I. Renko is an RTC correspondent. He filed this report from Dayton after Sunday’s Third Round game between #2 Ohio State and #7 Iowa State. Follow him on Twitter @IRenkoHoops.

Three Key Takeaways:

Aaron Craft’s Trey Sent OSU Into the Sweet Sixteen (Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

1. Craft in the Clutch — Aaron Craft’s performance over the final five minutes of this game illustrated his broader tendency to be inconsistent while, at the same time, coming up big at key moments. Craft has alternated all year between high and low scoring games, but in the final few weeks of the season, he put together several key offensive performances in the Buckeyes’ biggest games to sweep Michigan State and take down Indiana on the road. His back-to-back missed front ends hurt his team badly, allowing Iowa State to close a 13-point lead in a matter of minutes. But in the closing seconds, Craft confidently stroked the game-winning three-pointer with a defender in his face. The entire time he held the ball on that final possession, Craft looked like someone who knew he was going to score — shaking off screeners and teammates, patiently biding his dribble — and was just trying to drain enough time off the clock to make sure he won the game.
2. Iowa State State Showed Tremendous Fight — Midway through the first half, it looked like the game might get away from the Cyclones as their offense was sputtering, but they found their three-point shot and their mix of man and zone defensive looks threw Ohio State out of its offensive rhythm. As a result, the Cyclones were able to stay within two points at the half. Then, in the second half, when it looked like Ohio State was putting the game away, up 69-56 with 6:04 to play, the Cyclones reeled off a 13-0 run in just over two minutes to completely erase the lead entirely. This is an undersized team full of transfers that plays with a chip on its shoulder and won’t back down from anyone.
3. The Three Ball Was Not Enough — Unable to get the kind of dribble penetration against Ohio State that Notre Dame’s swiss cheese defense allowed, the Cyclones returned to their old standby — the three-point shot. They made only one of their first five attempts, but from there, they knocked down 11-of-20 from downtown. They finished the game with more threes than twos and a better field goal percentage to boot. And while it very nearly brought them to the verge of victory, it was not enough.

Star of the Game: Craft served up the late game heroics, but it was Deshaun Thomas‘ inside-out game that mostly powered Ohio State’s offense. The Cyclones not only mixed man and zone defenses, they threw several different defenders at Thomas in their man defense. But the junior forward adapted well to whomever was guarding him, scoring 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting.

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Danny Spewak (@dspewak) is a Big 12 Microsite writer. 

One shot does not define a program. Aaron Craft’s dramatic, I-can’t-believe-that-just-went-in three-pointer in the final milliseconds of regulation on Sunday will become an iconic moment of the 2013 NCAA Tournament, but as much as it will pain Iowa State fans for all eternity, it will not ruin Cyclones basketball. It will not overshadow Fred Hoiberg’s rebuilding job and two straight NCAA Tournaments, nor should it overshadow the fact that ISU will return the Big 12’s leading rebounder in Melvin Ejim next season. Hoiberg’s program is in fine shape, and Craft’s pull-up three won’t change that.

Fred Hoiberg Has To Hurt After This Loss

But boy, does this one hurt. And it’s hard not to think about what might have happened had Craft’s shot not fallen. Say he misses, and the 10th-seeded Cyclones upset Ohio State in overtime. Say Chris Babb does not get injured, or the officials make a different call on that charge in the final minutes and it changes the outcome of this game. If Iowa State could have found a way to knock off the Buckeyes and advance to the Sweet Sixteen, it would have made its first trip to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 2000. That’s a full 13 years ago, when Larry Eustachy roamed the sideline and Marcus Fizer and Jamaal Tinsley wore the Cyclones jersey. It was the end of a strong era for Iowa State basketball, as Eustachy’s success built upon the work of Tim Floyd and Johnny Orr in the ’80s and ’90s. When Iowa State earned a two-seed in the 2001 NCAA Tournament, this program couldn’t have soared any higher.Then Hampton happened. Out in the first round to a 15-seed. A short while later, the infamous party pictures of Eustachy forced his departure after the 2002-03 season. His replacement, Wayne Morgan, won one game in the NCAA Tournament a few years after that but nothing more. When Greg McDermott took over in 2006-07, four seasons of mediocre, tournament-less basketball followed.

