NCAA Tournament 2017: Biggest Surprises from Day 3

First round of the NCAA tournament: "People think this tourney hasn't been very exciting because it's lacked drama and upsets. What should we do?"

Second round: "Hold my drink."

A rather chalky and shockless first few days of the 2017 NCAA tourney rediscovered its madness Saturday, sending some big names packing, including top overall seed Villanova. Three of the eight contests were decided by six points or fewer, and most were in doubt in the final minute.

Put it all together and it was a pretty unpredictable—and satisfying—first half of the second round. Read on for further enjoyment.

West Virginia Found a Half-Court Offense

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The team referred to most of the season as Press Virginia continues to be a nuisance because of its defensive pressure and ability to force turnovers, a system that has produced great results when it works but often poor ones when it doesn't. Having a backup method when Plan A fails is helpful in making a deep postseason run.

The Mountaineers (28-8) appear to have discovered one, and it's quite simple: scoring in a half-court set instead of being heavily reliant on transition offense created by the defense. Their 83-71 win over Notre Dame featured 15 points off turnovers but only eight on fast breaks, the rest coming by executing in the half court and finding the open man.

West Virginia was 8-of-14 from three-point range—its best rate of the season—and shot 50 percent overall. That had only happened in six other games in 2016-17.

The pressing won't stop when West Virginia takes on Gonzaga in the West Region semifinals Thursday. Not after it recorded more than 10 steals per game and got the nation's most careful team—Notre Dame's turnover rate coming in was 12.2 percent, which was the best in Division I—to cough it up 14 times. But if that approach doesn't produce results, the Mountaineers may not be in as bad of shape as they've been in other games when the Press Virginia style wasn't clicking.

The Defending Champs Go Down

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It continues to be just as hard to win a second consecutive national championship as it is to win the first one, if not harder.

Villanova found this out Saturday when No. 8 seed Wisconsin bounced it 65-62 in the East Region's second round, marking the 10th straight defending champ to bow out in the first three rounds.

The last champ to make it past the Sweet 16: Florida, which won consecutive titles in 2006-07. According to NCAA media coordinator David Worlock, the Gators are the only defending champ in the past 16 tourneys to get to the Elite Eight or further.

Villanova (32-4) looked equipped to go deep thanks to the return of three starters from the title team, including guard Josh Hart and 2016 finals hero Kris Jenkins. But the Wildcats ran into an even more experienced team in Wisconsin, which features several players who were part of the Badgers' Final Four runs in 2014 and 2015.

The nation's seventh-best shooting squad picked a bad time to post its third-worst rate (41.2 percent) of the season. Villanova lost the other two times it shot that poorly, in January games at Butler and Marquette.

Almost-Last-Team-in Xavier Makes 8th Sweet 16

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Xavier (23-13) was no doubt Sweet 16 material when the 2016-17 season began, as it started the year ranked seventh in the country and was considered a legitimate challenger to Villanova's Big East dominance. Four losses in a five-game stretch in January took away some of the Musketeers' buzz, but not nearly as much as when sophomore point guard Edmond Sumner was lost late in the month to a knee injury.

A six-game skid just before the end of the regular season made a fourth straight NCAA tournament appearance an uncertainty. A Big East semifinal berth kept Xavier from having to play in the First Four, but the team still had one of the lowest seeds for an at-large entrant. What's followed has been two performances more befitting of the squad we expected back in November.

The 91-66 win over third-seeded Florida State—putting the Musketeers in the Sweet 16 for the eighth time in school history—was a wire-to-wire destruction of a team that tied for second in the ACC and had better athletes at almost every position.

But the length that made the Seminoles (26-9) so lethal in their first-round win over Florida Gulf Coast wasn't nearly as effective on offense and seemed incapable of closing out on Xavier's perimeter shooters, who were 11-of-17 from three.

The 25-point loss was tied for FSU's worst in NCAA tournament history along with a 106-81 loss to Kentucky in the 1993 Elite Eight.

Northwestern Didn't Look Like a Tourney Newcomer in Near Comeback vs. Gonzaga

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Can there be honor in defeat? Sure, particularly if that loss happens to be the first a team has experienced in 79 years of NCAA tournament play and ended up being much closer than seemed possible after a rough first half.

