Three Key Takeaways.

1. Draymond Green is still the man. The senior do-everything man for Michigan State put up another terrific performance with 16 points, 13 rebounds, and six steals. In such a close game, the Spartans needed every one of those contributions from Green. Green was in such control for Michigan State that there were times late in the game during Saint Louis’ furious comeback that he was running the point for the Spartans. He is one of those special talents who can lead Michigan State all the way to the Final Four and beyond.
2. Keith Appling is capable of making huge plays from the guard position. Amidst the furious Saint Louis rally with Michigan State’s lead cut to just four, Appling nailed a huge three-pointer from the corner with just 1:37 remaining on the clock. After that three, Saint Louis realistically only had a fighter’s chance of getting back into this one. The sophomore guard finished with a game-high 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting.
3. This is not the last we will hear from Saint Louis. Saint Louis is a very well-coached team who returns every contributor but leading scorer Brian Conklin. Starters Kwamain Mitchell, Mike McCall, Jr., Dwayne Evans, and Rob Loe return next season for the Billikens. Key bench guys Cody Ellis, Jordair Jett, and Cory Remekun also return to build on this year’s 26-8 campaign. Rick Majerus‘ squad plays a tough-nosed style of play and will definitely be a major player in the Atlantic 10 next season.

Star of the Game. Draymond Green, Michigan State. The senior had another impressive performance here, accumulating 16 points, 13 rebounds, and six assists. Throughout the game it was more than clear that Green was the best player on the floor. Green really is a do-everything guy for Michigan State and that was more than evident again today.

Quotable. “We had to work today.” – Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo. Saint Louis gave the Spartans a very tough fight all afternoon and the outcome was in question until the final minutes.

Sights & Sounds. Seeing a Saint Louis fan play a trumpet in the stands was really a sight to be had. I have never seen something like that at a basketball game before and I really wonder how he got that trumpet into the arena. Nevertheless, it was definitely a fun sight.

Wild Card. It was definitely tough seeing how emotional both Rick Majerus and Brian Conklin were at the postgame press conference. It was obvious to everyone in the room just how much those two care for each other. Conklin seems like a first-class kid and definitely someone the Billikens will miss next season.

What’s Next. Michigan State moves on to the Sweet Sixteen where it will face Louisville in a matchup of two legendary coaches in Phoenix. Expect a hard-fought, gritty, sometimes-ugly style of basketball to be played with the deserving winner one step from the Final Four.

Three Key Takeaways

1. As Henry Sims and Jason Clark go, so does Georgetown. The two seniors definitely did not have their best games and it hurt the Hoyas mightily. Sims was plagued with foul trouble throughout the game and was never able to be an effective offensive or defensive presence. Sims finished the game with just four points, three rebounds, and two assists. The senior big man only attempted three field goals, turned the ball over twice, and fouled out. After a very effective nine for 12 performance from the field against Belmont on Friday, Clark struggled with his shot all afternoon hitting just three of his 11 attempts. The senior guard struggled to get open looks and, at times, forced some bad shots.
2. You can shoot 37% from the field and 61% from the free throw line and still pull an upset. NC State did not put up the best shooting numbers and struggled from the line all afternoon. However, the Wolfpack hit seven of their 15 attempts from behind the arc and owned the offensive glass by a margin of 17 to 8. Forward Richard Howell had six offensive boards himself. The scoring for the Wolfpack was very balanced with forward CJ Leslie, forward Scott Wood, and swingman CJ Williams each tallying 14 points, while guard Lorenzo Brown added 12. NC State also did a good job of keeping its energy level high throughout the game as it never felt like the Wolfpack had dropped into a lull.
3. Mark Gottfried has done an outstanding job in his first year at NC State. When Mark Gottfried was hired by NC State last April, many pundits openly questioned the move, but he has the Wolfpack in the Sweet 16 in just his first season. Gottfried inherited a team that many considered to be a disaster under former head coach Sidney Lowe last season. The 2010-11 Wolfpack only won 15 games all season. Today, the 2011-12 version won their 24th. While Gottfried will get much of the credit for being the head coach, credit must also be given to assistants Orlando Early, Rob Moxley, and Bobby Lutz.

