March Madness Saturday Recap: How the Games Were Won

We talked about the upset of the decade in this last post , but I watched some other great basketball today I’d like to comment on.

For me, the theme of the day was well-played basketball. I’m not only talking about what Northern Iowa did, I’m talking about the other six games that were really well played. 

The exception was the Kentucky game, which was a blowout 10 minutes in. Wake was simply out-classed by a better team, and I think everyone saw that coming from a mile away.

Let’s talk about the other six.

Villanova vs. Saint Mary’s

The rumors of Villanova’s demise were basically dead-on. What happened to the flash and dash stable of guards the Wildcats had? You know, the ones that made Bill Raftery wax poetic about the hard streets of Philly: toughness, playgrounds, all that stuff.

They just got schooled by a couple deadheads and a kid from down under.

As for the interior, the Egyptian Kevin McHale, Omar Samhan, just footworked his way to 13 for 16 from the floor and 32 points. The ballers in Philly’s finest open runs wouldn’t let this kid on the main court and he did that to ‘Nova. Be prepared to get clowned this summer Stokes, Reynolds, and Fisher.

Butler vs. Murray State

In the second best game of the day (other than the Kansas game), the Murray State Racers proved they belonged by basically controlling the Butler Bulldogs for about 30 minutes.

They played better defense, controlled the glass, and had Butler reeling by getting the Bulldog’s best interior player Matt Howard in foul trouble.

Enter 33-year-old super-coaching phenom Brad Stevens. The young X’s and O’s guy stepped in and took over the game. Stevens saw that his kids couldn’t get into the lane on offense and struggled rebounding regardless of personnel, so the young coach—well—coached.

He moved star 6′9″ wing Gordon Hayward to the five spot (keep in mind Hayward is listed as a G-F in the program), and then put four guards around the lean forward.

The results were amazing.

Butler went on a 10-0 run by having players relentlessly slash to the goal and kick to open shooters.

Defensively, they pressured the Racers into 16 turnovers and pulled out a close two-point win. Star post man Matt Howard played just 18 minutes.

I’ve watched Butler play all season and I’ve never seen them use Hayward at the five. You have to love coaching on the fly. Coaching was the only thing that saved the Bulldogs today: The Racers were the better team.

Ohio vs. Tennessee

This game boiled down to Tennessee having the athletes on the perimeter to frustrate and harass the Bobcat backcourt of Bassett and Cooper. The duo finished the game going a combined seven for 23 for just 23 points, hardly the stuff that knocked off Georgetown.

The rest as they say was history, at least on the interior. Prince, Williams, and Chism just out-manned the young Bobcats inside. Blowout.

ODU vs. Baylor

ODU kept the game close with some outstanding defense, but Baylor proved to be too much on the perimeter in the first half and too much inside in the second. LaceDarius Dunn nearly ran ODU out of the gym to start the game, and Josh Lomers powered the Bears to victory down the stretch going six of seven from the field.

Next up for Baylor is Saint Mary’s, and it will be interesting to see how the Bears play Samhan with their zone. I suspect they’ll do just fine since Samhan isn’t much of a mid to high post threat, which is where the Bears are vulnerable.

Josh Lomers will probably play significant minutes in the middle of that zone, with Ekpe Udoh looking to come over for swats from the weak side.

Samhan isn’t all that athletic, so if Lomers can just make him start his attack a little farther from the bucket than normal, Udoh or even Acy should have plenty of time to help.

BYU vs. Kansas State

It was evident from the tip that the Wildcats were going to be physical and throw bodies at Jimmer Fredette. By doing so, KSU was able to contain the talented BYU point guard and hold him to 21 points on five of 13 shooting.

More importantly, they gave him nothing easy, while holding Jimmer to five assists and forcing him into five turnovers. No one else for BYU stepped up in a significant manner.

The Wildcat backcourt, on the other hand, combined for 53 points on 10 of 21 shooting from beyond the arc. Don’t look now but the ‘Cats are clicking on all cylinders.

Washington vs. New Mexico

These teams should have swapped seeds. The Huskies looked like a Final Four team and New Mexico should have lost in their opening round game against Montana.

With Poindexter’s athletic presence on both ends and Isaiah “all he does is get buckets” Thomas scoring from all over the floor, the Pac-10 champs will be a tough out.

I’m looking forward to Sunday’s games. Hopefully they will be half as exciting.

Kevin writes the leading college hoops blog March To March

Follow him on Twitter: @MarchToMarch