Andrew Murawa (@amurawa) is the NCAA Tournament’s West Region correspondent, which begins Thursday night at Honda Center in Anaheim with Baylor vs. Wisconsin followed by San Diego State vs. Arizona. The South Regional Reset published earlier today and the East and Midwest Resets will release tomorrow. Make sure to also follow @RTCWestRegion for news and analysis from Anaheim throughout the week.

New Favorite: Arizona, #1, 32-4. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. The Wildcats looked a little shaky in what turned into just a nine-point win in their round of 64 game against Weber State, but they really did little this weekend to change the popular notion that the Wildcats are not only the strong favorite in this region, but a legitimate contender for the national championship.

Arizona Did Little In The First Weekend To Make Us Second Guess Their Status As National Championship Contenders. (Christian Petersen, Getty Images)

Horse of Darkness:  Wisconsin, #2, 28-7. The Badgers took a 12-point deficit into the half against Oregon in the round of 32, getting lit up to the tune of somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.48 points per possession by a great offensive team for 20 minutes. But coming out of the locker room, they made a commitment to getting the ball inside on offense and getting back and challenging jump shooters on the defensive end. The adjustment turned into less than a point per possession in the second half for the Ducks, while the high-scoring Badgers were the one that turned in 1.5 points per possession. The Badgers have proven their ability to score in bunches this season, but if they can play defense like they did in the second half against Oregon, they’re going to be a real tough out.

Biggest Surprise (1st Weekend): Creighton Getting Demolished. The simple fact that Baylor advanced over Creighton isn’t all that shocking. But the manner in which it happened was stunning. Creighton shoots five-of-24 from three against the Baylor zone? A sketchy Baylor defense hold the nation’s best offensive team below a point per possession? Doug McDermott’s college career ends with just a 15-point performance? Stunning.

Completely Expected (1st Weekend): Mostly Chalk. Three of the top four seeds advanced to the Sweet Sixteen, and the one upset based on seed-line probably isn’t that much of an upset at all, as Baylor crushed Creighton to earn its 12th win in the last 14 games.

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Bennet Hayes (@hoopstraveler) is the NCAA Tournament’s South Region correspondent, which begins Thursday night at FedEx Forum in Memphis with Dayton vs. Stanford followed by UCLA vs. Florida. Look out for the West Regional Reset later today and the East and Midwest Resets tomorrow. Make sure to also follow @RTCSouthRegion for news and analysis from Memphis throughout the week.

Billy Donovan Is On The Verge Of Orchestrating Yet Another Florida Final Four Appearance. Is There A Team Remaining In This South Region That Can Disrupt The Gators’ March To Dallas? (Getty)

New Favorite: #1 Florida. Nothing has changed on this front. The Gators looked as overwhelming as ever in their third round defeat of Pittsburgh, and with only one other top-nine seed remaining in the region, the NCAA Tournament’s #1 overall seed is in fantastic shape to make its way to Dallas. The Sweet Sixteen match-up with UCLA won’t be easy, but more on that later – the Gators are still the South region’s clear favorite.

Horse of Darkness: #11 Dayton. This quadrant offered plenty of candidates for the honor, but with apologies to Stephen F. Austin (only one win) and Stanford (too familiar a brand), the Dayton Flyers advancing to their first Sweet Sixteen since 1984 makes for the South Region’s best Cinderella story. We make loyal Flyer fans pretend like the First Four is a big deal annually – and their love of basketball prevents them from failing in this pursuit – so it’s only fair that they finally get something to cheer about from their own team. On February 1, Archie Miller’s club (1-5 in the Atlantic 10 at the time) wasn’t even one of the top eight teams in their own conference, but after a late-season surge and this unexpected Tourney run, the Flyers will play on Thursday for a chance to be one of the final eight teams left standing in all of college basketball. What. A. Turnaround.