Star(s) of the Game. Lorenzo Brown, CJ Leslie, CJ Williams, and Scott Wood, NC State. The four combined for 56 of NC State’s 66 points and each made at least one key basket. Brown scored 12 points to go along with seven assists and six rebounds. Leslie put up 14 points, eight rebounds, and three blocks. Williams scored 14 points and played great defense on Jason Clark all afternoon. Wood scored 14 points, while hitting on four of five of his attempts from beyond the three-point-line. It was a great team win for NC State and these four led the way all afternoon.

Quotable. “It’s a group that gave its all.” – Georgetown head coach John Thompson III. A very true statement considering how successful Georgetown was this season after being picked to finish 10th in the Big East in the preseason.

Sights & Sounds. One of the more interesting things I saw was postgame when legendary Georgetown head coach John Thompson (and father of current Hoyas coach), who was doing the radio broadcast for Westwood One went out of his way to shake the hand of CJ Leslie following a postgame interview. Classy move by the Hall of Fame coach.

What’s Next. NC State moves on to its first Sweet 16 appearance since 2005. The Wolfpack will face the winner of the #2 Kansas and #10 Purdue. Interestingly, the last time the Wolfpack made it this far they did it by beating a #2 seed Georgetown team while they were a #10 seed. Their fans are hoping they can advance further this time as in 2005 they lost in the Sweet 16 to Wisconsin.

Three key takeaways.

1. Louisville Plays Ugly But Effectively. The Cards’ defense is one of the best in the country, and its pressure defense and trapping schemes kept New Mexico off balance for most of the evening. Outside of the Lobos’ three best players — Drew Gordon and Kendall Williams — the rest of the team shot a putrid 9-of-32 from the field. Louisville did a great job at forcing the ball into the hands of these players and inviting them to try to make plays that they were not comfortable with making. The Cards also shut down New Mexico’s three-point attack tonight, holding the Lobos to a five-trey, 22% effort, one of their three worst long-range performances on the season.
2. Russ Smith is a Special Sort of Crazy. He may smile a lot like fellow New Yorker Kemba Walker, but his game is quite a bit more wild and unpredictable. That’s part of the charm, and Pitino said as much in the postgame news conference. When on target, as Smith was for much of tonight — 17 points, three steals — he can be the offensive X-factor that the Cardinals need to come up with enough points to beat good teams. But when he’s off, as in his previous four games where he shot 5-of-32 from the field and committed 10 turnovers, he can serve to destroy any momentum that the Cards may have had. Still, you can tell that Pitino really believes in him, and thinks he can harness the obvious talent that the sophomore has at his disposal.
3. Still Unsure About Steve Alford. Alford has to be commended for winning the Mountain West (both a share of the regular season and the tournament), but in the last three seasons, he’s brought a 30-win team and a 28-win team to the round of 32 and been unable to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. Drew Gordon might be the only player on either roster who is an NBA first round pick (apologies to Wayne Blackshear), but in just looking at the two teams matching up against each other, it wasn’t obvious which team was from the power league and which wasn’t. The point is that in both 2010 and 2012 the talent differential wasn’t that great, if it existed at all, and yet it appeared that his players were too sloppy and suffered too many mental breakdowns to successfully win the game. It’ll be interesting to see if Alford can break through this round at some point in the near future.

Star(s) of the game. Peyton Siva, Louisville. It may seem odd to choose a player who only scored six points on 2-6 shooting, but his split through a double-team to drive for a bucket was perhaps equaled only by his jump-stop leading to an assist to a cutting Gorgui Dieng in importance. Put simply, he made the plays necessary to win the game for his team tonight.

Quotable. “Russ Smith, nobody wanted, I don’t care what he tells you.” — Rick Pitino, on the wild yet talented guard who scored 17 points tonight.

Sights & Sounds. Russ Smith was so happy with his game tonight and the big win that he decided to insert himself into Rick Pitino’s interview after the game. That would be him, doing the rabbit ears, behind his coach.

What’s Next? Louisville advances to play the winner of #1 Michigan State vs. #8 St. Louis next weekend in Phoenix. If it ends up being the Spartans, that game could be uglier than anything we’ve seen all season in college basketball. Still, an Izzo vs. Pitino matchup is never a bad thing, so if it comes to pass, expect fireworks of one kind or another.

Three Key Takeaways.

