As we reach the pinnacle of Championship Week over the next few days, we’ll take a breath each morning to run down the top five storylines from the previous day’s action. There were 44 games spread across 18 conference tournaments on Friday — here’s the TL;DR version of what happened.

1. Which ACC Loss Was More Troubling: Duke or Virginia?

The story of Championship Week Friday is a complex one, but it has to open with what transpired in Greensboro last night. Top-seeded Virginia and second-seeded Duke were toppled in the ACC semifinals by North Carolina and Notre Dame, respectively; and both upsets, in their own ways, were startling. First, there’s Virginia, which in a 71-67 loss gave up more points than it had in any other contest in conference play. Despite a late Cavaliers’ charge, the Tar Heels led the game from wire to wire and made Tony Bennett’s team look frighteningly ordinary for about 35 minutes of action. In the nightcap, Notre Dame, a little over a month after being waxed by Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium, got its revenge. The Fighting Irish held the high-powered Blue Devils to 0.97 points per possession in a 74-64 win.

Notre Dame All Smiles and Hugs After Last Night’s Big Win (USA Today Images)

So which loss is more worrying? I’d have to say Virginia’s. Duke was outplayed by the Irish but the primary reason the Blue Devils lost was a 3-of-17 shooting mark from beyond the arc. On the other hand, Virginia doesn’t look like the same team it was earlier this year. The Cavaliers have continued to dominate lesser teams on the defensive end, but when they are coming face to face with teams that can match up with them physically, they don’t look nearly as special. Furthermore, Justin Anderson’s return — zero points in 26 minutes over two games — is troubling. Virginia fans should be somewhat worried.

2. Can Iowa State and Oklahoma Play Every Week?

The Cyclones and Sooners played another barnburner in the second Big 12 semifinals Friday night. Both regular season clashes had been instant classics, and while Friday’s meeting was maybe a tad more sensible — as in there were no 20-point comebacks or 59-point halves — it was back and forth all game long. In the end, Iowa State who pulled out a 67-65 victory when Ryan Spangler missed a bunny at the rim that would have tied the game. The Cyclones get a rubber match with Kansas Saturday, which will be another episode of Big 12 must-watch television.

3. More Excitement at Madison Square Garden

Nothing will ever replicate the old Big East, but this year’s Big East Tournament hasn’t disappointed. The semifinals gave us two more thrillers. Villanova barely managed to sneak by a resolute Providence squad on two late Ryan Arcidiacono free throws, and Xavier continued its plucky run with a hang-on-for-dear-life 65-63 victory over Georgetown. The Musketeers are on a roll; can they play spoiler for Villanova’s #1 seed hopes in tonight’s Big East final?

4. Mixed Emotions on the Bubble

There was a wide range of results yesterday for the nation’s bubble teams. Georgia, Purdue, Temple and Tulsa all took care of business against inferior teams; Richmond, UCLA and Indiana missed massive opportunities to send messages to the Selection Committee; and LSU and Boise State sent the wrong kinds of messages. The bubble picture is, of course, still as murky as ever.

5. The A-10 Tournament Always Seems to Deliver

Friday was a crazy day in Brooklyn. To get things going, top-seeded Davidson dug itself an 18-point first-half hole against La Salle, only to claw back and take its only lead of the game as time expired on a buzzer-beating Tyler Kalinoski layup. VCU then followed that up with a dramatic win over bitter crosstown rival Richmond. And in the night session, Dayton came back to beat pesky St. Bonaventure. After all the dust had settled, the conference’s four best teams are still alive and will battle each other on Saturday. Davidson vs. VCU should be one of the best games of the day in a day filled with them.

Bonus No. 1: UConn upset Cincinnati in the AAC quarters… just saying, be aware of the Huskies. There’s obviously some history there.

Bonus No. 2: Joe Young… It’s March:

Young said it was his first game winner in his whole life…

Yeah, it’s definitely March.

Henry Bushnell (39 Posts)

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 14th, 2015 at 12:05 pm by Henry Bushnell and is filed under 2015 conference tournaments. Tagged: acc tournament, big east tournament, connecticut, duke, feature, joseph young, notre dame, oregon, ryan boatwright, virginia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.