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From 340 eligible D-I teams to the wide swaths of empty space we now have on the Circle of March, 16 hopefuls remain standing. And this group might be more notable for the teams that are already gone than those remaining — Duke, North Carolina, Syracuse, Villanova, Kansas, Ohio State — all looking ahead to next year. Of the 16 teams remaining, 14 are from basketball power conferences, while two — San Diego State and Dayton — come from the high-mid hoops leagues, the Mountain West and Atlantic 10, respectively. There are three double-digit seeds remaining — Stanford, Dayton and Tennesssee — although KenPom gives the Volunteers the fifth-best odds to cut down the nets in Arlington two weeks from today. And despite a fair number of upsets over the weekend, 10 of the 16 slots in this week’s bracket held to seed, with the East and West regions (three each) going most chalky. Enjoy the break for a few days. Games will be back soon enough.

Eliminated From National Title Contention (03.24.14)

• Stephen F. Austin
• Kansas
• Creighton
• North Carolina
• Gonzaga
• Memphis
• Wichita State
• Mercer

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.

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Rush the Court will be providing wall-to-wall coverage of each of the NCAA Tournament from each of the 13 sites this year. Follow our NCAA Tourney specific Twitter accounts at @RTCeastregion, @RTCMWregion,@RTCsouthregion and @RTCwestregion.

Three Key Takeaways.

1. Points Off Turnovers. The first 11 turnovers in the game belonged to Gonzaga; Arizona scored 19 points off of those miscues on the way to building a 21-point first-half lead. There it is. For all practical purposes, that was the game. Turn the ball over and give the Wildcats six dunks (Aaron Gordon had four first-half dunks himself) and four layups before halftime and you should have no expectation that you’re going to be in the game. Clearly, Mark Few made limiting turnovers a high priority in the halftime locker room, but coming out of the break, they turned it over on the first two possessions. For the night, they turned it over 21times, leading to 31 points for the Wildcats. That’s the ballgame, right there.
   

   Aaron Gordon And The Wildcats Ran Gonzaga Off The Court Early And Often

2. Arizona Halfcourt Offense = Questionable . To pick a nit, as good as the Wildcats were in forcing turnovers and getting out in transition, their halfcourt offense was so-so. They made just eight of 25 field goal attempts in the first half in the half-court and scored just 27 points on their 27 first half possessions that were not scores off turnovers. In the second half, they were much better, shooting 11-of-26 from the field, but again not really scoring in the halfcourt, averaging a shade under a point per possession in the second half. So, clearly, the key to stopping the Wildcats is forcing them into a half-court game and not allowing them to get points in transition, something that is far easier said than done.
3. Highlight Reels Plays. Nick Johnson running down David Stockton and rejecting his breakaway layup. Gordon throwing down his now-patented reverse layup on the alley-oop. Gordon dunking over two Gonzaga big frontcourt players on an offensive rebound follow-up. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson providing a ridiculous in-your-face dunk in the halfcourt game. There are probably another half-dozen plays I’m forgetting that deserve mention as well, but the fact of the matter is, the Wildcats didn’t just beat the Zags by 23 points, they embarrassed them continuously throughout the game.

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Rush the Court will be providing wall-to-wall coverage of each of the NCAA Tournament from each of the 13 sites this year. Follow our NCAA Tourney specific Twitter accounts at @RTCeastregion, @RTCMWregion,@RTCsouthregion and @RTCwestregion.

Three Key Takeaways.

Virginia Has No Superstars but Plays Great as a Team, Especially on Defense.
(Photo: Gerry Broome/AP)

