March Madness: Sweet 16 Day One Run Down

Pretty good start to the Sweet 16, huh? Gus Johnson and Jay Bilas in full effect, buzzer beaters, heat checks, and upsets. What more can you ask for? Savor it. Embrace it. Go buy a nerf hoop and replay it, because we only have a little over a week left of the Madness until we begin the long march to next March.

Butler vs. Syracuse.

The game came down to valuing the basketball. Butler had seven turnovers and Syracuse had 18. That’s your ballgame. For virtually the entire year, we’ve been telling you that Syracuse lacked that elite guard on offense that could manufacture offense in a half-court setting for the Orange, while protecting the basketball. Rautins and Jardine are really good guards, but neither player is a true point guard. Throw in Onuaku’s injury and the Orange were swimming upstream for most of this game.

Butler’s Willie Veasley was 5-of-7 from the field, but two of those buckets might as well have been Diego Maradona mano de dios. A generous roll on a three ball and an improbable tip did the trick for Butler down the stretch with under two minutes to go to seal the deal for the Bulldogs.

Look, Butler has the least amount of talent on their side of the bracket, but they continue to win. If I’m a big-time school with some dough to throw around, I throw it at Butler coach Brad Stevens, and watch that young man’s career blossom. Coach Steven’s Court? Has a great ring to it.

West Virginia vs. Washington

Washington finally met up with a team that straight up guards your ass. The Mountaineers smothered the Huskies in the half court and not only dominated the glass, but also turned over "U Dub" at an alarming rate. In the preview , we typed that it was supposed to be a rebounding vs. turnover game. Unfortunately for Washington, the Huskies were killed on the glass and turned it over 21 times.

West Virginia pulled off this defensive masterpiece by varying their defense between a trapping zone and a bump, and grind man-to-man.

We also predicted a technical foul in this game, but Coach Romar waited too long to get his, electing to get one with just under eight minutes to go. After he was whistled, the Huskies got every call. Before that, not so much. When will coaches learn to go ahead and pick these T’s up early in the game? If you don’t believe me, go ask Jim Calhoun .

West Virginia is for real, folks. They guard, they’re athletic, and they buy what Coach Huggins is selling. They can absolutely beat Kentucky if they can control tempo in the game. If Cornell can make a game against Kentucky a half-court grinder, why can’t the Mountaineers?

Cornell vs. Kentucky

Speaking of Kentucky…

Look, I told you Kentucky would roll. Cornell benefited from playing two teams in the opening rounds, Temple and Wisconsin, who were willing dance partners in the waltz of the half court. The pace allowed Cornell to focus on what it does best—efficiently running half-court offense, and setting up their disciplined half-court defense.

Kentucky was a different animal for Cornell. The Wildcat’s size and length prevented Cornell from getting easy points in and around the bucket.

As for offense, Kentucky’s ability to punish Cornell in transition when the game was fast-paced and then pound the smaller Cornell frontcourt with Cousins when things slowed down was the difference in the ball game. Kentucky can win in multiple ways and in this tournament, that’s a huge advantage.

It doesn’t hurt that they play four or five NBA players at any given time.

Xavier at Kansas State

In the game of the night, KSU needed double overtime to dispatch of a game Musketeer club. In the preview, I mentioned that if Xavier’s front court could compete on the glass and stay out of foul trouble, the XU guards could shoot their way to a big upset. That almost happened. Jordan Crawford and company hit improbable shot, after improbable shot to take the favored Wildcats to the brink. In the end, Kansas State’s depth carried the day in 50 minutes of electric double-overtime basketball action.

Madness to the X degree. Congratulations to the winners. See you Saturday.

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Kevin writes the leading college hoops blog March To March .

Follow him on Twitter: @MarchToMarch