This year’s big dance hasn’t featured a ton of big time upsets or buzzer beater shots. But it has provided a ton of close games and a handful of surprising upsets.
Saturday’s action provided a lot of insight onto what we learned from the teams that advanced and the ones that have everything going for them and at the right time.
Purdue Is Playing On Fire
After taking care of the Conference USA Champs, Purdue went in and rolled the reigning NCAA Champs. Villanova’s big flaw has been the scoring outside of Phil Booth and Eric Paschall.
That was exposed in this game as outside of Booth, Paschall, and Samuels, Villanova only scored 16 Points. Carsen Edwards is in his prime as he went 12-21 from the field and scored 42 Points to go along with 6 Rebounds.
Purdue dominated the glass (37-22) and was able to pass the ball around as they had 19 assists on 29 made shots. Purdue is probably the hottest team in the tournament and dominated a Villanova team that was playing really good heading into the contest.
Gonzaga on Upset Alert In The Sweet 16?
If Purdue had the most impressive performance of Saturday, Florida State is a very close 2nd. That might be trouble for Gonzaga as while winning and playing well, Gonzaga did show some flaws in their contest against Baylor.
While F Brandon Clarke was clearly the spark offensively, the guards weren’t able to get going. Zach Norvell and Josh Perkins while played well, were inefficient for parts of the game as they finished for a combined 6-17 from the field. The weakness for Baylor was the physical presence down low and that is something Florida State absolutely has.
7’4 Mfiondu Kabengele will be a physical presence and will be tough for Rui Hachimura and Brandon Clarke in this contest.
FSU was also able to stifle Murray State and Ja Morant as he finished 8-21 from the field and scored half a 100 in the first half against the Racers. Outside of Morant, Murray State couldn’t get anything going offensively and could not stop Terance Mann.
With Terance Mann being another threat that can drive and score, FSU has a really good chance of advancing to the elite 8 with the defensive presence they have down low that could give the best offense in the nation some serious issues in this contest.
Auburn’s Win Isn’t As Impressive As Most Think
Auburn is getting a ton of love for their big win over Kansas. It was a good win for Auburn, but the win isn’t as catastrophic as some think.
This Kansas team isn’t the same KU team we’ve seen over the past 14 seasons, and it’s not because of the streak being broken. Coming into this game, all 9 of Kansas’s losses were either away games or neutral site contests.
Kansas was 16-0 at home and when away, they are a different team. Losing Azubuike has clearly rattled this team and with young players on the court against a bunch of 21-22 year olds in Auburn, it was an easy matchup for the Tigers.
Auburn drilled 13 3’s in the conference as they were unconscious from the field (especially in the first half) as they were up 26 heading into halftime.
Assuming North Carolina takes care of Washington, they are the opposite of Kansas in many ways, as they have quite a bit of experience and have won big time games on the road (something KU struggled to do all year long).
LSU/Michigan State matchup has a legit shot at beating Duke
According to many, Duke looked to have a cakewalk to the Final 4 with very few flaws in their games. The winner of the LSU/Michigan State game may have their best chance of doing just that.
LSU played a back and forth tight game against Maryland and ended up with a game winning layup from G Tremont Waters. Naz Reid could have the tall task of facing against Zion Williamson.
From a Guard perspective, I would take LSU’s over Duke’s. But the bigs down low with Naz Reid and Bigby-Williams, as well as forcing Duke to shoot a ton of 3’s will be the two keys to success for the Tigers.
For Michigan State, It will be a bit more tougher as they don’t start a tall lineup and tend to turn the ball over quite a bit (20 times in their contest against Minnesota).
They rebound the ball really well for their height, but LSU sizes up to Duke a little bit better than Michigan State, which is why LSU has the best chance to face Duke and a legitimate shot at beating the Blue Devilts.