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Here are the game breakdowns for Sunday’s slate. From 24 to 16…

#2 Ohio State vs. #10 Iowa State – West Regional Third Round (Dayton, OH) – 12:15 PM ET on CBS

Deshaun Thomas and Aaron Craft will likely have to be their usual stellar selves to get past Iowa State. (Getty)

Friday night against Notre Dame, Iowa State hit nine threes as they rolled over Notre Dame into the Round of 32. Maybe just as impressively, they turned it over just six times, forced 17 turnovers and limited a good three-point shooting Irish team to just four threes on the night. Let’s just go out on a limb and say that none of those things are likely to happen when they face Ohio State today. But that’s not to insinuate that the Cyclones don’t have a chance. This is a team that can get scoring from all eight of the players in their rotation and guys like Will Clyburn, Melvin Ejim and Georges Niang are all inside/outside threats that are capable of creating matchup problems for their opponents. The problem is, the Buckeyes have shown their ability defensively to deal with versatile offensive teams; Michigan and Indiana are the top two offensive teams in the nation, and the Buckeyes have held each below one point per possession on one occasion earlier in the season. Of course, the thing is, on the other occasion when the Buckeyes faced those teams, they allowed an average of 1.21 points per possession and gave up a total of 21 three-pointers in those two games. In other words, while OSU has the ability to turn off the water for good offensive teams, there are just nights when good offense beats good defense. If Iowa State has it going, they’ve got enough talent to score enough points to beat Ohio State. The problem is, the Buckeyes have been pretty darn efficient offensively themselves of late and the Cyclones, meanwhile, are the third-worst defensive efficiency team remaining in the tournament. Iowa State’s offense has the ability to give Ohio State trouble, but it is just as likely that the Buckeyes will exploit that soft Cyclone defense.

The RTC Certified Pick: Ohio State

#1 Indiana vs. #9 Temple — East Region Third Round (at Dayton, OH) — 2:45 PM ET on CBS.

Fran Dunphy’s squad is known for defense, but lately the Owls have been putting up some major points. (Philly.com)

When you think of Fran Dunphy and Temple, you think of defense and a junkyard dog style of play. Not so much with this group. Since January 19, Temple has been an offensive juggernaut of sorts. The Owls have scored at least 70 points in their last 12 games and 16 of their last 17 games. Even in the one game they didn’t score 70, they fell only one point short of that mark. The point is the Owls can hang with Indiana offensively despite a talent disadvantage. The real question in this game is whether or not Temple can play the defense necessary to knock off the Hoosiers. Indiana is most vulnerable when teams slow the pace and get physical. Temple can surely get physical but we’re not sure the Owls can slow the pace against such a high-octane offense. For Indiana, the defensive key will be containing Khalif Wyatt. Although not a particularly great shooter, the Temple senior does it all. He gets others involved and averages 20.2 PPG with the potential to go for 30+ on any given night as he has done on six occasions this season, including in two of Temple’s last three games. Wyatt gets to the free throw line very well but one of Indiana’s many strengths is keeping opponents off the charity stripe. It’ll be very interesting to see if Wyatt can get to the line with regularity in this game. The Hoosiers have a significant talent advantage in this game but that was also the case with NC State, who Temple beat on Friday. Indiana can’t take this one for granted and must be focused defensively in the half court. Temple won’t turn the ball over often and Wyatt will be searching for contact all game.

The RTC Certified Pick: Indiana 

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Chris Johnson is an RTC Columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn. 

Tonight’s Lede. Third Round Ahoy! The first weekend of NCAA Tournament play is a refined product. After a second-round customarily filled with upsets and wacky outcomes, the next stage puts sheer team quality over luck and happenstance. This is where the true contenders make their bread. Part one of the third round wrapped up Saturday night, and save for a few surprising results, the best teams by and large validated their putative reputations.

Your watercooler moment. Drop The Revisionist Committee Tongue-Lashings.

The anti-Gonzaga backlash is about to ramp up considerably (Getty Images).

