March Madness is finally upon us, and we here at RTC are here to make everything a little bit easier for you. From the First Four until One Shining Moment, we’ll be dropping daily tidbits of knowledge regarding the teams in each region.
South Region
- Naturally, the experienced Florida Gators were led by their seniors to a Sweet Sixteen berth.
- After a tough loss to Florida, Pittsburgh now must say goodbye to senior leaders Talib Zanna and Lamar Patterson.
- Dayton coach Archie Miller knows his team deserved to win, but even he knows that the Flyers were fortunate to catch Syracuse on an off night.
- In its third round loss to Dayton, Syracuse had a historically awful three-point shooting night.
- Stephen F. Austin’s Desmond Haymon is from a small town in Massachusetts, but made national headlines this week with “the play of the NCAA Tournament.”
- UCLA won a tight game in its second round match-up, and their road isn’t getting any easier with a tough Stephen F. Austin team on the horizon.
- Kansas will once again be without freshman big man Joel Embiid in their game today against Stanford.
- For a team that struggled to get into the NCAA Tournament, Stanford has a chance to make program history if it can score a win over #2 seed Kansas.
West Region
- Today, Gonzaga and #1 seed Arizona will relive a 2003 instant classic.
- Though they’re usually the cream of the mid-major crop, Gonzaga has little pressure on it going into its game against Arizona.
- North Dakota State coach Saul Phillips went as far as crying during his postgame press conference as the Bison’s NCAA journey ended yesterday.
- San Diego State’s Xavier Thames led the Aztecs with 30 points as they took down cinderella North Dakote State.
- Baylor point guard Kenny Chery hopes to lead the Bears past Doug McDermott and Creighton.
- Creighton will have to successfully deal with Baylor’s zone if it wants to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
- Two-seed Wisconsin needed a furious second half rally to come out on top of Oregon yesterday.
- After blowing a big second half lead, Wisconsin arguably taught Oregon “an NCAA lesson.”
- Virginia and Memphis present “contrasting styles” in today’s match-up. The Cavaliers seek to slow it down while the Tigers want to get up and go.
- Virginia plays a unique, effective style of basketball, but Memphis looks to play its game today.
- Though Harvard went down today, coach Tommy Amaker has found a great place in Cambridge, Massacushetts.
- Despite a big-time Harvard comeback, Michigan State held off the Crimson and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.
- Even though they lost sophomore Georges Niang, Iowa State is ready to take on UNC today.
- Despite an injury and an early Villanova lead, UConn’s All-American Shabazz Napier essentially “willed” the Huskies to a Sweet Sixteen berth.
- Villanova earned a great seed in the NCAA Tournament, but ultimately their play didn’t match that seed and now they’ll be watching the rest of March Madness from home.
Midwest Region
- Today’s game between Kentucky and Wichita State has a significance beyond determining who will advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
- Could the matchup between blue-blood Kentucky and undefeated Wichita State be the most hyped NCAA Round of 32 game of all time?
- Saint Louis ultimately fell to defending champ Louisville despite a “scrappy” performance.
- Louisville has survived and advanced, but they haven’t looked good in the process.
- They’re both double-digit seeds, but neither Mercer nor Tennessee is buying the “Cinderella Label.”
- Mercer senior big man Monty Brown will be out against Tennessee with a concussion. The Bears hope to trudge on without key reserve.
- Big Ten player of the year Nik Stauskas led Michigan in an offensive show in its against Texas.
- The Longhorns went down to Michigan, but Texas is confident in the direction of the program