The second weekend of the NCAA Tournament is officially in the books as the final four is just days away in Indy. But before we get there, here is the good, the bad, and the ugly from the second weekend of March Madness for the Big 12 Conference.
The Good
Arizona
There was only one Big 12 team that made it out of the second weekend, and it was the Arizona Wildcats. In fact, they are just one of two one-seed teams to make it to the final four, which is crazy after what happened a year ago.
The Wildcats started the Sweet Sixteen with an easy 21-point victory over a scrappy Arkansas team led by Darius Acuff Jr. Despite Acuff Jr. going off in that game, Arizona put up a whopping 109 points in that game as the Hogs had no answer for the Wildcats’ shooting 64% from the floor and 63% from three. It looked like an NBA game, and Arizona ran them out of the gym.
Then, in the Elite Eight matchup against Purdue, Arizona had yet another double-digit win, but that one was much closer. While the Wildcats didn’t shoot nearly as well as they did against Arkansas, they dominated the point, outscoring Purdue 40 to 24. It also helped that four of their five starters were in double digits. Now it’s on the final four to face Michigan, which is coming off a huge win against Tennessee.
The Bad
Iowa State
There’s no shame in losing in the Sweet Sixteen, but it’s tough to go down to a team that is four seeds lower than you. But I must give credit to Tennessee because they outrebounded Iowa State to the point where it wasn’t even funny. The Volunteers dominated the glass, and the Cyclones had no answer.
Typically, Iowa State can rely on Milan Momcilovic to put up at least 20 points, but that wasn’t the case in that game. He had one of his worst shooting performances all season long as Iowa State shot just 28% from deep, which is rare.
While Tamin Lipsey and Nate Heise came up clutch, nobody else on the team really contributed much offensively. When you combine that with the poor free-throw shooting, getting outrebounded badly, and not having an All-American injured, that is a recipe for disaster.
The Ugly
Houston
It’s tough for me to watch a team like Houston struggle so much against a team that they are clearly better than. No disrespect to Illinois, but Houston was the superior team coming into that game, and unfortunately, they didn’t play like it last week.
The Cougars rely on a ton of jump shots and to simply put it, their shots weren’t falling at all. They shot just 34% from the floor and an abysmal 28% from three. I don’t care who you play because you aren’t going to win many games shooting that poorly.
Star freshman Kingston Flemmings had an off night, and Emmanuel Sharp was the only other reliable scoring option for the Cougars. What’s crazy is that they were so bad in the first half that I thought that there was no way they could shoot that poorly again, and I was wrong.
It was neck and neck going into halftime, and then Illinois went on a miraculous 17-0 run that Houston never could quite come back from. It was tough to watch, and it just feels like this team had more to give than what we saw against Illinois.
