Butler and West Virginia Have Made Another Surprise

Butler and West Virginia have made another surprise

Twins Hines

Butler and West Virginia both made big surprises to make another wacky tournament ending. West Virginia ended Kentucky winning streak while Butler beat Kansas St. Both of these teams weren’t expected to make it to the Final Four but they have proven that they are good enough.

Butler had to play against Kansas St., another favorite to go into the Final Four. Neither team showed that they were both good enough to win the National Championship. Butler had 20 turnovers and Kansas St was only 38%, this game was open for any team to take. Butler did win with their main guy to thank, Gordon Hayward. Hayward plays a guard and a forward making it hard to guard for the defense, he scored 22 points in this game but for defense he contributed one block and six rebounds. If they play against a team like Duke, then they are going to need to get a lot better especially on defense. Having as a team, only one block and, seven steals is not that good. Kansas St., had 13 turnovers while Butler made 20 turnovers, Butler was lucky that Kansas St., didn’t make each turnover a basket. Other teams wouldn’t let shot opportunities like these ones get away. Butler needs more shooting from more guys for example, Butler had two people shooting more than 10 points they were Gordon Hayward and Shelvin Mack. But Duke had three people shooting over 10 points in a win against Purdue. To play against the top teams, you need more shooting from your players. One thing, Butler doesn’t need to work on is Foul Shots they shot 70% of their foul shots in. Another thing is that when Butler was playing Kansas St., they moved the ball around wonderfully. They looked for the open player and used the shot clock. They didn’t rush a shot with 30 seconds left on the shot clock, they shots when they had a good luck.

West Virginia beat the number one seed Kansas in a huge game. West Virginia played very pose, they let the game play out and didn’t make amateur mistakes. They had the best game that I have seen them play which made the biggest difference was they got inside Kentucky’s head. They got steals, rebounds, forced fouls and made the right calls. West Virginia had control over the whole game; in the beginning they were down by a little but came back. They must have eaten the champion cereal Wheaties because they were there to win. Four of West Virginia players had more than 10 points and only one fouled out. Five steals and six blocks, in a big team effort. What helped West Virginia the most was that Kentucky was 12% on their three pointers while West Virginia was 43%. West Virginia might need work on their rebounding because they had nine offensive rebounds. When you play against great shooting teams, it’s important to have the ball as much as possible. So as a guy shoots, crash the boards. Joe Mazzulla really stepped up in this game; he had the best game of his career in one of the biggest games this season. West Virginia only had 12 turnovers and forced 16 turnovers for Kentucky.  West Virginia know has confidence into the next game and it will be great for the college to win the NCAA Tournament. It will be the first in school’s history! West Virginia is probably one of the best well-rounded teams because everyone contributes. If one person has a bad day shooting then he helps on the defensive side. If West Virginia plays the same way against any other team then no doubt about it, they will win the whole entire tournament.

Butler will play against the winner of the Michigan St. and Tennessee game. West Virginia will play against the Duke vs. Baylor game. Duke vs. Baylor in the Elite 8 is the same for the men’s and the woman’s tournament, the first time in tournament history. Some thing is working for both of these teams so they have to keep it up.