There is nothing more casually distasteful than hindsight Tournament declarations and Monday morning quarterbacking. It happens every year. Middle Tennessee got run by Saint Mary’s, they never deserved an at-large birth! New Mexico never deserved to be a three seed! The Mountain West is terrible! All of those proclamations have been uttered in various forms, on various mediums, and all of them are patently false. Trying to argue against a certain team’s Tournament placement or inclusion after the fact is like ordering a manifestly scrumptious steak entrée at a five-star restaurant, leaving disappointed with the way it turned out and advocating the dish’s removal from the restaurant menu during the ride home. It’s not fair or to validate previous logic with future outcomes. That won’t stop anyone from copping to lazy criticisms of Gonzaga’s No. 1 seed status in the wake of Saturday’s upset loss to nine-seed Wichita State. Was Gonzaga tested in the same way as, say, Louisville or Indiana on a weekly basis in conference play? No. Did Gonzaga deserve a number one seed (or at least deserve to be in the argument), after posting a 30-2 win-loss record, a 4-2 record against the RPI Top 50, the No. 4 efficiency offense and No. 18 defense in the country? You’d be forfeiting your credibility as an objective and rational college hoops observer to disagree. The Bulldogs may have lost to a hot Wichita State team, may have blown an eight-point second half lead, may have allowed a physical Shockers group too much room on the perimeter. But they didn’t lose their claim to all of the aforementioned credentials. The selection committee’s vague criteria has offered up decades of case evidence to analyze, and by their admittedly fuzzy standards, Gonzaga deserved to be a No. 1. Their early third-round dismissal does not change that fact.

Also worth chatting about. Michigan Turns Major Third-Round Hurdle Into Cakewalk.

The Rams had no answer for McGary Saturday (AP Photo).

Recent history affects NCAA Tournament bracket intellect in real and influential ways. When paired with commendable regular season results, that team is extremely difficult to ignore – no matter the opponent. It’s part of why VCU beating Michigan Saturday looked like such a cinch “upset” pick, and completely why Michigan’s 25-point demolition of the Rams was more of an “upset” than a VCU win could have ever been. Mitch McGary played the best game of his college career to date (21 points, 14 rebounds), the Wolverines kept turnovers at a manageable level (12), and when the Rams can’t induce cough-ups they can’t get stops. The final product: Michigan has its first Sweet Sixteen appearance since 1994. The Wolverines more resembled their early-season national title-contender form Saturday that at any point this season. When Burke is dishing to open shooters and slashing into the lane, when Tim Hardaway Jr. is presenting matchup problems all over the floor, Michigan is – just as many suspected in November and December – a bona fide national title threat. Throw in the possibility of a potent interior presence in McGary, and John Beilein’s team will give the winner of Sunday’s Roy Williams Bowl (Kansas-UNC) all it can handle and more. Michigan is in the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in nearly two decades, and I wouldn’t be surprised if its journey blows past that minor landmark.

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RTC is at the San Jose pod this evening. We filed this report after Saturday’s Third Round game between #4 Syracuse and #12 California.

Three Key Takeaways:

The Orange March On to DC…

1. Size and Length. In spades. We hear it all the time but when you see it up close and personal, Syracuse’s size and length really stands out in an unbelievable way. There couldn’t be more than a handful of teams around the country who can match it. The problem is that sometimes the Orange play as dumb as they possibly can to give outmatched teams like Cal a chance to come back and even win the game. Between the poor decisions (Michael Carter-Williams is always good for at least two jump-passes with no intended recipient), the missed free throws (an astonishing 15 tonight), and an astonishing ability to turn the ball over in key situations, Syracuse managed to survive regardless (it helped that they played a team with some similar attributes). It’s unlikely that a team with these issues can just will them away at this late point in the season, but wow, if they were able to put everything together, the Orange have #1 seed talent and athleticism.
2. Good Syracuse and Bad Syracuse Showed Up Tonight. Jim Boeheim made reference to this in his postgame press conference. He thought, and there’s really no disputing him, that the Orange defense was spectacular. They completely took Allen Crabbe and Justin Cobbs out of their comfort zones, fully aware in the knowledge that the Golden Bears do not have any other reliable scorers. Richard Solomon had a beastly game (22/14) but they were willing to give that up to shut down the backcourt duo. At the same time, there were way too many unforced turnovers and the Orange left 15 points at the foul line (26-of-41 FTs). Then there was that last two minutes, perhaps most perfectly captured by the length-of-the-court pass to nobody. Suddenly an easy 15-point win got harrowing, as the partisan crowd roared to life. If Syracuse is going to beat a team like Indiana to make a run to the Final Four, they’re going to have to figure out how to play a full 40 minutes with concentration and focus. Otherwise, as we’ve seen several times this season, a game that should be a victory will quickly turn into a loss against another good team.
3. Crabbe and Cobbs. The California duo who averaged a combined 33.5 points per game this season had a grand total of six points during the first 38 minutes. They finished with 13 points on 5-of-18 shooting, but much of that had to do with a bizarre final two minutes where Bad Syracuse was doing its best to let Cal back into the game. Put simply, the Bears really had no chance of winning this one without at least one of the two going off, and Boeheim remarked in his postgame comments that their top priority was shutting down Crabbe, in particular. The only shot Crabbe made in the first half was a result of a little-used player Trevor Cooney blowing his assignment; as Boeheim put it, the freshman guard “got to watch Crabbe play from the bench the rest of the game.” Again, the size and length that the Orange could throw at these two really showed in terms of the openings they were (or were not) able to find.

