Sweet Sixteen
Maryland 71-87 Florida
Not a shock. Maryland had some talent but I never thought they were a particularly cohesive crew.
Arizona 93-100 Duke
Duke shot well, surprised the score was this close actually.
Brigham Young 88-113 Alabama
I thought BYU had good upset potential in this game, but, man, Alabama shot the lights out early on and just kept the scoring too furious for BYU to keep up. If Alabama had played like this throughout, they would've won it all.
Arkansas 83-85 (OT) Texas Tech
I didn't see this game but just watching the score tick by throughout, it feels like Arkansas worked pretty hard to lose this game. It even felt like they were gonna come back in OT and managed to gack it up anyway. Too bad, I really thought Arkansas had the array of talent needed to pull off some shockers.
Michigan 65-78 Auburn
Michigan's offense was just too sludge-y to hang with Auburn.
Purdue 60-62 Houston
Purdue was the veteran squad, the defending runner-up, that everyone thought had upset potential. Houston is typically not an offenseive dynamo, indeed their strengths are similar to Purdue. I guess that's why this game went so deep. But Cougars got the W.
Mississippi 70-73 Michigan State
Ole Miss was looking good early on, but they just couldn't sustain their offense and the Spartans slowly but surely took the lead and made it stand up.
Kentucky 65-78 Tennessee
UK was out of this game early, just couldn't get any offense going at all. The Vols were nice, certainly better, but the Cats had plenty of chances to get back in and just couldn't get buckets to hang. I was struck that all the curls, picks and movement that they employed so effectively against Illinois were not used here. Why not? Oh well. The Vols came to play and they played some rugged defense early on and established a clear lead early that they were able to ride out.
Elite Eight
Texas Tech 79-84 Florida
Tech hung tough, put it on Florida but the Gators got buckets late and Walter Clayton was the hero. Good game, Tech was the better team for the most part but the Gators found another gear late and stole it.
Alabama 65-85 Duke
Wow! I thought Alabama was one of the better teams this season and I thought they'd be a serious roadblock for Duke, but, man, Duke just pummeled them. Everyone was hitting shots and once the run began, the Tide got buried pronto and Duke cruised to the end. This was a towering performance by Duke--this is the moment where I just assumed Duke would win it all.
Tennessee 50-69 Houston
Not surprised by the result, I figured Houston would get past whoever they faced here, but they suffocated the Vols early and this game was long over by halftime. The Vols were good this year, perhaps a little overhyped, and while I didn't think they'd win, I didn't figure they'd get stomped in this manner. A dominant performance by the Cougars.
Michigan State 64-70 Auburn
The Spartans put up a game effort but Auburn was better throughout and finished strong. Michigan State kept it close but I really felt like this game wanted to be a blowout.
Final Four (all four #1 seeds for the first time since 2008; hardly any stunning upsets this year but it left the best of the best teams facing off at the end--turns out those are the best tourneys!)
Florida 79-73 Auburn
Auburn looked like the better team in the 1st half and built up a 12-point lead early in the 2nd half and it kinda felt like it was over. Then....Auburn did absolutely nothing from that point on and Florida was able to blast right through them. I thought Auburn was the single best team all season long (apologies to Duke, Houston and Florida) and the first 25 minutes or so of this game bore that out; but, then the scoring just completely stopped, Johni Broom never showed up, the hustle plays weren't effective any more and they spun their wheels badly down the stretch. Florida had been overcoming deficits all through the tourney, winning games late, so not a shock to see the Gators getting it done. But the Auburn collapse was so total, so complete that it made me wonder what I saw in them all year long.
Houston 70-67 Duke
All year long Houston's MO was a team that just grinds opponents down with intense D, superior rebounding and a never-quit attitude. Duke had a nice lead at halftime and pretty much dominated the game for about 30 minutes. Then the Dukies went cold as ice and Houston just kept making plays. The final two minutes were a slow motion horror show for Duke fans as Houston just kept getting bucket after bucket, big steals, all the rebounds, a few lucky calls (*), and when the clock ran out, Houston had the lead. One of the most mystifying conclusions I've ever seen--but, then again, when Kentucky beat Duke early in the season, I remember being similarly shocked, since it never occurred to me that Duke was gonna lose. Duke was arguably the best team all year long but the ACC was so soft this year and it is worth noting that 2 of their losses (Kentucky, Kansas) were the high profile games that they just couldn't finish, so....maybe this fate was in the cards all along for the Blue Devils.
Final
Florida 65-63 Houston
The Gators were able to do to the Cougars what Houston had just done to Duke. Well, sorta: whereas Duke snoozed through the last 10 minutes of the game thinking that their lead was good enough, here the Cougars just ran out of gas late and couldn't get buckets. Duke kinda stopped playing but Houston was just ineffective. Houston looked like the better team for most the game and when they hit an 8-point lead early in the 2nd half it felt like too much for the Gators to overcome--especially considering how little Walter Clayton had done up to that point. But Clayton got hot enough, Houston scuffled and the Gators made the plays down the stretch to steal it late--giving Houston a taste of their own medicine. Great W for the Gators, tough L for the Cougars, but the Cougars will be back next season, whereas I'm not sure about any of the rest of the Elite Eight.
(*) Some will cite the over the back foul on Cooper Flagg in the final minute, but go back at look at the play. Houston got the rebound and had the lead with no shot clock remaining, thus a foul was actually the right move at that moment anyway. You may not have liked the call but it was cerainly not in and of itself a killer mistake or controversy.