1. Virginia got back to being Virginia. In the first half of Friday night’s contest with Coastal Carolina, the Cavaliers were not themselves, falling behind by 10 and trailing by five at the half while allowing the Chanticleers to shoot 52 percent. They tightened things up in the second half of that game and carried that familiar stingy defensive play into tonight’s round of 32 match-up with Memphis. In the first half tonight, Memphis managed only 20 points in 32 possessions and shot a dismal 26.7 percent. For the game, the Tigers were held to 40.7 percent shooting and managed just 0.91 points per possession, their third worst offensive performance of the season. In addition, the Cavaliers’ offense was sharp and balanced as usual. Virginia had five players score in double figures and they shot well in all areas – total field goals (56%), three-pointers (45%) and free throws (81%).
2. Memphis could not speed up Virginia enough. Coming into the game there was a stark difference in each team’s preferred pace of play. Virginia ranks among the slowest teams in the country, while Memphis would rather play an up-tempo style. Whichever team could control the pace was going to be more comfortable and have the best shot at winning. In Friday’s win over George Washington, Memphis had 15 fast break points and did alright in that area again tonight with 18. But for the most part, Memphis was handcuffed here by the shooting disparity. It’s hard to set up a full-court press if your opponent rarely needs to inbound the ball after a made basket. And it’s also difficult to get out on the fast break when you’re constantly taking the ball out of the net on the other end.
3. The battle of the boards went to Virginia. This was a big key to the game coming into Sunday, and it turned out to be critical. In a strength-versus-strength match, Memphis entered as one of the nation’s best teams (#29) in offensive rebounding percentage. The Tigers were up against a Virginia group that ranked seventh nationally in defensive rebounding percentage. This battle was decided during the pivotal first half, with Memphis shooting so poorly that there were 22 caroms available on that end of the floor. The Cavaliers stepped up and grabbed 19 of those to take away what the Tigers’ do best. For the game, Virginia allowed the Tigers to grab only 19 percent of their misses, and the Cavaliers ended with a sold +12 edge in total rebounds.

Star of the Game. Joe Harris, Virginia. The senior Harris led the balanced attack with 16 points, including nine in the first half when Virginia broke the game open.

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Rush the Court will be providing wall-to-wall coverage of each of the NCAA Tournament from each of the 13 sites this year. Follow our NCAA Tourney specific Twitter accounts at @RTCeastregion, @RTCMWregion,@RTCsouthregion and @RTCwestregion.

Three Key Takeaways.

A Shared Moment Between Father and Son (SI.com)

1. Defensive Size and Length. It was painfully apparent from the early minutes of tonight’s game that Baylor had adequately game-planned for the Creighton offense (coming in as the nation’s most efficient unit). They were not going to allow any of the trio of National Player of the Year Doug McDermott, Ethan Wragge or Jahenns Manigat to get open looks from beyond the arc. They were instead willing to give up anything inside — providing single coverage with seven-footer Isaiah Austin — or shade away from Grant Gibbs or Austin Chatman. It worked like a charm. The NPOY only got up four shots in the entire first half, making one, and his teammate Wragge only shot twice (making neither). Manigat was in the same boat — two shots, zero makes — and as a result of this strategy predicated on Baylor’s ridiculous size and length all over the court, the Creighton offense was shut down with a miserable 20-point half (scoring only half of Baylor’s output). McDermott, Wragge and Manigat shot a combined 2-of-8 from the field in the first half, and 0-of-6 from three. Think about that for a minute. That’s just a complete lockdown. The second half was just a formality.
2. It Was Raining Threes… But it wasn’t Creighton doing the trick tonight. Let’s get this out of the way first. Baylor is not a great three-point shooting team. While it’s true that they shot a nice 38.0 percent on the season, the majority of that work was put in by a single player, sharp-shooter Brady Heslip (104 threes on 45.6 percent shooting). Other high-volume guys like Kenny Chery and Gary Franklin were at 31 percent, and a handful of players like Royce O’Neale and Cory Jefferson hit a nice percentage but just don’t take many of them. Tonight it didn’t matter. The Bears drilled their first five attempts of the night, and turned in a super 7-of-9 performance that included 2-of-2 from O’Neale and Heslip and 3-of-3 from the inconsistent shooter, Chery. They hit a couple more in the second half to finish 11-of-18 on the night, but the treys that rained down on one end (and didn’t on the other) is what allowed Baylor to blow the game up in the first half and coast from there.
3. Farewell to McBuckets. Only one team can walk away from a college basketball season in great spirits, but when the presumptive National Player of the Year goes out on such a foul and sour note, it’s a real shame. Taking nothing away from Baylor at all — the Bears were clearly the better team here — but it would have been great to see McDermott leave the game of college basketball on a higher note in a Sweet Sixteen or beyond. He never made it to the second weekend in his four-year career, but man, did he give us a bunch of great moments along the way. Over 3,000 points later, a guy who wasn’t considered good enough to play at the high-major level leaves as one of the all-time greats. Thank you, Doug, and godspeed.

