VOD Not Available
This video is not available.
Championship Week Day 3 Rewind: Irish Down Devils, Sooners Survive
Championship Week has been thrilling thus far, and Day 3 did not disappoint. Here's a rewind from the early madness, that saw plenty of action from start to finish.
March 11, 2016
Championship Week has been thrilling thus far, and Day 3 did not disappoint. Here’s a rewind from the early madness, that saw plenty of action from start to finish.
Thursday was the busiest day of Championship Week, boasting a blend of hopefuls taking on the teams that should already have their Big Dance card in order. Eight of the top 10 teams in the land were in action, and they all managed to make it to Friday.
That’s good for college basketball fans, who now get to look forward to seen a pile of marquee matchups before the weekend rolls around. Five games featuring top-25 showdowns will tip-off Friday, and though those might not have the NCAA Tournament implications some upsets have had, they still should make for some exciting basketball.
What we learned Thursday
Nobody is going to want to play Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament. At the very least, Duke doesn’t want anything to do with the Fighting Irish anytime soon.
Notre Dame shut down the Blue Devils in the second half to rally from a 16-point deficit to score an 84-79 OT win in the ACC Tournament. The victory gave the Irish their second win over the Blue Devils this season. Balance beat Duke’s one-man show. Grayson Allen dropped 27, but he also was harassed into 7-of-21 shooting. Moreover, Duke shot a paltry 34.2 percent as a team.
Norte Dame, meanwhile, saw all five starters score in double figures, and the Irish shot 50 percent from the field. Had the they taken care of the ball—Mike Brey’s team committed 18 turnovers—this one would have never hit overtime.
The Irish move on to battle North Carolina tonight, while Duke goes home and will wait for the selection committee to do its bidding.
The best man-to-man battle of the day came when Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield took on Iowa State’s Georges Niang. Well, there were other guys out there with them, but sometimes it didn’t seem like it.
Oklahoma won a 79-76 thriller, while Hield and Niang were the stars of the show. Hield went off on one of his explosive scoring runs, dropping in 39 points on 14-of-21 shooting, also grabbing nine rebounds to boot, to continue his amazing year. But Niang wasn’t about to let Hield go unanswered. The Cyclones’ leader stuffed the box score with 31 points, seven rebounds, five assists and a couple of blocks.
Hield was a little better and got a bit more support from his teammates to give the Sooners a win. Ultimately it was Iowa State’s sloppiness with the ball (18 turnovers) that was as painful as Hield’s shooting.
USC did itself few favors for Selection Sunday by falling behind early to Utah and eventually dropping an 80-72 decision. The Trojans still should be in, but their chances would have been a lot better had they knocked off a Utah team that is playing as well as it can at this point in the year.
USC now will have to sweat a little bit, although it should eventually be okay. The Trojans’ inability to control Utah’s frontline was an issue. USC continued its trend of just being a step behind in terms of skills to get over the hump and stake a claim as a quality team.
Oh, Iowa. Once upon a time, you were near the top of the rankings, playing with confidence and making Hawkeye fans believe that the good old days were here again.
But that feels like a long time ago.
The Hawkeyes continued to close the season looking like a drunk stumbling home on New Year’s Eve, losing their first game in the Big Ten Tournament, 68-66, to an Illinois team that just hasn’t been very good this year. The Fighting Illini went just 5-13 in the Big Ten this season, and they just aren’t very talented. Head coach John Groce could be on his way out, but that didn’t stop Illinois from pulling off one last hurrah.
Then again, this one was as much about Iowa as anything else. Jarrod Uthoff scored 21 points, and guard Peter Jok led the team with 29, but nobody else in the starting lineup made more than one basket, and Iowa got just 11 points off the bench. Illinois isn’t that good defensively; Iowa has checked out mentally.
Notebook
Butler didn’t do itself any favors by falling by 14 to Providence. The Bulldogs should still be in, but they have to hope there aren’t too many upsets on Friday or they really could be sweating on the bubble Sunday.
What to look forward to Friday
Indiana will take on Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament, a rematch of a game that featured one of the more impressive runs in college basketball this year.
The Hoosiers beat the Wolverines in Ann Arbor earlier this year, scoring an 80-67 win in a game that wasn’t that close. Indiana put on a clinic late in the first half and early in the second half, stringing together a 28-0 run that turned what had been a close game into a laugher.
Michigan needs to solidify its NCAA Tournament resume, and beating Indiana would go a long way. The Hoosiers are playing with a lot of confidence, but a hiccup isn’t out of the question considering they’ve never won the tournament.
LSU will take on Tennessee at 3 p.m. ET in the SEC Tournament, and this will be another opportunity for the Tigers and Ben Simmons to prove they deserve a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Simmons is a superstar, but he can’t do everything on his own, and he will run into a hungry Volunteers team that looked solid Thursday.
A win won’t put LSU in by any stretch, meaning they simply cannot afford to lose. Getting to 20 wins – the Tigers are at 18 right now – would be a big step in the right direction, which means LSU needs to get to Sunday.
Notre Dame knocked off Duke Thursday, and its reward was a battle with North Carolina. Can the Fighting Irish clean Tobacco Road? ND beat the Tar Heels earlier this year in an 80-76 thriller, and Notre Dame has the look of a team ready to go on a run. This is a dangerous game for UNC.
The two other big games on Friday come in the Big 12, where Baylor will take on Kansas, and in the Pac-12, where Arizona will battle Oregon. Both games feature teams (Baylor & Arizona) that are looking to make a statement against the programs that won their league regular-season titles (Kansas & Oregon), and they are looking to build some momentum for the postseason.
Kansas and Oregon, meanwhile, know they can’t afford a loss now and still feel comfortable about a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Kansas likely would hold onto one with a loss, and Oregon will have to win and have some other teams lose to have a shot at the top line, but both want to get to the weekend and will be ready to play.
