Just a quick recap of what I saw in my Sportz Room -- filled with TVs that I can watch all games going on at the same time.
GAME OF THE DAY: Alabama vs North Carolina. The Tar Heels became the first No. 1 seed to go down. This was a weird game filled with runs by both teams with unlikely heroes presenting themselves. ACC Player of the Year RJ Davis was an awful 4-of-20 from the field and missed all nine of his three point attempts. More on that in a bit. But this was a track meet all night long with Alabama feeling more comfortable playing that style.
UPSET OF THE DAY: Clemson vs Arizona. Clemson is still alive after taking the fight to Arizona and coming out on top. What may be the most impressive thing about the Tigers win is the fact that they never folded whenever Arizona made a run. Clemson would get a nice lead and then the Wildcats stormed back. But the Tigers would make a key shot or key defensive possession that kept them ahead and they're making their first Elite 8 appearance since 1980.
CONFERENCE OF THE DAY: Big East. UConn's expected win makes the conference 7-0 for the tournament. Marquette and Creighton are on tap for Friday.
CONFERENCE WITH A BAD DAY: Pac-12. And so it ends. The "Conference of Champions" saw their final remaining team lose on Thursday. The Arizona Wildcats went down to Clemson, meaning that league hasn't won a national championship since 1997 (Arizona). If you haven't heard, the conference will be very different next season. Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Arizona State are leaving for the Big 12. UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington are heading to the Big Ten. Cal and Stanford are grabbing an invite to the ACC. That leaves Oregon State and Washington State trying to hold on to whatever is left of the conference ... which may be nothing more than assets earned over the years. Who knows what the league looks like if it exists past a two-year grace period starting next year. It's really sad to see a once mighty and proud conference implode like this.
DUD OF THE DAY: UConn vs San Diego State. The only game of the night that wasn't competitive, the rematch of last year's national championship game truly was. UConn dominated the Aztecs.
DOMINANT PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY: UConn vs San Diego State. Three games tonight were close, and this wasn't one of them. The Huskies look unbeatable right now.
UPSET OF THE DAY: Clemson vs Arizona. Clemson is still alive after taking the fight to Arizona and coming out on top. What may be the most impressive thing about the Tigers win is the fact that they never folded whenever Arizona made a run. Clemson would get a nice lead and then the Wildcats stormed back. But the Tigers would make a key shot or key defensive possession that kept them ahead and they're making their first Elite 8 appearance since 1980.
CONFERENCE OF THE DAY: Big East. UConn's expected win makes the conference 7-0 for the tournament. Marquette and Creighton are on tap for Friday.
CONFERENCE WITH A BAD DAY: Pac-12. And so it ends. The "Conference of Champions" saw their final remaining team lose on Thursday. The Arizona Wildcats went down to Clemson, meaning that league hasn't won a national championship since 1997 (Arizona). If you haven't heard, the conference will be very different next season. Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Arizona State are leaving for the Big 12. UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington are heading to the Big Ten. Cal and Stanford are grabbing an invite to the ACC. That leaves Oregon State and Washington State trying to hold on to whatever is left of the conference ... which may be nothing more than assets earned over the years. Who knows what the league looks like if it exists past a two-year grace period starting next year. It's really sad to see a once mighty and proud conference implode like this.
DUD OF THE DAY: UConn vs San Diego State. The only game of the night that wasn't competitive, the rematch of last year's national championship game truly was. UConn dominated the Aztecs.
DOMINANT PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY: UConn vs San Diego State. Three games tonight were close, and this wasn't one of them. The Huskies look unbeatable right now.
UNDERLYING STORYLINE OF THE DAY: The "Caleb Love Game" isn't happening. As soon as the brackets were announced, CBS's Seth Davis already began talking about a possible "Caleb Love Game" if Arizona and North Carolina met in the West Region Final. Love, the Pac-12 Player of the Year at Arizona, spent his first three college seasons at North Carolina where he hit one of the biggest shots in program history against Duke in the 2022 Final Four. Last season, it was clear that Love and Tar Heel backcourt partner RJ Davis weren't working well together. Love was pretty much told that transferring out may be best for everyone ... and it was. Love became the top player in the Pac-12 and Davis gained the freedom to grow and became the ACC Player of the Year. So a matchup of the two would've made for great theater in the West final ... but it won't happen. Love's Wildcats and Davis' Heels were upset in Los Angeles by Clemson and Alabama, respectively. Love went 5-of-18 from the field; Davis went 4-of-20. Both missed all nine of their three point attempts, making their box score 9-of-38 from the field and 0-18 from three. Proclaiming these things to happen are always premature, but it is so odd that both were this close to making it happen and both played awful in the game leading up to it.
No comments:
Post a Comment