NCAA Tournament in Review

 

Photo by Greg Nelson/ Sports Illustrated

Wow, what a historic NCAA tournament we just witnessed... and in some of the least predictable ways possible. The favorites were knocked out of contention extremely early, Cinderella was spotted at all hours in the day over the course of two weekends, resumes were scarred or bolstered in single strokes. What a wild ride it was! Not going to go into too much depth on the games themselves, but we wanted to point out some fun anomalies and tidbits from all the madness. 

Congrats to the National Champion Connecticut Huskies! In a very evenly matched tourney across the board, they were consistently a dominant force. Let's jump into the rest of things though:

First Timers

-Shout outs to Florida Atlantic, San Diego State and Miami for all making their first ever Final Fours. FAU led by fourteen well into the second half over SDSU, but ultimately fell victim to a buzzer beater by Lamont Butler, ending their unlikely title aspirations. The Hurricanes fell very flat against a UCONN team that was simply a buzzsaw

-Farleigh-Dickinson notched their first ever NCAA tournament win, defeating #1 Purdue in what was easily the biggest upset. It didn't feel like a fluke in the moment however, with brilliant coaching and execution leading them over the heavily favored Boilermakers. They would fall in a valiant effort two days later at the hands of the previously mentioned Florida Atlantic Owls

-This is the first time ever a #1 seed did not advance to at least the Elite Eight, with Alabama falling to San Diego State and Houston losing to Miami in the Sweet Sixteen. Kansas fell in the round of 32 in a great back and forth with Arkansas. And we already have talked about Purdue's early exit...

-It wasn't just the one seeds floundering though. There's never been a Final Four to not feature a 1, 2 or 3 seed in it until this season. A 4-seed, two 5's and a 9 made up the field this season, the second highest sum of seeds in the Final Four ever

-Kevin Willard was the first coach for the University of Maryland to go to tourney in his first year with the team. Had a nice win over Bob Huggins and West Virginia too. Not anything of national note here, just love our Terps

Nothing New Here

-UCONN is back to national prominence after a brief hiatus of bad in the wake of Kevin Ollie. The usual powerhouse was 0-2 over the last six years in March Madness before a title run that saw them outscore opponents by an average of 20 points

-Mark Few was unable to finish the job once again. He's been a top 4 seed in March twelve times at Gonzaga, yet has only managed to make it to two championship games. He's 0-2 on the biggest stage and never made a Final Four outside of those two seasons. Clearly one of the best to ever do the thing, just can't get it done when it matters most.

-Shaka Smart's late season shortcomings. Smart stormed onto the scene in 2011, taking an unlikely Cinderella in VCU all the way to the Final Four in his first trip to the big dance. Since that improbable run, he's gone 3-9 in the postseason, failing to make it out of the first round six times. His second ranked Marquette team most recently fell in the round of 32, although they greatly outperformed expectations for the season

-Speaking of shortcomings...Nate Oats once again choked in the tourney. He allowed San Diego State to rally from a twelve point deficit without once stopping the clock to regroup with a time out. He couldn't get his blue chip star Brandon Miller going at any point and the top seeded Crimson Tide predictably sank. Even their big wins over Maryland and Texas A&M Corpus Christi left something to be desired, per the eye test

-And circling back to Marquette...Tom Izzo was the man to knock the #2 Golden Eagles out of the tourney, notching multiple new milestones in his brilliant career in the process. Prior to the victory, it was his 25th consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament. After the upset of Marquette, he surpassed Jim Boeheim for most wins as a lower seed in March, with sixteen. It also led to his fifteenth Sweet Sixteen appearance, tying John Calipari for the most of all time. What a career (Spartan Nation)

-Virginia falls to another low seed. What a weird ride it must be for Cavaliers fans...from being the first 1 seed to lose to a 16, to National Champions, COVID, losing to a 13 seed Ohio, missing the tournament outright and now a big L to Furman. In a game they literally threw away. Tony Bennett's job should be as safe as any in the country, but has the league figured him out?

-Another season full of hope comes crashing down for Purdue. We've seen this before...they couldn't shoot vs. Farleigh-Dickinson, their guards struggled against pressure and Zach Edey was completely neutralized as they fell to a team that didn't even win their conference. The Boilermakers have had their last three seasons ended by a 16, 15 and 13...not what you're looking for from a premiere university

Fun/Surprising Storylines

-Rick Barnes was also in the boat of postseason failure until Tennessee's mini-run to the Sweet Sixteen. His team was dealing with some major injuries and written off by many a pundit, so needless to say he actually delivered in the first two rounds. Loved seeing them whoop up on Duke.

-If you didn't know Arkansas coach Eric Musselman before the Kansas upset, you definitely knew him afterwards. After his Razorbacks pulled a miraculous comeback victory over #1 Kansas, he channeled his inner- Brandi Chastain to celebrate with the fans. It was an all-time celebration

-The three-point shot was terrible throughout the tournament. Overall, under 32% of threes were connected on (842/2641), with only the Michigan State-Kansas State shootout approaching 50% shooting. It was an abysmal showing, reflective of the state of the game as a whole: the dying interior game, accompanied by too many brick shows on the perimeter

-Loved seeing Princeton to Sweet Sixteen. The 15 seed pulled off upsets over Arizona and Missouri on their way to the second weekend, but certainly didn't look the part as underdogs, really taking it to each of the favorites 

-No 12 seeds won in the first set of games. I thought this was pretty uncommon, but it turns out it occurs more often than the hype leads one to believe. It also happened in 2018 and 2015, meaning every three to four years we get some chalk in that sector. Furman was the only 13 seed to secure a win this year, toppling #4 Virginia. The last time no 13-seed won a tournament game was in 2017

-Want to recognize the women's NCAA tournament as well! Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark were so much fun to watch in the big game, but it was really great action from the Elite Eight onward. Perhaps, like the men's game, we're seeing a rise in parity across the board. Are the days of 1 seeds cake walking to the finals behind us?

Stars

-Marquis Nowell was the undisputed darling of 2023's March Madness. The 5'8" senior went bonkers as he lead Kansas State to an elite eight exit, averaging 23.5 PPG and 13.5 APG on the way. His 20/19 performance against Michigan State was arguably the best of the whole tournament.

-UCONN's Adama Sanogo was a star in his own right on the Huskies improbable title run, averaging 19.7 points and 9.8 rebounds per game along the way. On top of the productivity, he was immensely efficient, shooting 50/72 (69.4%) from the field. He rightfully took home the honor for the tournament's Most Outstanding Player

-Nijel Pack was a force for the Hurricanes on the way to the Final Four, averaging 16.4 points per game. His highlight reel game was going 7-10 from three vs. Houston, helping lead Miami to a huge upset over the #2 overall seed

-Shoutout to the white boy! Penn State's Andrew Funk was an integral part of their first round dub over Texas A&M, going 8-10 from triple. It was the most threes he'd hit in a game all season. Unfortunately he only could hit two vs. the Longhorns, as the Nittany Lions were eliminated in round two

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@Choppinglines

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