Winners and Losers from Day 3 of NCAA Tournament
Hooray chaos.
The first round of the NCAA tournament lacked the drama we're used to seeing, so you knew the second round had to deliver.
And, of course, it did.
The defending champion and overall No. 1 seed Villanova is headed home. No. 11 seed Xavier made sure a double-digit seed will crash the Sweet 16 and served as a reminder that Chris Mack is one heck of a coach. And the fellas in stripes gave us something to yell about on Twitter.
These winners and losers stood out amid the (finally) dramatic third day of hoops.
Winner: Wisconsin's Seniors
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Wisconsin's seniors are now 13-3 in the NCAA tournament.
If Bronson Koenig and Nigel Hayes weren't already considered Wisconsin legends, they should be now. Hayes put his team in the Sweet 16 with a slick reverse layup for the game-winner in the final seconds. Koenig continued to hit big shot after big shot. He's hit 11 threes in tourney games this year.
The Badgers, who finished tied for second in the Big Ten, also made the NCAA tournament selection committee's decision to place them at a No. 8 seed look silly.
The veteran group that sent the defending champs home looked nothing like a No. 8 seed, and now Wisconsin's seniors are headed to a fourth straight Sweet 16.
Loser: Villanova
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Villanova is the first overall No. 1 seed to lose during the opening weekend since Kansas in 2010.
But it's easy to turn this around and praise the Wildcats. This was a team that overachieved just to get the No. 1 seed.
Sure, head coach Jay Wright returned some key pieces from last year's title team—namely Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson—but Wright was without freshman big man Omari Spellman and guard Phil Booth, who scored 20 points in last year's championship game.
Spellman likely would have been the team's starting center, but he failed to qualify academically. The lack of a rim protector—a role Daniel Ochefu filled last season—was apparent against the Badgers. Both Nigel Hayes and Ethan Happ operated in the paint with little resistance.
Booth missed all but the first three games of the season because of a knee injury.
That the Wildcats were able to win the Big East by three games and get the overall No. 1 seed without those two is a testament to the team's toughness and Wright's coaching. Still, the early exit combined with its top billing gives Nova a "loser" status.
Winner: Xavier Head Coach Chris Mack
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Xavier head coach Chris Mack needs to be in the conversation whenever someone discusses the best coaches in college basketball.
The Musketeers put on a clinic in a 91-66 win over third-seeded Florida State. Xavier was left for dead—and almost out of the NCAA tournament—after losing six straight games late in the year shortly after losing starting point guard Edmond Sumner to a torn ACL in late January.
Mack now has four Sweet 16s on his resume in eight years as the head coach. He's made it twice as a double-digit seed and two other times as a No. 6 seed.
Mack is a Xavier graduate and is in a good spot with a contract that runs through the 2021-22 season, but Indiana would be smart to give a look his way to fill its coaching vacancy. Mack has recruited at a high level and has proved he can win in the NCAA tournament. If the Hoosiers come calling, he'd at least have to consider the blue blood.
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Loser: Officials for Missing Goaltending Call in Northwestern-Gonzaga Game
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It wasn't a banner day for officials, and the biggest miss was an obvious goaltend by Gonzaga's Zach Collins that led to a technical foul on Northwestern head coach Chris Collins.
Gonzaga's Collins went up to block a dunk attempt by Northwestern's Dererk Pardon, and his hand went up through the goal to do so.
Chris Collins took several steps onto the court to complain and was assessed a technical foul.
The tech was the right call. A coach cannot rush toward an official during play. Collins let his emotion get the best of him.
But the miss was an egregious one and ended up as a four-point swing. What would have been a 63-60 game ended up with Gonzaga's taking a 65-58 lead.
Winner: West Virginia Head Coach Bob Huggins
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Bob Huggins is headed to the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in 10 seasons at West Virginia.
Huggins is also making his second Sweet 16 appearance since adopting the Press Virginia style. Huggins made the decision three years ago to go to a full-court press defense and sought the help of his old friend Kevin Mackey, who played the hectic style back in the mid-1980s at Cleveland State, to do so.
Notre Dame entered Saturday's game with the best turnover rate—percentage of possessions that end in a giveaway—in the country, per KenPom.com, and had 14 turnovers against the Mountaineers.
The style is tough to prepare for, especially on the second game in three days in an NCAA tournament. Huggins is 2-0 in round of 32 games while employing his press. The remaining teams of this region are hoping he doesn't get the chance to test it out in the Elite Eight this year.
Loser: The ACC
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The ACC still has three teams left in the tournament—all in action Sunday—but it lost three Saturday in ugly fashion.
It started with Notre Dame getting pressed off the floor by West Virginia, then Florida State got mollywhopped by Xavier, and Virginia finished things off by scoring 39 points in a blowout loss to Florida.
Many folks thought the ACC was the best league in America this year, although the advanced numbers at KenPom.com prefer the Big 12, which benefits from not having any awful teams.
The argument for the ACC was the strength of the squads at the top, but such a stance is more flimsy after Saturday's beatdowns. By the end of the tourney, or maybe even by end of the day Sunday, the league could make that claim again, though.
C.J. Moore covers college basketball and football for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @CJMooreBR.
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