Star of the Game: CJ Fair, Syracuse. Fair set the offensive tone early with six quick points to help Syracuse jump out to an 11-2 lead on his way to a solid 18-point, six-rebound evening of work. Mike Montgomery said that his players were tentative early, and Fair’s inside-out work helped raise the pressure on the Bears playing in front of a partisan crowd. 

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Andrew Murawa is an RTC correspondent. He filed this report from the Round of 32 game between #1 Gonzaga and #9 Wichita State at the Salt Lake City pod this evening.

The Shocker certainly live up to their name Saturday evening. (AP)

Three Key Takeaways.

1. Spectacular Ending. After trailing much of the first and start of second half, Gonzaga took a 43-41 lead with 13:39 remaining on a Mike Hart three. For the next seven minutes or so, it seemed like the Zags were on the verge of pulling away and a Kevin Pangos three with 6:30 remaining put the Bulldogs up seven. That was just the start of the madness. That Pangos three was just the start of five threes on six offensive possessions and a Carl Hall jumper gave Wichita State the lead back. Then, following a Ron Baker personal 5-0 run, Fred Vanvleet nailed the calmest, sweetest three anyone (anyone except a Zag fan, that is) ever did see with one second left on the shotclock to put the Shockers up seven and effectively seal the game. It was a wild stretch that left the West region without four of its top five seeds.
2. Wichita Three-Point Shooting. For the year, Wichita State is a 33% three-point shooting team, good for 213^th in the nation. And just one player on the roster had made more than 40 threes this season. Today? The team went 14-of-28, got four threes from 29.8% three-point shooter Cleanthony Early and four threes from Baker, a freshman who missed 21 games in the middle of the season. That type of performance was, well, shocking, but ultimately it is what puts Gregg Marshall and company through to their first Sweet 16 in the Marshall era.
3. Gonzaga Rebounding. We knew coming into the game that Gonzaga would have a big size advantage inside, but with the way Wichita handled their business on the glass against Pittsburgh, the expectation was that the Shockers would be okay. Suffice it to say, they were not okay. While they did a fine job on their own offensive glass (35.7 OR%), they got smoked on the defensive glass, allowing the Zags to collect 21 offensive rebounds, grabbing better than half of their own misses. It was this, and a striking advantage from the free throw line (at least until the Zags had to foul in the end game scenario) that even allowed the Bulldogs to remain as close as they did.

Star of the Game. Ron Baker, Wichita State. First off, this is a kid that missed the last 21 game of the regular season, returning only in time for the start of the MVC Tournament, where he immediately jumped back into the fire by dropping 15 points. He joined the starting lineup against Pitt (but went 0-of-5 from the field), then tonight dropped a phenomenal game, doing a little bit of everything for the Shockers. He scored 16 points, knocked down four threes, grabbed six boards and has four assists, along with some excellent defense against the Zag guards. In a game with a six-point final margin, the Shockers were +19 with Baker on the floor.

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I. Renko is an RTC correspondent. He filed this report from Lexington after Saturday’s Third Round game between #3 Marquette and #6 Butler. Follow him on Twitter @IRenkoHoops.

Three Key Takeaways:

Buzz Williams Got It Done For the Second Time in the NCAAs (AP)

