Men's NCAA Tournament 2023: Sunday's Elite Eight Winners and Losers
The Final Four for the 2023 men's NCAA tournament is set, and it took a pair of dramatic Elite Eight games on Sunday to get us to the wholly unpredictable quartet of No. 4 Connecticut, No. 5 Miami, No. 5 San Diego State and No. 9 Florida Atlantic.
We'll now have a long week to try to figure out what to expect when those forces converge in Houston to determine a champion, but let's first take a look back at the winners and losers of the day.
San Diego State and Miami were the no-brainer winners. Both teams (and FAU) pulled off Elite Eight upsets to make it into their first-ever Final Four. (SDSU was the higher seed, but it was a slight underdog.)
But the Aztecs and Hurricanes weren't the only winners, nor were Creighton and Texas the only losers.
Winner: San Diego State Makes First Final Four
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What a year of firsts it has been on the East/South half of the 2023 men's bracket.
Florida Atlantic was the big one, making the Final Four after having never previously won an NCAA tournament game.
But given its unflattering history in March, San Diego State's run to the Final Four might be even more difficult to comprehend.
The Mountain West's struggles in the NCAA tournament have been well-documented. Until two days ago, the league had never put a team into the Elite Eight, let alone the Final Four. And at least in recent years, it was often these Aztecs underperforming in the dance.
Dating back to 2010, this was San Diego State's eighth time making the tournament as a No. 8 seed or better, and its 10th trip to the dance overall during that time.
All it had to show for it was a 6-9 record and a bunch of early exits.
In fairness, the only year the Aztecs were "supposed" to make the Elite Eight was in 2011, when they earned a No. 2 seed with Kawhi Leonard leading the way. Unfortunately for that squad, the No. 3 seed in that region was Connecticut with Kemba Walker, and we all know how that went.
At some point, though, you'd think this defense would have been able to actually win a game against a quality opponent. But they couldn't, losing five games against teams seeded No. 6 or better, plus a pair of losses to No. 11 seeds, a loss to a No. 9 seed that we'll discuss in a bit and that infamous loss to No. 15 Florida Gulf Coast in 2013.
At long last, they finally broke the drought in Friday's win over No. 1 seed Alabama before eking out a 57-56 win over No. 6 Creighton that neither program will ever forget.
Loser: Shot-Making in the Second Half of SDSU-Creighton
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Defense wins championships, and San Diego State plays defense about as well as any team.
Per usual, I might add. This has been one of the nation's top 10 defenses more often than not over the past 13 seasons.
But there's a fine line between "great defense" and "for the love of Pete, could someone please make a shot in this game?"
And the second half of the South Regional final very much fell into the latter category.
There was no lid on the hoop for the first 20 minutes. The teams shot a combined 27-of-56 (48.2 percent) in a physical but clean first half. It was refreshing after the way Keyontae Johnson and Drew Timme got multiple early whistles Saturday night; the first half had no player on either team assessed more than one foul.
After that, though, it was brick city.
Creighton and San Diego State shot a combined 8-of-41 (19.5 percent) from the field in the first 11-plus minutes of the second half.
Five of the eight makes were layups or dunks, but even those weren't sure things.
Creighton's Ryan Kalkbrenner—who entered the game as the nation's leader in true-shooting percentage—missed not one, not two, not three, not four, but five point-blank shots in that span. Three of those were blocked by Nathan Mensah, but it was unreal to see the 7'1" center repeatedly missing shots right at the rim.
There were at least some big shots made down the stretch. Heck, there were only five defensive rebounds in the final 6:50 of regulation.
But the only people who enjoyed the "third quarter" of this game were the under bettors.
Winner: Revenge Best Served Cold (and Controversially)
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We previously mentioned San Diego State's propensity for early exits.
One of those came last year at the hands of Creighton.
The Aztecs led that No. 8 vs. No. 9 first-round matchup by nine points with three minutes remaining, but they were held scoreless the rest of the way—including Matt Bradley missing a massive late free throw that sent the game to overtime—resulting in yet another painful loss for this program.
But San Diego State had its revenge on the Bluejays in a much bigger game, fittingly winning on a late free throw.
