The March Madness held the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight this weekend and it was awesome. Before this weekend the tournament felt kind of bland, but the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight made up for it.
The Sweet 16 showed us how dominant Auburn was by beating #1 seed UNC by 17 points. Also we witnessed Purdue and Tennessee go in overtime where Purdue would barely escape. Finally Duke gets lucky again when Ahmed Hill would miss a last second tip in to take the game into overtime. Duke almost lost in second round to UCF by having a last second shot, and escaped Sweet 16 with VT missing last second shot. The Sweet 16 was interesting, but the Elite 8 had us on the edges of our seats.
The Elite Eight consisted of #3 Texas Tech, #1 Gonzaga, #3 Purdue, #1 Virgina, #5 Auburn, #2 Kentucky, #2 Michigan St., and #1 Duke. Every game in the Elite Eight was decided by 6 points or less, and two of the four games went into overtime. We started first with Texas Tech and Gonzaga where Texas Tech was to much for Gonzaga. Texas Tech would take down the second #1 seed Gonzaga with a score 76-69.
The final game of Saturday night was between #3 Purdue versus #1 Virginia. Purdue late in the game looked like they were on their way to beating #1 Virginia, but Mamadi Diakite had other plans by putting a last second shot to take the game into overtime. Before overtime Carson Edwards had made 10 Three-pointers and put himself in the NCAA record book with Stephen Curry. But Virginia would win in overtime and advance to the final four with a score of 80-75
We started our Sunday afternoon with Auburn versus Kentucky. Auburn had come off beating Kansas, and UNC. But Auburn would be without their best player, Chuma Okeke. Auburn and Kentucky would go blow for blow and would need extra time to decide the winner. Auburn had a chance to win the game in regulation with the last second shot but missed. Jared Harper would be the go to man in overtime for Auburn by assisting or scoring 14 of 17 Tigers points in overtime. Auburn would beat Kentucky 77-71.
The final game of Sunday afternoon was between Duke and Michigan State. Could Duke barely get past another team to advance to the final four? Well Michigan State would have other plans in mind. You could noticed that Michigan State would try to keep Zion out of the paint when he was on defense because he is a force defender. Zion would end up with 24 points, but it came down to RJ Barrett at the free throw line. RJ missed the first free-throw and needed to miss this second but instead made it. Michigan State would go on to win the game off the back of Cassius Winston played all 40 minutes and recorded 20 points with 10 assist.
The final four will resume this Saturday with #5 Auburn taking on #1 Virginia, and #3 Texas Tech versus #2 Michigan. I predict we will be seeing Auburn taking on Michigan St. for the NCAA championship.
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