1. Survive and Advance — In a pod full of mid-majors with Cinderella history, it was the Big East power who emerged at the end of the day, but not before being pushed to its limits. This was more of a see-saw affair than Marquette’s great escape against Davidson, and they seemed to take control of the game mid-way through the second half. But Butler was resilient, and the Golden Eagles almost threw away the win, just as Davidson did on Thursday, with an errant inbounds pass with three seconds left and a two-point lead. No doubt, memories of Marquette’s fateful loss to Butler on a buzzer beater in Maui creeped into the minds of Marquette fans. But a well-executed defensive scheme on the final possession resulted in an ugly three-point attempt from Andrew Smith that was well off the mark. After the game, Buzz Williams refused to explain his defensive setup, explaining that given all the close games Marquette has played — and is likely to play again — he wasn’t about to reveal state secrets.
2. Butler Couldn’t Escape the Turnover Trap — The biggest advantage of Butler’s tournament draw is that none of the three teams in its pod is very good at forcing turnovers. A major reason that Butler went 0-4 vs St. Louis and VCU this year was its poor ball control. Through three halves of basketball this week, Butler committed just 10 turnovers, and in the first half tonight, Marquette had zero fast break points — a big reason the Bulldogs entered intermission with an 8-point lead. But Marquette stepped up the pressure in the second half tonight, and Butler started to crack. They coughed up the ball 10 times after halftime, allowing Marquette to score eight fast-break points and 15 total off turnovers.
3. Rotnei Clarke Faded Down the Stretch — Clarke had a tremendous first half, showing off not just his dead-eye three-point shot, but also his underrated ability to score inside the arc, with an array of pull-up jumpers, runners, and drives to the rim. But the cooling of his hot hand in the second half deprived Butler of a reliable scoring option. After starting off 7-of-10, Clarke made just one of his last seven shots. With Roosevelt Jones struggling to a 3-of-11 performance, Butler was left with few scoring options. They labored to score, and while they managed to keep scraping points together, in part due to Andrew Smith’s yeoman effort underneath, they couldn’t scratch out enough.

Star of the Game: Vander Blue had a tough act to follow, after his late-game heroics gave the Golden Eagles a last-second win over Davidson in the Second Round. But he more than came through, putting the team on his back and carrying them to a win with an outstanding performance at both ends of the floor. Blue finished with 29 points on just 15 shots and grabbed four steals. Two of those swipes came on crucial back-to-back possessions late in the game, both of which Blue converted into easy fast break points, turning a 2-point deficit into a 2-point lead in 60 seconds. Blue had so worked himself to exhaustion that after those two plays that his coach had to give him a short rest. But he had enough energy after coming back to hit the biggest shot of the game — a corner three-pointer with 1:26 to play that tied the game at 69.

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RTC is at the San Jose pod this evening. We filed this report  after Saturday’s Third Round game between #4 St. Louis and #12 Oregon.

Three Key Takeaways:

Dotson is Turning Into a Star (OregonLive)

1. About that Saint Louis Defense. SLU’s calling card this season has been its elite defensive efficiency, with a high-pressure half-court defense that ranks in the top 10 nationally and had routinely eviscerated teams, holding 11 of its last 12 opponents under 62 total points (Xavier, the only exception, scored 77 in an overtime win). Oregon was having none of that. After a first few shaky possessions where the Saint Louis defense got its hands on some passes to cause some deflections, the Ducks adjusted well and went on a tear led by Damyean Dotson and Carlos Emory where they got repeated open looks and knocked them down. A hot first half became a 53% shooting night and a ridiculous 8-11 from three. It was the third-worst defensive performance of the year for the Billikens and it likely would have been worse had the game not gotten so far out of hand.
2. Damyean Dotson Has Star Power. If not now, right here in this year’s NCAA Tournament, but next year for sure as a breakout star in the Pac-12 and nationally. He’s already got all the tools, but with a good portion of next year’s squad graduating, it will be incumbent upon he and Dominic Artis to lead Dana Altman’s Ducks into the future. His size at 6’5″ was a nightmare match-up for the much smaller Billikens guards as he was able to easily shoot over the top (5-of-6 from three) and find soft spots in the creases of the defense. He and Carlos Emory set the tone from the opening minutes offensively, firing Oregon to a 60% shooting first half and a 16-point lead that appeared insurmountable.
3. Worst Seeding Ever? We’re not much for ridiculous superlatives and hyperbole around here, but we are having trouble thinking of another situation where a team that had as good of a season as Oregon was so inadequately seeded. The committee says that it takes in-season injuries into account, and yet it didn’t appear to notice how well Oregon played with Dominic Artis in the lineup. He’s back now, if they haven’t noticed (even if today was not a great game for him). Certainly an argument could be made of a Hawthorne Effect of sorts, that the Ducks played so well and with a laser focus because of the NCAA-induced chip on their shoulders. That’s a reasonable take. But after two games of watching these guys show no quarter in picking apart a strong #5 seed and #4 seed, it’s difficult to understand how the NCAA got this one so wrong.