1. Brady Heslip. Quick scouting report: guard him. He doesn’t make it easy for the opposition, running full steam off screen after screen, but when he gets the ball in his mitts with a clean look from deep, it’s as good as in. On Thursday night, he hit five threes from deep in helping the Bears over South Dakota State, but on Saturday he took it to a whole new level, drilling nine-of-twelve from deep against a variety of defenders, almost all of them coming off a screen and knocking down a catch-and-shoot jumper. The Bears don’t beat South Dakota State on Thursday without Heslip, and they probably don’t get out of this round without him either.
2. Breaking open a tight one. With 11:12 remaining in the second half, Colorado was up 54-51 and the Bears looked flustered, tentative and about ready to cave in. But, following a missed free throw, Quincy Acy kicked ahead a pass to Heslip for a game-tying three to jumpstart what would turn into a 24-6 run. There were a couple more Heslip threes mixed in there, a nasty Acy dunk, and countless heady plays by junior point guard Pierre Jackson. A game that once looked like a battle to the finish turned into a laugher awful quick.
3. Size kills. While Heslip is the big story, and rightly so, it was Baylor’s dominance on the boards that kept the Bears around. While the rest of the team save Heslip combined to shoot a 38.5 eFG%, they put in their time doing work, grabbing 44.7% of offensive rebound opportunities and 77.4% on the defensive end. The most well-known of the Baylor bigs continued to struggle, as Perry Jones registered a quiet seven points and four rebounds, but Acy, Quincy Miller, Anthony Jones and even guard Deuce Bello picked up the slack.

Star of the Game. Brady Heslip. It’s a no-brainer. He led all scorers with 27 points, all on three-pointers. There’s very little else on the stat sheet for Heslip, but when you knock down nine threes, often barely even disturbing the net, there’s little need to do things like pass the ball or grab rebounds.

Sights & Sounds. Of the fans in The Pit who came to support one of these two teams, it is probably not an overestimate to say that 90% of them were supporting Colorado. Baylor came close to filling up their one section they were awarded, but the rest of the place was either CU fans, New Mexico fans or neutral observers. Speaking of Lobo fans, when the game ended and the place cleared out, they turned on the end of the UNM/Louisville game on the big screens and the Lobo fans in attendance stuck around to try to cheer their team back from an 11-point deficit.

What’s Next? Baylor moves on to the Sweet 16 in the Atlanta regional, awaiting a date with either Lehigh or Xavier on Friday. They could be on a collision course with Kentucky, and they may be one of the few teams in the country that matches up athletically with the Wildcats, although Kentucky still has to get by Indiana, one of the two teams to beat them this year, first.

Three Key Takeaways.

1. When Kentucky shoots like that, forget it. The Wildcats shot 48% in the first half and led by 11. They shot 16-25 (that is not a typo, 64%) in the second half. Listen, you don’t need to be some kind of genius to know that when this UK team shoots like that, the only thing you can do is hand them the trophy. If you saw the game, you’d agree that Iowa State didn’t play that badly. They did a super job of battling back on the boards compared to their effort there in the first half. They kept Michael Kidd-Gilchrist to a single late bucket. Terrence Jones only managed three scores. Iowa State’s downfall was that the threes just weren’t falling (3-22, 13.6%). Didn’t matter if they were open looks or not; they just didn’t go down. And Kentucky hits 10-20? Simple math.
2. Marquis Teague can kill you many ways. He’s quick enough to go by you when he drives to the goal (he showed Scott Christopherson and Bubu Palo that tonight, both very game defenders, and he fouled the latter out in just 11 minutes), but he also noticed that it was his man who was leaving to double the post most of the night. That left him open for jumpers, and he went 10-14 on the night by both hitting open shots as well as driving into the space the ISU defense gave him.
3. Did we mention the shooting? One of the compelling things about this shooting display by Kentucky was that so many of the shots were NOT from close range. Iowa state WON the points-in-the-paint battle. The Wildcats shot that percentage by hitting a lot of jump shots. Yeesh.

Star of the Game. Tough call here between Teague (24/7 assists on 10-14 shooting) and Darius Miller (19/6 boards on 7-11). Teague was brilliant at taking what the defense gave him while still finding a way to get his teammates involved with seven dimes, but it was Miller who hit some extremely tough shots (and a couple of threes) that keyed the late first-half run that helped UK put some space between themselves and the Cyclones.

Sights & Sounds. In the post-game press conference, ISU head coach Fred Hoiberg said, “We’re going to leave Lexington…I mean, [resigned laugh] Louisville with our heads held high.” It was an HONEST mistake. This undoubtedly felt like Rupp Arena, given the blue-clad fans who packed the KFC Yum! Center. There were a few times early in both halves where Kentucky needed an emotional lift. The crowd helped provide it.

