This past weekend, everyone that watched the NCAA Tournament, whether for the 1st or the 50th time, understood why the NCAA Tournament is nicknamed “March Madness”.
This past weekend saw some of the most intense and thrilling basketball games that a person will see over the course of a year. This weekend also saw a lot of upsets, including a completely unforeseen victory for #15 seeded Middle Tennessee State against tournament darling, and #2 seeded Michigan State in the round of 64 that completely busted everyone’s bracket.
But the best day of games was, of course, saved for last. On Sunday, March 20, three games were decided by four points or less. The first of those games was the 6-14 round of 32 matchup between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks. That game was decided by one point on a game winning tip-in from Notre Dam forward Rex Pflueger to advance ND to the Sweet 16 for the second consecutive year.
The next games though proved to be even more exciting as #7 seeded Wisconsin took on #2 seeded Xavier and #3 seeded Texas A&M would battle #11 seeded Northern Iowa, who were already making memories coming off a round of 64 victory over Texas, thanks to a half-court buzzer beater.
The Wisconsin-Xavier game was a tough, contested game throughout that saw neither team jump out to a huge lead. This led to tense moments throughout, and made every play feel important.
The play would be decided on the final play of the game, where Wisconsin’s Bronson Koening would hit a buzzer beating fadeaway three from the corner to shock #2 Xavier, and Bill Murray, to advance to their 5th Sweet 16 in the past six seasons, becoming the only school in the nation to accomplish such a feat.
The next game was not as close. For most of the game, Northern Iowa used their great shooting ability to make this game feel like a blowout as they were constantly leading by double digits.
With just 35 secs left in the game, this game looked all but over as Northern Iowa had a 10 point lead. However, thanks to four forced turnovers on inbounds play, the Aggies would go on a 12-2 run in that 35 seconds to shock everyone and tie the game at 71, sending this game to overtime.
Texas A&M went on to win this game in double overtime, making their 12-2 run at the end of regulation the largest comeback win with under a minute left in college basketball history.
After a few hours to digest all the craziness that I watched over the past weekend, a few things stood out to me about the NCAA tournament. The first of these reactions is that the ACC is the best college basketball conference in the country.
While analysts have preached the Big 12 conference as the best and deepest conference in the land, when it mattered most, it was the ACC that shined through. The conference had six teams make it to the Sweet 16: North Carolina, Duke, Notre Dame, Syracuse, Virginia, and Miami (FL).
This is the first time in tournament history that a Sweet 16 was compromised of six teams from one singular conference.
The Big 12, the Pac-10, and the Big Ten cannot say that, and with the ACC only suffering one loss over the course of the weekend, a case can be made for the ACC being the best conference in college basketball.
Another reaction that I had was that the coaches, that are remaining, are a who’s who of coaches. While the NCAA tournament has its share of star players that are still competing in the second weekend, the coaches of these teams are even bigger stars in the sport.
Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boehiem, Bill Self; these are just a few of the names of legendary coaches that are still coaching in this tournament.
You then add to those names with other great coaches such as Mark Few, Mike Brey, and Jim Larrañaga, and this list doesn’t look like a list of coaches that are in the tournament, but a list of future college basketball Hall of Famers.
With such great coaches left in the tournament, look for more tightly contested matchups, as these coaches know how to get their teams ready for these upcoming big games.
A third reaction that I had is that we could be headed for some big time matchups later in the tournament. While the matchups that are about to take place are big in their own right, North Carolina-Indiana and Kansas-Maryland have plenty of storylines to make those games classics, we could be headed for potential dream matchups in the Final Four and national title game.
If Duke and Kansas can both survive their Sweet 16 and Elite 8 matchups, they will face off in the Final Four for the opportunity to get to the title game.
Regardless of who wins that game, the winner of that game could be in for another huge game, if North Carolina wins their Sweet 16, Elite 8, and Final Four matchups.
A Kansas-UNC or Duke-UNC national title game would not only be great television, but could potentially break cable television records for most watched college sporting event of all time.
John Romando
Senior News Editor
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