Sportz' NCAA Tournament Recap - Second Round, Day 2

Just a quick recap of what I saw in my Sportz Room -- filled with TVs that I can watch all four games going on at the same time.

GAME OF THE DAY: Arizona vs TCU. What a back and forth game down the stretch! The only overtime game of the day We had poster dunks, huge shots, huge rebounds and one of the national championship favorites hang on for dear life in San Diego. TCU fought hard to erase a 9-point lead late and had small leads in the closing moments but couldn't finish it off. Ben Mathurin poured in 30 while Christian Koloko added 28. They carried the Wildcats.

UPSET OF THE DAY: Iowa State vs Wisconsin.  Iowa State was 2-22 last year ... and just went into Milwaukee and upset 3-seed Wisconsin.  More on this game in a bit.

CONFERENCE OF THE DAY: ACC. The Big 12 had a mix bag with Iowa State and Texas Tech winning ... but Texas and TCU losing. The ACC saw Duke continue the Coach K retirement party while Miami took down the biggest seed on the day. Sure, Notre Dame ... a First Four team ... lost, but the Irish were in it until the very end. The ACC joins the Big 12 with three schools in the Sweet 16. Not bad for a league having a down year.

CONFERENCE WITH A BAD DAY: Big Ten. The Big Ten has woefully under-performed again. Four Big Ten teams lost today, led by Wisconsin's shocking loss ... in Milwaukee ... to Iowa State (who went 2-22 last year). Illinois was handled rather easily by Houston, while Michigan State blew a late lead by giving up a 20-6 run to end the game. Ohio State was game against Villanova, but ultimately fell, 70-60. 

DUD OF THE DAY: Iowa State vs Wisconsin. We actually were treated to eight really competitive games. The Cyclones win over the Badgers takes this spot because, well, the game really wasn't fun to watch. Final scores of 54-49 don't really capture the audience. Iowa State shot 34.5% for the game. Wisconsin shot 29.8%. The BADgers missed 20 of their 22 three point attempts (the Cyclones missed 11 of their 14 threes).

DOMINANT PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY: Miami vs Auburn. The Hurricanes led the entire way against Auburn, pulling away over the first 10 minutes of the second half. Isaiah Wong dunked on lottery pick Jabari Smith. Walker Kessler, for whatever reason, only played 13 ineffective minutes. 

UNDERLYING STORYLINE OF THE DAY: Big Ten's failure. I know it seems like I'm beating a dead horse, but it is rather amazing to see the Big Ten struggle yet again in the NCAA tournament. Last year, the Big Ten had a number of teams who had a good look at winning a national championship and they were picked off fairly early. The 2022 Big Ten lacked true title contenders, but had teams who could make a run at ending their 21 year championship drought. They still have Purdue (who is the top seed remaining in the East) and Michigan still alive, so they can still end that streak, but there can't be much confidence in the league come March..