Quotable. Asked about playing Indiana and good friend Tom Crean in the Sweet 16, Calipari noted, “I don’t like playing friends. When they win, I’m sick about it. When I win, I enjoy it for a bit, but then I don’t, because I know what they’re going through.” He then added, “And I know he’s gonna watch every single piece of film anyone has on us, so [looking into TV cameras] Tommy, if you’re watching, I’m putting in two new out-of-bounds plays, some new side-outs, and two new offenses.”

What’s Next? A rematch between two of the seminal programs of our sport. A rematch between friends, Crean and Calipari. A rematch between an overall #1-seed who is rolling, and one of the two teams to draw blood from them this season. Indiana versus Kentucky in the second week of the Tournament. We can’t wait.

Three key takeaways.

1. Indiana Never Stopped Believing. Even when Bradford Burgess, a career 76% shooter from the foul line, stepped up with a three-point lead and two shots coming, it was clear that Indiana still believed that it was going to win the game. After Burgess missed both, Victor Oladipo’s drive to the left to get to the rim and-one was a game-winning kind of play. At that point, with VCU having only scored four minutes in the previous 12 minutes, it was just a matter of IU finding the way to win. After another missed three from VCU, Will Sheehey’s shot was almost destined to go down.
2. Victor Oladipo and Will Sheehey Were the Heroes, But Christian Watford Saved the Day. Oladipo and Sheehey will probably get most of the ink for their two game-changing offensive plays for Indiana in the last minute of action, but it was Watford’s mini-explosion near the tail of the first half that brought IU back from the brink. Down 42-33 and looking very much like a team on wobbly legs, Watford took it upon himself to steady his team by hitting back-to-back threes and a couple of free throws to cap an 8-0 run to close the half and get IU back in the ball game.
3. Is This It For Shaka? We’ve had the benefit of observing Shaka Smart in the NCAA Tournament for the better part of both last year’s and this year’s runs, and there’s absolutely no question that he is incredibly driven. Whether he’ll continue that drive at VCU or another school like Illinois is up for debate, but the way his players are fully committed to him and buy in completely to his game plans highly suggests that he will be successful no matter where he ends up. Is Illinois the right place — so much of success there depends on the Chicago pipeline, but it’ll certainly be interested to see him courted in the next month or so.
   

Star(s) of the game. Christian Watford, Indiana. As mentioned above, it was Watford’s personal 8-0 run that brought his Hoosiers back from the brink of being in big trouble heading into the halftime break. He ended the game with 16/5 with four threes and two steals, but in terms of stifling momentum, his contributions were invaluable.

Quotable. “Forever, I don’t get over games like this.” VCU head coach Shaka Smart, responding to a question about how it felt to lose this game in the way that the Rams did.

What’s Next? Indiana will move on to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in a decade (2002, under Mike Davis), where the Hoosiers at that time took down overall #1 Duke in a classic battle. Will IU have the chops to bring down another #1 in Kentucky.

Three Key Takeaways.

1. Players making plays. Down the stretch, it seemed just about all of the star players in this game made significant plays. There was Festus Ezeli with a giant swat on one end followed up by a soft lay-in on the other. There was a great play by Jeff Taylor to bring Vanderbilt back within one possession. There was the John Jenkins dish to Ezeli to put the Commodores up a point just before Jordan Taylor answered with a dagger three-pointer. And then, down the stretch, Wisconsin ran down two straight long offensive rebounds, allowing them to take over a minute off the clock. Still, after Josh Gasser missed the front-end of a one-and-one, Jenkins had a pretty good look at a three with six seconds left, but it was not to be.
2. Starting strong, finishing strong. Ryan Evans scored ten points right out of the gate, including eight in the first four minutes of the game, then disappeared for about 20 minutes after picking up his second foul with four minutes remaining in the first half. But, with the game in the balance, Evans soared above bigger Vanderbilt players to snatch a huge rebound following that missed Jenkins three in the closing seconds, then proceeded to hit a free throw to extend the Badger lead to three, which was the final margin.
3. Balance. In a game like this, with solid fundamental defensive teams, no one player was able to stay hot for long, which led to balanced scoring all the way around. Five different Badgers scored in double figures, led by Jordan Taylor’s 14, but with players like Jarred Berggren, Mike Bruesewitz, and even freshman guard Ben Brust stepping up and making plays. Brust wound up with 11, all in the second half, including three big three-pointers.

