I was distracted a bit in the second half, but I watched in dismay as the Bears built their lead. I am in some disagreement over the size disparity because Baylor did not have that much an advantage especially among the starting five. I wonder if a bigger problem was the altitude of Denver? Baylor is in the Big 12 which has several schools at an elevation of over 1000 feet, whereas UCSB plays most of its games at closer to sea level. Maybe the Gauchos ran out of gas, namely oxygen gas.
This is perhaps the biggest upset ever in tournament history. FD only won 4 games last year and is the smallest team in D1 basketball and they just totally outplayed one of the tallest teams in D1 basketball and the overall #1 seed in the tournament. Never underestimate how much desire and heart plays in this game!
I watched the whole second half and it seemed like Purdue was playing at half speed. Their big center kept bringing the ball down and getting stripped, part of the Boilermakers 16 turnovers that offset a 43-33 rebounding edge. The whole half I watched, Purdue could not figure out the Knights defense and missed a hole lot of 3s, (5/26) shooting late. FDU was not that great on offense, but they just out-hustled Purdue.
With UCSB out, my tendency is to root for the far west teams, of which St. Mary's, Gonzaga, UCLA, Arizona State (at least as I write this), and San Diego State are still alive. Beyond that I'll jump on the Cinderella (Furman, Princeton, FDU) bandwagon if any of them make it to the Sweet 16.
I watched most of the first half and Caleb was on the floor most of the time, although not much of the offense. Did he play much in the second? Seems like his stat line didn’t really change
I was switching back and forth between games but I didn't see him playing in the second half. MS had a great season and he got to play in the tournament so he had a good experience playing with them.
Carill was great at designing intricate back-door plays and coaching his players to run them with great precision. That's one of those things that the 3-point shot has crippled.
i was just seeking the Big West message boards, and guys are starting to hit the portal. UCSD, CP, CSUN and Bake have been hit hard so far, especially Poly and UCSD.
I note that Ezra scored 18 against Yale, then 17 against Michigan as Vanderbilt gets closer to the NIT final four. They play UAB tomorrow in a game broadcast on ESPN2.
Nice to see a west coast team make it to the Championship game. This is only the fifth time that has happened this century (Arizona, 2001; UCLA, 2006 and Gonzaga twice recently) and the eighth since UCLA's run under John Wooden. I'm not sure why the west has been so weak for the past 50 years, because way back when, Stanford, Oregon, Cal, Utah, Wyoming, and USF all won titles in addition to all the UCLA championships.
LSU vs Iowa women's game is insane, shooting off the charts. LSU bench player 5 for 5 from deep. 56-42 at the half. Shooting off the charts, amazing passing. Exciting game. 75% and 55% from 3 (LSU / Iowa). Probably the best women's game I've ever seen.
between the LSU win over Iowa, and Iowa’s win over a really good South Carolina team in the semis, the women’s tournament has had some fantastic games.