Who knows what’ll happen next
NCAA TOURNAMENT: A quick recap of the wild and wacky first two rounds of Madness
It is going to be awfully difficult to top the wild finishes, massive upsets and historic comebacks of the first two rounds of this NCAA tournament.
You can bet the 16 remaining teams will try, but here’s a sampling of what went down and where we are as a result:
The facts
The Vegas favourite, Michigan State, was stunned in its opener.
Records were either set or tied for victories by underdogs or doubledigit seeds.
Most of the luck ran out in the second game for the biggest underdogs.
We saw the biggest comeback with less than one minute to play in college basketball history, with Texas A&M erasing a 12-point deficit in the final 35 seconds and change on Sunday night to force overtime, before winning in double-overtime.
Northern Iowa Coach Ben Jacobson knows he’ll be on the wrong side of history forever.
“Thirty seconds that we aren’t going to be able to ever have an answer for,” Jacobson said in the stunning aftermath.
This after only making that game thanks to one of the more memorable buzzer-beaters of the past several years in the previous game.
The previous mark was UNLV’s rally against San Diego State from an 11-point deficit with 59 seconds remaining in 2005.
What else? Xavier became the first No. 2 to lose on a buzzer-beater since Christian Laettner’s unforgettable miracle turnaround sent Duke past Kentucky in the 1992 Elite Eight.
A team hit one three-pointer — on 18 attempts — and still won the game. Oregon missed 18 threes — and also won.
Legendary Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan stepped down earlier in the season and his team barely made the tournament, before getting two clutch three-pointers from struggling Bronson Koenig to tie and then win the game on Sunday.
Syracuse was in a similar situation, with Jim Boeheim set to leave after this season and most questioning its invitation to this tournament after losses in five of six games before its conference tournament. But the Orange has looked dominant, completely throwing off opponents with its 2-3 zone defence once again.
The results
All four No. 1 seeds advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2012, but the slightly lesser favourites didn’t fare nearly as well, with only two No. 2 seeds and two No. 3 seeds also getting through.
Six teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference are in the Sweet 16, a record for one conference (the ACC sent five last year, the Big East five in 2009). That said, the ACC teams didn’t have to face any powerhouses.
onzaga is the only school not from a major conference remaining. The 15 big-time schools left is the most since 1975.
Oregon is the only PAC-12 squad left standing from seven to start March Madness.
Canadian content
There were 19 active Canadians in the field when the tournament started (two were on rosters but injured).
There are now six healthy Canadians left — Oregon’s Dillon Brooks and Chris Boucher; Gonzaga’s Kyle Wiltjer and Dustin Triano, Virginia’s Marial Shayok and Oklahoma’s Dinjiyl Walker.
The best Canadian performances so far have come from Brooks (25 points in a win over Saint Joe’s on Sunday, 11 points, six rebounds and five assists in a win over Holy Cross), Stefan Jankovic (16 points and five rebounds in Hawaii’s upset win over California), Jamal Murray (19 points and seven rebounds in Kentucky’s win over Stony Brook), Shayok (12 points and three rebounds in Virginia’s second-round win over Butler) and Boucher (20 points and five rebounds in Oregon’s first win).
Brooks said late Sunday that he and his teammates just weren’t ready for the season to come to an end yet.
“Our guys banded together and we just got it done,” Brooks said.
“With five minutes left, it was really scary. We’re a confident group. We worked so hard in the off-season that our season couldn’t be done.”
Simmons turns pro
To the surprise of nobody, LSU freshman star Ben Simmons said Sunday he will hire an agent and enter the NBA Draft.
The Australian forward had one of the best statistical seasons in NCAA history (19.2 points, 11.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game) but he couldn’t lead his team into the tournament.
Duke freshman Brandon Ingram is considered his competition to go No. 1 overall in June.
Around the rim
Oregon, known more as a football school, is making just its fourth appearance in the Sweet 16. The team had been averaging just shy of 85 points a game during its ninegame winning streak, but could manage only 69 against Saint Joseph’s ... After getting 13 wins in the first round, the lower seeds only won three in the second.