Star of the Game. Festus Ezeli, Vanderbilt. In a tight game that went down to the wire, Ezeli was the one unstoppable force in the game. Despite not starting, he wound up with 14 points and 11 rebounds and had a hand in three of the final four Commodore hoops (two baskets and one assist). While his career ends, Ezeli was the one athlete who stood out among a company of equals.

Sights & Sounds. While some portions of the Baylor and Colorado section did not fill up until halftime of this game, just about every other seat in this arena was filled early. And with two excellent bands, filling up the pregame, halftime and extended timeouts, the environment inside The Pit was every bit as electric as you would hope March basketball would be. As the game went down to a wire, all the neutral fans in the arena seemed to wind up just rooting for whoever was behind in the game, making for a loud and exciting conclusion.

Wildcard. For much of the final stretch in crunch time, Vanderbilt senior guard Brad Tinsley watched from the bench as freshman Kedren Johnson ran the point. While other lesser leaders might be hurt by such a perceived slight, Tinsley was there ready to give the youngster advice on leaving the timeouts. Call it a passing of the torch, as the quartet of Commodore seniors wraps up their careers with just one NCAA Tournament win to their names.

What’s Next? Wisconsin will face Syracuse in the Sweet 16 on Thursday night. While the Orange looked excellent in advancing to the Sweet 16, the ineligibility of sophomore center Fab Melo may leave them susceptible on the inside where the Badgers interior tandem Bruesewitz and Berggren can make an impact.

Three Key Takeaways.

1. Catch your breath. We haven’t seen any tempo stats on this game yet, but who needs ’em? This game was played at a Formula One pace despite not producing much in the way of scoring, but what fun it was. Mid-major local club with a packed partisan arena (even bigger than its home gym) going against a Big East trendy pick — and deservedly so — of a team that also boasts their conference MVP? Excellent storyline for an Elite Eight game, let alone a Round-0f-32 affair. Players sacraficing their bodies at every opportunity. Great passing. Superb hustle. Quicksilver pace. A pleasure to attend.
2. Marquette slammed the door, hard. Murray State led by four in the middle of the second half when Buzz Williams stacked one of his time-outs with a media break. It’s obvious the salient message during those talks was to step up the defense. From that point, Marquette went into (to borrow from Wedding Crashers) crisis-lockdown-mode, especially on Isaiah Canaan. They didn’t give him room to get his long-range jumper off, and every foray into the lane was challenged by at least one Marquette defender, often more.
3. Crowder impresses again. The senior stepped up with 17/13 in an arena whose crowd was as biased against him and his team as much as any arena probably has been this year, and most of those points and boards required every single muscle in his powerful frame. This game had speed, but it was also incredibly physical. In the end, Crowder and his teammates seemed more conditioned for such an affair.

Star of the Game. Crowder, as noted, was tremendous, completely and further legitimizing the “MVP!” chant that broke out from the Marquette section late in the going. But let’s also give some props to Murray State’s Ed Daniel, who averaged 5.3 rebounds a game this year…and pulled down 14 tonight in an absolute battlefield. He’s a junior. Bet he wins the OVC rebounding crown next year with this kind of effort on a consistent basis.

Sights & Sounds. This is why Buzz Williams should be particularly proud of his boys. The sights and sounds were dominated by Kentucky fans rooting for the in-state school against the big-conference squad. To win, and specifically to maintain mental stability in this environment, might be normal for a Big East team on the road, but was pretty much a true road game in the NCAA Tournament, not a Monday night Big East game.

What’s Next? Marquette awaits the winner of Florida (who won’t mind even more pace, and shoot threes a little better — sometimes — than Murray State) versus the non-Lehigh darlings of the tournament, Norfolk State.

Three key takeaways.