Northwestern's tourney debut—after being one of five remaining original NCAA programs never to make the first 78 editions—ended at the hands of top-seeded Gonzaga, as the No. 8 seed Wildcats fell 79-73 in the West Region. They beat Vanderbilt 68-66 on Thursday in their first-ever NCAA game.

Twenty minutes in, the prognosis for Northwestern was much worse, as it trailed 38-20, with the deficit extending to 20 midway through the second half. Throwing in the towel was quite possible, but this success-starved program wasn't ready for the party to end.

A 15-4 run got the deficit down to single digits with 8:25 left, and Vic Law's putback dunk with 5:33 to go got Northwestern within five at 63-58. Then came a pair of calls (or non-calls) that stunted the Wildcats' rally: first an uncalled goaltending by Gonzaga's Zach Collins—replays showed he reached through the rim to block Dererk Pardon's attempt—which caused head coach Chris Collins to run onto the court in protest. That resulted in a technical foul.

Gonzaga hit both foul shots for a four-point swing and seven-point lead that never dipped below five again.

Northwestern finished at 24-12, its most wins in school history.

Virginia Put Up an All-Time Bad NCAA Tournament Performance

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There are bad games, and there's what Virginia did against Florida. And we're being nice.

Never one to be offensive juggernauts, at least in terms of scoring volume, the Cavaliers took things to an extreme in their 65-39 second-round loss. It was the fewest points in an NCAA tourney game since West Virginia managed only 39 in the 2015 Sweet 16 against Kentucky and the fewest by a Virginia squad in postseason play.

The fifth-seeded Cavs (23-11) trailed 31-17 at halftime and shot just 29.6 percent, going 1-of-15 from three-point range. This came two days after Virginia shot 50 percent, hit seven threes and scored 76 in the first round against UNC Wilmington.

The absence of junior forward Isaiah Wilkins, who sat out with strep throat, was significant but couldn't be the blame for the entirety of Virginia's struggles. Senior guard London Perrantes was 2-of-12 from the field, while freshman Kyle Guy went scoreless for the second time in three games.

Might the Cavs have missed their window to break through and become a mainstay in college basketball's elite under coach Tony Bennett? They won consecutive ACC regular-season titles in 2014-15 only to get knocked out in the Sweet 16 and round of 32, respectively. Then last year's team had a major meltdown against Syracuse in the Elite Eight.

Purdue Blows 19-Point Lead But Still Advances Past Iowa State

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Purdue's first Sweet 16 appearance since 2010 didn't come easy despite it's looking for a while like it was going to be a runaway. The Boilermakers pulled out an 80-76 win over Iowa State, but not before trying to give away the game down the stretch.

A 13-point halftime lead extended to 58-39 with 14 minutes left, prompting head coach Matt Painter to give big man Caleb Swanigan a rest. Iowa State used that as motivation to go on a tear, first with a 7-0 run and later a 12-0 run to get within three at 63-60. The Cyclones later tied it at 71 and took the lead briefly on two Deonte Burton free throws with 3:11 left before Purdue ran off seven straight points.

ISU cut it to 78-76 with 24 seconds remaining when Monte Morris made and missed a free throw. Swanigan got the rebound on the miss, and ISU didn't immediately foul, leading to a breakaway dunk attempt for Swanigan that Burton blocked from behind.

The Cyclones sent Dakota Mathias to the line with 11 seconds left, and he missed the front end of a 1-and-1, only to see Swanigan snare yet another board, giving him 12 (along with 20 points and seven assists) for his 28th double-double.

As a No. 4 seed, Purdue (27-7) was the highest-seeded team from the Big Ten, a league that was panned for its mediocrity most of the season. But combined with Wisconsin's win over Villanova, the conference has two teams in the Sweet 16 with a chance to send two more (Michigan, Michigan State) forward on Sunday.

All statistics courtesy of Sports-Reference.com, unless otherwise noted. All recruiting information courtesy of Scout.com, unless otherwise noted.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.