Top storylines from Day 2 of the NCAA Tournament: UConn’s pursuit of 3-peat is alive

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For the last few weeks, amid the predictable highs and lows his inconsistent team has navigated all season, UConn head coach Dan Hurley has spoken longingly about the prospect of competing in the NCAA Tournament. He was tired of the rugged physicality in the Big East, of the constant slugfests with St. John’s, Creighton and Marquette, of the highly scrutinized sparring sessions between himself and the league’s officials that seemed to occur on a nightly basis. The Big Dance, he believed, could usher in a breath of fresh air for both him and the program at large. It became one of Hurley’s go-to tropes after what felt like every game down the stretch.

And on some level, deep down inside, Hurley probably believed the things he was saying. There was enough basketball sense in his remarks about the differences in style of play between the Big East and the NCAA Tournament — not to mention the officiating — that logical conclusions about a potential uptick in performance from the Huskies could be reasonably drawn. An offense rooted in off-ball screening and executed by a team that is not overly physical should, in theory, perform better outside its conference street fights.

But some of what Hurley said was almost certainly wishful thinking given everything he knows about his flawed team. Many of the same issues that plagued UConn during a disastrous trip to the Maui Invitational in November are still bothering Hurley’s crew four months later: subpar ball handling, lack of depth at the guard positions, an inability to defend without fouling, problems inbounding the basketball against pressure defenses and inconsistent perimeter shooting. Not even the most favorable of whistles or desirable opponents in the NCAA Tournament were likely to assuage those prolonged maladies, nearly all of which reared their ugly heads in a gut-twisting win over ninth-seeded Oklahoma on Friday night, the 67-59 final score belying how tense the game really was.

Four UConn players were saddled with three fouls by the 12:10 mark of the second half, with Oklahoma entering the double bonus shortly thereafter. Three more players reached the three-foul threshold before the under-4 media timeout as the free-throw disparity mounted. Star players Alex Karaban, Liam McNeeley and Solo Ball combined to make just four of 18 attempts from 3-point range on a night when backup center Tarris Reed Jr. (12 points, seven rebounds) was arguably the team’s best offensive player. The Huskies turned the ball over 13 times compared to only 10 assists.

And yet with UConn’s pursuit of a three-peat on the verge of being extinguished by a second-half Sooner surge, Karaban stepped forward in exactly the way a two-time defending national champion should. He buried a critical 3-pointer with 3:40 remaining to extend the Huskies’ lead to four. He made a floater in the lane three possessions later to push that margin to six. He snagged a critical rebound when the Sooners missed a 3-pointer at the other end. He blocked a shot with 38 seconds left. He grabbed another rebound on UConn’s next defensive possession.

From the depths of despair, Karaban, who scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half, dragged UConn back to life and into the second round. Now the Huskies will face top-seeded Florida on Sunday for a spot in the Sweet 16.

Richard, Rick Pitino become first father-son duo to win NCAA Tournament games in same year

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For obvious reasons, the first-round matchup between No. 7 Marquette and No. 10 New Mexico was viewed as a showdown between two of the best lead guards in the country: Kam Jones and Donovan Dent. The former was a first-team All-Big East selection and averaged 19.3 points per game with 5.9 assists this season, propelling the Golden Eagles to 23 wins. The latter was a first-team All-Mountain West performer and earned the conference’s Player of the Year award after averaging 20.6 points and 6.4 assists per game, guiding the Lobos, who are coached by Richard Pitino, the son of St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino, to a second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. No first-round pairing had more star power at the point guard position than this one.

Yet for much of Friday’s game, Jones and Dent played peripheral roles given just how much attention each defense dedicated to the other team’s star. Together, they only combined for 20 points across the first 30 minutes of play, ceding the scoring responsibility to their teammates. For Marquette, small forward David Joplin ignited from 3-point range (6-for-10) en route to a game-high 28 points, his largest output since scoring 30 on Jan. 14. For New Mexico, center Nelly Junior Joseph owned the paint to the tune of 19 points and seven rebounds, making all five of his free-throws along the way.

But in a seesaw affair that featured three ties and 10 lead changes, the biggest moments still boiled down to the biggest stars. And when it mattered most — with a berth in the Round of 32 on the line and a potential matchup with second-seeded Michigan State — it was Dent who rose to the occasion. Beginning at the 8:27 mark of the second half, Dent scored 11 points and dished out three assists in the span of seven minutes to transform a tied game into a double-digit lead for the Lobos. It was an explosion of near-flawless execution that Jones couldn’t match, evidenced by two missed jumpers, two personal fouls and one turnover during that same stretch — though he did chip in five points.

The late-game flurry from Dent was all New Mexico needed to push ahead and never look back, polishing off the Golden Eagles with a 75-66 win. There are now two Pitinos in the Round of 32.

Vanderbilt’s loss to Saint Mary’s puts SEC depth into question

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The SEC was dealt another blow on Friday afternoon when 10th-seeded Vanderbilt squandered a double-digit lead against seventh-seeded Saint Mary’s and fell, 59-56, in the Round of 64. A pair of desperation heaves from 3-point range by the Commodores both went awry in the last 13 seconds as head coach Mark Byington’s team tried frantically to force overtime. 

The final attempt from Devin McGlockton was plucked out of the air by Gaels guard Jordan Ross just before the buzzer expired, propelling Saint Mary’s into a second-round matchup with No. 2 Alabama on Sunday. The Crimson Tide barely staved off 15th-seeded Robert Morris earlier in the day.

With Vanderbilt’s loss, the SEC fell to 5-5 in this year’s NCAA Tournament after receiving a record number of bids — 14 — that reflected the selection committee’s belief in the conference. (Ole Miss held off North Carolina soon after, to give the SEC a 6-5 record.) But thus far, through a day and a half of games, there has been little to suggest that teams from the league’s middle and bottom tiers were any better than the rank-and-file programs from other conferences. 

Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Arkansas have all advanced to the Round of 32, but four of those teams were seeded among the top 16 teams in the bracket and played favorable opponents. The quintet of SEC teams seeded near the middle of this year’s field has proven far less successful: Ninth-seeded Georgia, eighth-seeded Mississippi State, sixth-seeded Missouri, 11th-seeded Texas and the 10th-seeded Commodores all lost, with three of those teams beaten by opponents from outside the power conferences (Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s, Drake).

Saint Mary’s became the second school from the West Coast Conference to oust an SEC opponent, following in the footsteps of Gonzaga on Day 1 of the tournament. Though the Bulldogs are an 8-seed in this year’s field, their predictive metrics are in keeping with a team ranked among the top 10 or 15 overall. KenPom still views Gonzaga as the seventh-best team in the country despite a 26-8 overall record that, unless head coach Mark Few guides his team to a national title, will finish with the program’s highest single-season loss total since 2011. In other words, this isn’t necessarily a vintage Gonzaga team — and yet, the Bulldogs still built a 27-3 lead over Georgia to begin Thursday’s game.

So while it’s still too early to draw any definitive conclusions about the SEC — especially considering how many high seeds the league received, all of whom are still alive — questions about the depth are beginning to mount. And at this point, after yet another mid-table team went down to a small-conference opponent, those inquiries are more than fair.

First “upset” of the day belongs to Colorado State

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For the second time in as many days, the NCAA Tournament produced a popular 12-5 upset with Colorado State taking down Memphis on Friday afternoon thanks to an explosive second half, especially from beyond the arc. Sophomore guard Kyan Evans, who entered the game shooting 43.1% from 3-point range, set new career highs with 23 points and six triples to help the Rams erase a narrow halftime deficit. His first 3-pointer of the second half knotted the game at 48-48 with 15:02 remaining, and then Evans drilled back-to-back triples a few minutes later as Colorado State surged in front by 10. At that moment, the Rams were plus-21 from 3-point range with Memphis making just three of its first 15 attempts and finishing 6-for-23 overall — an unexpected development for a team that ranked 19th nationally in 3-point shooting at 38% this season.

But the end result — a 78-70 victory for Colorado State — was hardly unexpected considering the circumstances surrounding Friday’s game. The Tigers were without star guard Tyrese Hunter (13.7 points and 3.6 assists per game) after he suffered a left foot injury in the conference tournament, reducing head coach Penny Hardaway’s team to just two scorers averaging more than 10.4 points per game. That injury, coupled with a soft schedule in the AAC, left many surprised that Memphis was seeded so highly on Selection Sunday, with many bracketologists handing the Tigers a 7- or 8-seed, if not lower. All of that was enough for oddsmakers to tab Colorado State, which had won 10 consecutive games entering the NCAA Tournament, as the betting favorite despite the discrepancy in seeding. This is the third time in the last four years that head coach Niko Medved has guided the Rams to the Big Dance.

And it’s quite possible that the Rams will have some staying power in this year’s tournament as they prepare to face the winner of No. 4 Maryland and No. 13 Grand Canyon. Medved’s team is one of the most balanced in the country with an offense that ranks 50th nationally in efficiency and a defense that ranks 53rd. Four different players scored at least 12 points in Friday’s win over Memphis, led by Evans’ outburst, and the Rams finished with 14 assists on 24 made field goals. The defense, meanwhile, limited the Tigers to just 34.5% shooting in the second half and only committed seven fouls after the break.

Colorado State is now seeking the program’s first Sweet 16 appearance since 1969.

SEC’s struggles continue as Baylor holds off Mississippi State

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What began as a record-setting week for the SEC, which sent 14 teams to this year’s Big Dance, the most in NCAA Tournament history, continued to slip toward disappointment on Friday afternoon when No. 8 Mississippi State fell short against No. 9 Baylor in the first game of Day 2. The Bulldogs’ 75-72 loss dropped the SEC to 4-4 in March Madness and invited questions about the true strength of the league relative to the rest of college basketball. That No. 2 Alabama barely survived against No. 15 Robert Morris shortly thereafter — with the Crimson Tide only pulling away in the final minutes for a 90-81 victory — provided even more fuel to critics.

While there’s nothing inherently catastrophic about losing an 8 vs. 9 matchup, the nature of Mississippi State’s defeat to Baylor sounded a few alarm bells. The Bulldogs surrendered 15 offensive rebounds, which led to 22 second-chance points for the Bears, with each extra possession further deflating Mississippi State’s cause. Such a glaring difference in physicality between a middle-of-the-pack Big 12 squad in Baylor and Mississippi State, winners of five games against fellow SEC teams in the NCAA Tournament, is something to watch in the coming days.

On Thursday, the SEC teams produced a relatively disappointing showing that began to raise concerns. The league scored wins over Alabama State, Kansas, Wofford and Yale — three of which are from outside the power conferences — but suffered losses to Gonzaga, Xavier and Drake, a team that starts four former Division II players under first-year head coach Ben McCollum. The relative ease with which Drake pulled away from No. 6 Missouri for a controlled 67-57 victory was eye-catching in the wake of the Tigers’ wins over Florida and Alabama during the regular season.

There could be several more losses on the horizon for the SEC throughout the remainder of Friday’s action. Ninth-seeded Oklahoma, which takes on eighth-seeded UConn; 10th-seeded Vanderbilt, which will play seventh-seeded Saint Mary’s; and sixth-seeded Ole Miss, which faces 11th-seeded North Carolina, are all betting underdogs in their respective matchups.

Michael Cohen covers college football and college basketball for FOX Sports. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_Cohen13.

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