The Aztecs did almost give the game away again, though.
The sideline out-of-bounds play that resulted in a Baylor Scheierman steal and game-tying layup with 32 seconds remaining was an all-timer of a terrible play. They had already burned one timeout trying to get the ball in and really should have used another.
Instead, San Diego State drew something up where no one came to the ball, and the only option was to try to lob it over Ryan Kalkbrenner's out-stretched arms and under the Creighton hoop to a well-defended Micah Parrish. Disastrous on every level.
They still had the ball in a tie game, though, and Darrion Trammell was able to get to the free-throw line on a highly controversial foul call with 1.2 seconds remaining.
Ryan Nembhard bumped Trammell as he went up for the shot. No question about it. But after everything the referees let slide for the first 39 minutes and 59 seconds, let's just say it was a bold decision to blow the whistle on that nickel-dimer.
Trammell missed the first free throw, giving Creighton fans hope for yet another overtime victory over the Aztecs. But he drained the second, and Scheierman's desperation baseball pass was knocked out of bounds as time expired on a San Diego State win.
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Loser: Texas' Second Half Against Miami
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The transition from the second half of Creighton-San Diego State to the first half of Texas-Miami was downright jarring.
Instead of two teams hopelessly incapable of making anything, the Longhorns and Hurricanes had forgotten how to miss a shot. Miami shot 64 percent from the field yet trailed by eight at the intermission because Texas was on fire from distance (7-of-13) and out-worked the 'Canes on the glass.
But while Miami got even hotter after the break, Texas' offense crumbled.
The Longhorns had an impeccable 14-4 assist-to-turnover ratio in the first 20 minutes, but that devolved into a 6-10 disaster in the second half.
It wasn't point guard Marcus Carr, though. He did have one brutal turnover in the final minute, but that was his only giveaway during an otherwise solid performance (17 points, six assists). It was everyone else coughing up the ball, having a world of trouble dealing with Miami's active hands.
Still, Texas should have won the game.
Even with a bunch of early giveaways in the second half, it had extended its lead from 45-37 to 65-53 with less than 11 minutes remaining.
That's when the defense imploded, though.
We talked all tournament about Texas' Jekyll and Hyde defense. They had been Jekyll through the first three games, but when would Hyde—the one who gave up 116 points in a regulation loss to Kansas State—rear his hideous head?
At the worst possible time, it seems.
Texas got just four stops in the game's final 11 minutes (three defensive rebounds, one turnover) as Miami finished the game on a 35-16 run.
Miami didn't even shoot that well from the field, either. It was a lot of self-inflicted wounds for Texas, as the Hurricanes scored 25 of their 51 second-half points from the free-throw line. And repeatedly fouling this next winner was quite the mistake.
Winner: Jordan "Mr. Perfect" Miller
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Talk about an MVP performance for the ages.
Miam's Jordan Miller already had a few solid games under his belt in this tournament. He put up 19 points in the second-round win over Indiana. He missed just two shots against Houston while going for 13 points, six rebounds and four assists with no turnovers in the Sweet 16.
But shooting 20-of-20 to punch a ticket to the Final Four?
That's the stuff of legends—something that only previously had been done by Duke's Christian Laettner in the most unforgettable Elite Eight game of all time.
They weren't all field-goal attempts. That would be a whole new level of absurdity. Miller was 7-of-7 from the field and 13-of-13 from the free-throw line, finishing with 27 points. But making all 20 shots is no less ridiculous.
Moreover, 12 of those 13 free-throw attempts came in the final 11 minutes during the aforementioned 35-16 Miami run.
Every single one of those one-pointers was critical.
Twice in the final four minutes, Miller broke a tie with a pair of free throws. And with Texas desperately trying to mount a last-second comeback, he hit four in a row to keep the game out of reach.
Because of Miller's perfect day, Miami gets to go to the Final Four for the first time ever.
And with big, bad Connecticut looming in the national semifinals, we'll see if Jim Larrañaga can channel some of the magic from when he led George Mason to a massive win over the Huskies to make the Final Four in 2006.
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