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Rush the Court will be providing wall-to-wall coverage of each of the NCAA Tournament from each of the 13 sites this year. Follow our NCAA Tourney specific Twitter accounts at @RTCeastregion, @RTCMWregion,@RTCsouthregion and @RTCwestregion.

Three Key Takeaways.

Kyle Anderson (left), Zach LaVine, and Norman Powell had a lot to celebrate about as the Bruins easily advanced to the Sweet 16. (AP)

1. UCLA – Sweet Sixteen. Remember back when this program was absolutely rolling under Ben Howland in the middle of the last decade? That went away fast, sure. But, now for the first time since 2008, the Bruins are back in the Sweet Sixteen, this time under first-year head coach Steve Alford — who himself is back in the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 1999 at Southwest Missouri State. Picky UCLA fans did not take kindly to Alford upon his hire and they took an even longer time to come around to this fun and exciting young team. But this weekend in San Diego, UCLA fans traveled well, were enthusiastic throughout, and seem to be back on the bandwagon. Their biggest nemesis from the last decade – Florida – is once again in the way. And if things do not go well on Thursday in Memphis, there might be a lot of Bruins’ fans with broken ankles as they jump back off the bandwagon, complaining about an easy path to the Sweet Sixteen and other silliness. But for now, UCLA basketball is cool again.
2. Stormin’ Norman. Under Alford, Norman Powell found increased minutes, an increased role, and a level of freedom that he clearly enjoys. For a guy who was rumored to be considering transferring at the end of last season, he turned into a difference-maker for the Bruins this season. And in the postseason (including Pac-12 Tournament play), he’s taken his game to a new level. He has regularly harassed his man on defense into off games (today for instance, he held Friday night’s star Desmond Haymon to 3-of-11 shooting), he got nine steals in five games, and he made countless highlight-reel plays. Today’s best was putting the ball behind his back in transition just prior to laying the ball in deftly between a couple of defenders for a hoop. And then, rather than celebrate his play, he got back on defense and knocked a pass out of bounds to kill an SFA transition attempt.
3. Scrappy ‘Jacks. The Lumberjacks, led by sophomore forward Thomas Walkup, are a team that is hard not to like. The bulk of their team is between 6’3” and 6’6”, but they play bigger than their size, they get after it on defense, they sell out for loose balls and they’re just talented enough (seems like everybody can stroke a jumper and make a pretty pass) to play a little finesse game on offense. Walkup in particular won over quite a few fans this weekend. A 6’4” sophomore forward who plays bigger than his size and older than his age, he does just about everything well. He drew early fouls on the bigger UCLA frontcourt, he grabbed eight boards in the first 11 minutes of action he saw, he defended with passion, he was a facilitator for the squad in the high post, he knocked down jumpers; he did everything but hand out water bottles in the huddle. The ‘Jacks lose three seniors, but expect them to be a force in the Southland going forward. Read the rest of this entry »

Rush the Court will be providing wall-to-wall coverage of each of the NCAA Tournament from each of the 13 sites this year. Follow our NCAA Tourney specific Twitter accounts at @RTCeastregion, @RTCMWregion,@RTCsouthregion and @RTCwestregion.

Three Key Takeaways.

