NCAA Second Round

The second round of the NCAA tournament certainly featured a lot less upsets than the first round, and once again the second day of games were far more entertaining than the first day. On Saturday, it was pretty much all chalk, the 12 seeds that everyone was rooting for both lost with Yale losing to Duke, and Arkansas Little Rock losing to Iowa State. Virginia, North Carolina, and Kansas all took care of their second round games, although UNC and KU had a much easier time than Virginia did. The only upset came when 11 seeded Gonzaga blew out 3 seed Utah 82-59, although I think that the only thing surprising about it was the way Gonzaga won. After all Gonzaga returned many important parts from last years team, which earned a 2 seed, and reached the Elite 8. The best game of the day, and one of the few actual competitive games came when  5 seed Indiana took down border rival and 4 seed Kentucky 73-67.

But like I said the real fun began on the second day, about half of the games were close, but there were still about 3 blowouts. Early on 2 seed Villanova embarrassed 7 seed Iowa 87-68, later on Syracuse easily took down the Cinderella team Middle Tennessee State 75-50. Finally Maryland ended Hawaii's hopes, winning 73-60, they will move on to play Kansas. 

One of the more exiting games of the day was #2 Oklahoma versus #10 VCU, where the Sooners won 85-81. The game looked like it was a blowout at first, as Oklahoma jumped out to a 21-7 lead, but VCU came back and challenged the Sooners down the stretch. The night games were certainly the best games with each game being decided by less than 5 points. First there was Notre Dame beating SFA on a last second tip in, even though Thomas Walkup had 21 points 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Then there was Oregon outlasting St. Joe's 69-64, they will advance on to play Duke. Then #7 Wisconsin beat #2 Xavier 66-63 on this buzzer beater. 

I think most people can agree though that the UNI-Texas A&M game could be the best of the tournament. #11 Northern Iowa had the game all but won with under a minute left, before the greatest collapse in possibly the history of college basketball. UNI was up by 12 on #3 Texas A&M with about 44 seconds left in regulation, but the combination of UNI's absolute collapse, and the intense pressure forced by Texas A&M  down the stretch took the game to overtime. This will be a game that will be a game that will be remembered forever in tourney history, and certainly in Iowa basketball history.