1. Great teams make big plays. Gonzaga was impressive for 38 minutes. They absolutely battled tooth and nail with one of the best teams in the country in Ohio State, but during the last two minutes they didn’t make the plays they needed to win. Elias Harris missed two crucial free throws. The defense couldn’t stop Jared Sullinger. The offense couldn’t make the big shots. Ohio State delivered when the game was on the line in the tough moments, and that’s why they are a great team, and that’s why Gonzaga will be going home.
2. Stars will be stars, and some won’t. Ohio State almost has a roster of stars from Sullinger to Aaron Craft to Deshaun Thomas to William Buford. Gonzaga has one big star in Robert Sacre. Sullinger and Craft, as will be noted below, showed up big, especially when it counted. Thomas, who annihilated Loyola on Thursday for 31, was sleepwalking through the first half, and ended up with 12 points in a hurry. Buford, who didn’t show up until late against Loyola, was solid and very smooth tonight with 13. Sacre, on the other hand, didn’t show up in the way that the Zags needed. He finished with eight points, but only had brief glimpses in this one of his potential dominance. He blocked Sullinger and got him into foul trouble, but other than that, he didn’t give enough to get the Zags over the top.
3. Ohio State still has upside. As crazy as this may seem, Ohio State still has a lot of upside in this tournament. They were outrebounded heavily in the first half, and that’s the sole reason that the Zags were still in the game. The Zags had 13 2nd half points in the first half, so it is clear that Ohio State has work to do on the boards. On the offensive end, Lenzelle Smith Jr didn’t make much of a presence until late in the 2nd half when he knocked down a big 3. The same can be said of Deshaun Thomas who had a goose egg halfway through the 1st. It’s almost scary to think that once this team puts a complete game together they might be able to beat the best teams here by double digits.

Star(s) of the game. Aaron Craft and Jared Sullinger, Ohio State. Aaron Craft wound up finishing the night with a very solid double-double. He had 17 points on 7-9 from the field to go with 10 assists to go with two turnovers. He completely dominated in the first half and took Kevin Pangos to school. Jared Sullinger finished with 18 points on 5-9 from the field, 6-7 from the line, and hit some of the biggest shots at the end of the game, including some very clutch free throws to close it out.

Sights & Sounds. Ohio State doesn’t mess around when it comes to school spirit. They brought their band, their cheerleaders, their mascot, and their fans. They performed their fight song several times throughout the game, and every fan was dotting the I.

What’s Next? #2 Ohio State will advance to take on the winner of #3 FSU/#6 Cincinnati. OSU will match up very well with either, as both Florida State and Cincinnati has plenty of size and speed. Ohio State matches up well with any team in the country. They will just have to make sure that everyone comes to play from start to finish, and hits the boards a little harder.

Three Key Takeaways.

1. Don’t leave the bench at home. K-State had challenges with only four players scoring in its win over Southern Miss, and Syracuse exploited their lack of depth by shutting out the Wildcats’ bench 33-0. Nobody stepped up after Jordan Henriquez was forced out of the game with three fouls midway through the second half. K-State needed one more guy. Syracuse, meanwhile, had Dion Waiters lead all scorers with 18, and he came off the bench.
2. Balance is better than a one man show. Syracuse found the answer for Fab Melo today, and that was team defense. The guards up top were tenacious, and continued to drop down on the high post, whether it was Jordan Henriquez or Thomas Gipson. Syracuse had eight blocks as a team to none for K-State. They also put four players in double figures, with Kris Joseph stepping up big with 11 points and a very efficient 7-8 from the line.
3. You need to adjust. Kansas State had a great plan to start the game, and was executing very well in being only down one point at half. Syracuse adjusted to the zone, penetrated the seams, and found open shots in the form of Scoop Jardine, Dion Waiters, Kris Joseph, and James Southerland. Kansas State didn’t adjust in its zone offense, and instead had their leading scorer in the first half, Henriquez, up on the high post passing the ball, and Gipson, their undersized post, down low, trying to battle the likes of Christmas and Joseph. That led to foul trouble for Henriquez, only three more points, and a K-State defeat.

Star of the Game. Scoop Jardine, Syracuse. Scoop really turned it on for Syracuse. During the first half he played well but had several turnovers. He really stepped up in the second half to put the game out of reach for the Wildcats. He ended the game with a stat sheet stuffer in terms of 16 points, eight assists, and a steal. The stat he will want to forget are the six turnovers he committed today, with most coming in the first half.

Sights & Sounds. Being St. Patricks Day, I was seeing  a lot of green in the crowd, but it just goes to show that orange and green go very well together, especially today.

What’s Next? #1 Syracuse will advance to take on the winner of the #4 Wisconsin/#5 Vanderbilt winner in Boston next week. Syracuse looked a lot better today, and should match up very well with either Wisconsin or Vanderbilt. They might have to watch being lulled into a slow tempo game against Wisconsin or the long range shooting of Vanderbilt if they take on the Commodores.