Led by Josh Richardson Saturday night, Tennessee rolled on to the Sweet 16. Cuonzo Martin’s squad was dominant in two Raleigh wins. (Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

1. Tennessee dominated in the paint. The Volunteers have two wide-bodies in the post and they made good use of them tonight. In the first half, Tennessee hammered the Bears on the glass, holding an incredible +20 edge in total rebounds in route to a 42-27 halftime lead. With eight minutes to go in the game, Tennessee’s Jarnell Stokes had 16 rebounds and the entire Mercer team had nine. In Friday’s big upset over #3 seed Duke, the Bears found success attacking the weak Blue Devil interior to the tune of +16 in points-in-the-paint. But against the rugged Volunteers, that edge went to Tennessee by a convincingly margin (+12). Stokes has become one of the most impressive performers in this year’s Tournament, sporting averages of 20.3 points and 15.0 rebounds in the three Tennessee wins.
2. Mercer needed this to be a close game going down the stretch. Coming into the game, the Bears had a decided edge in close game performance, but they just couldn’t get the score tight enough in the second half for that to matter. Part of the reason that Tennessee is rated so highly by possession-based computers — despite a less than gaudy 23-12 record coming into the game — is that the Volunteers have won a lot of blowouts, but have lost all five games decided by five points or less on the season. By contrast, Mercer went 8-2 in close games, which includes winning five of its six overtime contests during the year. Down by 19 early in the second half tonight, the Bears got the lead down to 11 with just over two minutes left, but were never close enough to put any real game pressure on Tennessee. Read the rest of this entry »

Rush the Court will be providing wall-to-wall coverage of each of the NCAA Tournament from each of the 13 sites this year. Follow our NCAA Tourney specific Twitter accounts at @RTCeastregion, @RTCMWregion,@RTCsouthregion and @RTCwestregion.

Three Key Takeaways.

1. Iowa State Just Took It From North Carolina. The Tar Heels did almost everything that it needed to do to win today. But Iowa State just wouldn’t let them. The last run, which went 21-9 in favor of the Cyclones over the last five minutes of action, was a clinic in offensive execution. On Iowa State’s last 11 possessions, they scored on nine of them, including four threes that wouldn’t allow the Tar Heels to pull away. For those of you wondering, that’s a 1.91 points per possession pace, which is simply outstanding for a team that appeared to have lost its legs in the middle of the second half. Perhaps the most impressive thing is that it’s not like UNC fell apart during that stretch. They scored on roughly half of their possessions during the same period, and EVEN hit a back-breaker of a three by Leslie McDonald with a minute-and-a-half left as well as two free throws from James Michael McAdoo (of all people) with 15 ticks to go. North Carolina made plays to win; it’s just that Iowa State made more of them.
2. DeAndre Kane Pulled a Dwyane Wade Today. Without beefy forward Georges Niang in the lineup to relieve some of the offensive pressure, DeAndre Kane decided to pull out his cape and turn into a Dwyane Wade clone, replete with a ridiculous one-handed dunk down the lane as well as an extremely athletic driving layup to win the game. It was quite reminiscent of a younger Wade tearing up defense at Marquette a decade ago, and the stat line — 24 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, on 9-of-18 shooting – supports that comparison. It’s an overused cliche, but it seems to fit here — Kane was not going to leave this building without a victory today.
3. The Final Play. After Kane’s driving layup for the win, I kept my eyes on the clock and noticed that it was stuck at 1.6 seconds even after North Carolina had inbounded the ball and started dribbling upcourt. It only started running once the Tar Heel player had gotten near midcourt, and then it ran out completely. It didn’t surprise me at all that the final call was that the game was over, because it felt like at least two seconds were spent dribbling. It was a really unfortunate way to end the game, but UNC perhaps should have thought to use one of those two remaining timeouts after the ball went through the net. For those couple of minutes, the North Carolina fans behind me were as quiet as a church mouse — everyone just watching the officials and trying to read the body language. Just a fantastic game all the way around, and Iowa State a deserving victor.

Star of the Game: DeAndre Kane, Iowa State. He was the player who kept Iowa State alive when North Carolina was surging, and of course his all-around floor game resulted in a trip to the Sweet Sixteen, the school’s first in over a decade.

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