Star of the Game: Damyean Dotson, Oregon. No other realistic choice today. The freshman went off for 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting that included five treys and only one miss from beyond the arc. He was completely dialed in today, and the SLU defense had no realistic way to prevent his open looks. As noted above, the kid has star power and can become the cornerstone of these Ducks for years to come.

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When UCLA bowed out of the NCAA Tournament in convincing fashion to Minnesota, the Ben Howland era in Westwood ended along with the Bruins’ season (an official announcement is expected in the next couple days). Meanwhile, across town, USC’s first target for their open head coaching position, Pitt’s Jamie Dixon, signed an extension with his current school, effectively eliminating him from contention for that job. With all other coaches in the conferences expected back next season (Stanford has announced that Johnny Dawkins will return, and it looks like Ken Bone will return to Washington State, though no official announcement has been made), we’ll take a quick look at those two jobs and try to read the tea leaves a bit as to what the future may hold.

Despite Early Success, Ben Howland’s Time As The UCLA Coach Has Ended (Jamie Squire, Getty Images)

While UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero made no decisive comment following the game Friday night (“We’ll take stock in the next couple of days and talk like we always do with all coaches,” he said), expectations are that sooner rather than later we’ll have an announcement that the partnership between Howland and UCLA will end. And, regardless of whether Guerrero has an improvement lined up, this is a move that has to be made – for both parties. The relationship has soured, the fickle UCLA fan base has abandoned ship, West Coast recruiting has largely dried up, Howland seems to have compromised his principles, and, the kiss of death, Bill Walton has weighed in heavily in favor of a change at the top of the program. The excitement of three straight Final Four trips from 2006-08 is a distant memory. Howland is still a very good coach, but he’s not a very good coach going forward for UCLA and it is time for both sides to move on.

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Andrew Murawa is an RTC correspondent. He filed this report from the Round of 32 game between #6 Arizona and #14 Harvard at the Salt Lake City pod this afternoon.

Three Key Takeaways.

It Was Great While It Lasted…

1. Physical Mismatch. It was clear just a couple of minutes into the game that Harvard was going to need to catch a lot of breaks to keep up in this game. As good as Wesley Saunders has been all year, he had no chance guarding Solomon Hill in the post. Harvard’s Kenyatta Smith was tough on Thursday against the New Mexico bigs, Kaleb Tarczewski and Brandon Ashley were a whole different ball game. Freshman point guard Siyani Chambers looked overmatched and intimidated early by Mark Lyons, while Nick Johnson and Hill largely stuck with the Crimson’s shooters Laurent Rivard and Christian Webster, using their length, athleticism and confidence in the rest of their team’s defense to limit any good looks. In short, barring some seriously strange goings-on, Harvard never really had a chance in this one.
2. Is Arizona Playing Well?. At times, as the lead hovered somewhere around 20 for the final three-quarters of the game, the Wildcats lost focus and let up some. Kevin Parrom wound up inexplicably fouling out in just 14 minutes of action. Grant Jerrett bruised an elbow early in the first half and never returned. Johnson attempted just three field goals in the 34 minutes of action (to be fair, he made two threes in those attempts). Ashley again showed glimpses of excellence intermingled with frustrating decision-making. But in a game where the talent mismatch was so apparent, it was really hard to gauge just how well this team was playing as a whole. But, give them credit for doing to Harvard exactly what a team with this size and talent should have done to Harvard.
3. New Mexico Redux. If anybody associated with the New Mexico program watched this game, from Steve Alford on down to the lowliest Lobo fan, they had to be going absolutely crazy. A Harvard team that shot a 61.9 eFG% on Thursday night shot 31.9% tonight. The Lobos definitely didn’t have quite the athletic advantage that Arizona did, but it was pretty close. But, the Lobos failed to close out on shooters, couldn’t stop Chambers’ dribble penetration and never found a guard who could make an impact against inferior defenders. Can’t feel too bad for the Lobos.

Star of the Game.  Mark Lyons, Arizona. The much-maligned Wildcat point guard had perhaps the best game of his time in Tucson today, getting past Harvard defenders with ease, knocking down threes whenever the mood struck him and zipping up Chambers defensively. With Aaron Craft potentially looming next week in Los Angeles, things are about to get much more difficult, but Lyons has certainly picked a perfect time to peak.

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