And the there were 24 . . . and one less No. 1 seed than was around when Saturday’s NCAA Tournament with the tip-off between the University of Michigan Wolverines and the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams at little past noon in Auburn Hills, MI.
The West Regional’s 8 (Pittsburgh) and 3 (New Mexico) were kicked to the curb on Thursday, with No.’s 4 (Kansas State), 5 (Wisconsin) and 7 (Notre Dame) going the tournament’s version of the “one and done” route on Friday.
Saturday night, in Salt Lake City, Numero Uno bid an excruciating adios.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs took the best record (31-2) into the greatest 68-team tournament in the world.
They’ll still have the best record in the sport when the national championship club is cutting down twine in Atlanta on April 8.
But that 32-3 record will be both a reminder of what a marvelous regular season Coach Mark Few’s best-ever team enjoyed – and how painfully that season came to a crashing halt.
The Bulldogs trailed No. 9 seed Wichita by as many as 13 points late in the first half before going ahead by seven points, twice, on consecutive 3-pointers by Kevin Pangos (sandwiched around one by WSU’s Tekele Cotton), the second of those with 5:47 to go in regulation for a 61-54 score.
But the Shockers of Coach Greg Marshall – who dominated Pittsburgh in an 18-point decision Thursday night – went on to prevail, 76-70.
How was the Missouri Valley Conference runner-up to Creighton (in both the regular-season standings and in the MVC tourney final) able to outscore one of the most efficient offensive teams in the county by 13 points over the final five and one-half minutes?
The Shockers earned a trip to Southern California and a Thursday night West Regional semifinal in the Los Angeles Staple Center because the Bulldogs simply couldn’t get to Marshall’s jump shooters in time to prevent them from catching passes, or from launching and hitting five jumpers in a four-minute stretch – four of those from behind the arc.
The last of those – a fade-away 3 by reserve Fred Vanvleet, with 1:32 to go as the shot clock was about to expire – put the Shockers up by five points.
And here is where I ask you to “send me a direct message if you had Wichita against 13 seed (and First Four winner against Boise State Thursday night and the club that defeated No. 4 Kansas State Friday) La Salle or 12 seed Mississippi (the teams hook up Sunday in Kansas City for the right to get an NCAA-provided charter flight to Los Angeles) in your tourney bracket.”
This, by the way, is where I interject this for all of you out there who are sporting snarky “I told you so” grins right now:
The NCAA Tournament Championship Committee seeds teams based upon what those teams did, on the court, from November until mid-March (give or take), not upon what the committee members believe those teams might do when the tournament begins.
If you’re going to scream that “Gonzaga should have never gotten a No. 1 seed” (based upon its less-than-overwhelming victory over 16 seed Southern on Thursday and its loss to Wichita State), then you have to be consistent and also say that “Georgetown should have never been a 2 seed (after the smack down administered by Florida Gulf Coast University on Friday)”, or suggest that “Marquette was over-seeded (at 3)!” because of its stunning late come-from-behind win over 14 seed Davidson on Thursday.
OK, onward . . .
Other observations on Saturday’s results:
*The Big Ten’s two representatives in third-round action – Michigan and Michigan State – certainly held up their end of the “the Big Ten is the best conference in the country this season” bargain.
The Wolverines chewed up a somewhat-popular choice to knock them off – the VCU Rams of Coach Shaka Smart – by 24 points in a South Regional contest and then the Spartans were mostly dominant en route to a 22-point victory over Memphis, also in Auburn Hills but in a Midwest Regional.
Sunday it will be a 1 seed (Indiana, vs. Temple, in the East Regional) and a 2 (Ohio State, vs. Iowa State, in the West Regional), both in Dayton, as well as a 7 (Illinois, vs. 2 seed and ACC champion Miami) and 11 (Minnesota, vs. 3 seed Florida), both in Austin, trying to join their Michigan cohorts to make it a “6 for 16” Big Ten presence in the regional semifinals.
It’s doable in each location.
*Louisville looked every bit the part – and then some – the No. 1 overall seed and club than many, me included, tabbed to win the national title while dismantling a pretty good Colorado State team in Lexington, 82-56.
Rick Pitino’s Cardinals are going to face a team in Friday night’s Midwest semifinals in Indianapolis that was every bit as impressive as they were in Rounds II-III Thursday and Saturday.
The Oregon Ducks were assigned a 12 seed despite finishing just a game behind regular-season season champion in the Pac 12 and then beating Washington, Utah and the Bruins over consecutive nights in Las Vegas to bag the conference tourney title for the automatic bid to the NCAA tourney field of 68.
Coach Dana Altman’s club defeated the 5 (Oklahoma State of the Big 12) and 4 (A-10 regular-season and tourney champion Saint Louis) seeds in San Jose by a combined margin of 30 points.
Altman, in his third season in Eugene, remains one of the most under-appreciated and under-rated – by most in the media and in the realm of the college hoops fan universe; certainly not by his peers – coaches in the country.
If the Ducks pull off an upset Friday that would make the wins over the Cowboys and Billikens turn ghost-white in comparison, that “Altman is a helluva coach” bandwagon will become so crowded as to be suffocating.
*And two of Louisville’s soon-to-be former Big East compadres – Marquette and Syracuse – also acquitted themselves well Saturday to make the tourney cut to 16.
The Marquette-Butler “rematch” (the Bulldogs prevailed at the buzzer on Rotnei Clarke’s stunning buzzer-beating 3-pointer in Maui in November) in Lexington produced as competitive and tense a game as was played in the first five days of the tournament, with the Golden Eagles prevailing, 74-72.
Clarke seemed ready to repeat the stunt when the Bulldogs forced a turnover and got the ball back, side out of bounds, with a couple tics remaining in regulation.
But Clarke was shadowed before Roosevelt Jones could inbound to him and Andrew Smith was the recipient of Jones’ toss – and, with Jamil Wilson digging back hard away from Clarke toward Smith – but he couldn’t handle it cleanly enough to set his feet before he launched a potential game-winning 3 that was well off the mark and off the backboard as the buzzer sounded.
*Syracuse was in relative control of things in San Jose before holding off Cal, 66-60, in front of an overwhelming pro-Cal (whose campus is located about 45 miles north of San Jose) made even more so by the Oregon contingent of followers that stuck around for their fellow Pac 12 squad.
Cal’s two best offensive players, Allen Crabbe and Justin Cobbs, produced nearly twice as many turnovers (a combined nine) as they did field goals (five) against the Orange’s 2-3 zone.
One day’s prep time isn’t much for that defense.
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