NCAA Tournament Tidbits: 03.24.14 Edition
Posted by Griffin Wong on March 24th, 2014
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
- Shooting will fluctuate, but Florida has ridden defense to the Sweet Sixteen and hopefully beyond.
- Florida senior Scottie Wilbekin has had a troubled past in Gainesville, but he was willing to adhere to coach Billy Donovan’s strict rules in order to remain a member of the team. He now finds himself, nearly a year later, willing the Gators to the Sweet Sixteen in the midst of his teammates’ struggles.
- Though he has a shaky history in the NCAA Tournament, UCLA’s first year coach Steve Alford is already beginning to prove his doubters wrong as he led the Bruins to their first Sweet Sixteen appearance since 2008.
- UCLA ended Stephen F. Austin’s Cinderella run last night thanks in large part to the Bruins’ ability to get out and run. “They annihilated us in transition,” coach Brad Underwood added.
- Dayton’s run to the Sweet Sixteen was so thrilling that even the University’s president took part in the postgame celebration.
- Archie Miller was the first Miller to make the Sweet Sixteen after he led Dayton over Syracuse on Saturday, but even CBS’s Greg Gumble got him confused with his older brother, Sean, in an interview yesterday.
- Stanford wasn’t exactly a closely followed team by much of the country until yesterday’s upset over Kansas. However, the Cardinal showed those who were unsure that it was worthy of a Sweet Sixteen appearance.
- Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins used some experience from his playing days at Duke to get his players to fight for their Tournament lives. In recalling a story about a devastated teammate after losing his final game in a Duke uniform, Dawkins urged his players to play like they were all seniors.
- Notably absent from Kansas’s shocking third round defeat, freshman center Joel Embiid has yet to make a decision about his future in Lawrence. Embiid is a sure-fire top-five pick and could even go #1.
West Region
- Arizona blew by Gonzaga yesterday with an impressive array flashy plays, but what many fail to realize is that many those flashy plays are sparked by the Wildcats’ suffocating defense.
- Gonzaga is obviously disappointed about going down to Arizona, but coach Mark Few suggests that there really wasn’t much the Zags could do.
- With the West Regional being hosted in Anaheim, will San Diego State get a bit of a home court advantage?
- San Diego State played Arizona tight earlier this season, but can the Aztecs hang with the Wildcats we saw last night?
- Baylor ended Creighton All-American Doug McDermott’s illustrious college career last night. Considering his father, Greg, was also his coach, it made for a quite emotional exit from college hoops.
- Baylor routed Creighton behind a barrage of three pointers. We know the Bears are long and athletic, but if they’re shooting the ball like they did last night (11/18, good for 61%), they’re going to be a handful for anyone in their path.
- Without many options out of high school, Baylor guard Kenny Chery resorted to junior college. After struggling through those two years, Chery now finds himself leading Baylor’s charge to the Sweet Sixteen.
- Heading into the Sweet Sixteen, Wisconsin has proven through its first two games that it can get the job done “at any speed.”
- Wisconsin overcame a tough Oregon team thanks to its grit, and the Badgers are going to need more of it if they want to get by a surging Baylor team.
East Region
- Virginia rolled through Memphis last night to reach its first Sweet Sixteen since 1995.
- With all of its conference brethren eliminated from the NCAA Tournament, Virginia is carrying the weight of the ACC on its back.
- A rough second half of the regular season will only make Michigan State stronger as the Tourney moves forward. “I could just tell by everybody’s body language that we were sticking together, we weren’t arguing, we knew that we were going to find a way to get it done,” Gary Harris added.
- Michigan State coach Tom Izzo is known for his success in the NCAA Tournament, but it was his players who took over the huddle this past weekend when the Spartans needed it most.
- In what was arguably the Game of the Tournament, it was disappointing that North Carolina and Iowa State’s thriller finished with a clock error.
- After North Carolina’s loss, sophomore Marcus Paige took much of the blame for the loss. He may be right, but the Heels “wouldn’t have been here without him.”
- The play of Iowa State’s DeAndre Kane was superb all game long, but it took one final layup with 1.6 seconds left to cap the Cyclones’ comeback.
- Iowa State sophomore Georges Niang didn’t play, but he fulfilled his role by gathering the whole team in his hotel room the night before yesterday’s gusty victory over North Carolina.
- UConn finds it fitting that this weekend’s regional final will bring it back to New York City and Madison Square Garden, the home of so many of the Huskies’ Big East memories.
Midwest Region
- In a matchup that contrasted experience, pedigree, and conference affiliation, 8-seed Kentucky came out on top of 1-seed Wichita State in what was an “instant classic.”
- After landed one of the most highly touted recruiting classes of all time, Kentucky was named the preseason #1 team in the country. Amidst a season of ups and downs, yesterday’s win confirmed that the Wildcats are and can continue to be everything we thought they were.
- For Wichita State, yesterday’s loss broke up an undefeated season. However, coach Gregg Marshall still hopes that his players will try to learn from this difficult experience.
- He’s struggled at times this season, but Kentucky’s freshman point guard Andrew Harrison fought through injury to help lead the Wildcats to the Sweet Sixteen.
- To Adam Himmelsbach, Friday’s Elite Eight matchup between Bluegrass rivals Louisville and Kentucky was “destined to happen” as both teams emerged on the same side of the Midwest Region.
- With 14-seed Mercer’s win over Duke, many forgot that Tennessee was a double digit seed (11) as well. That said, the Volunteers sure didn’t play like one in their trouncing of Mercer last night.
- It’s tough to have perspective in the moment, but after going down to Tennessee, Mercer hopes to find great significance in what they accomplished this past weekend.
- Though it has flown under the radar, could Michigan be the most impressive team through the first weekend of the Big Dance?
