#11 Dayton defeated #10 Stanford

I am very happy that Dayton advanced in the NCAA tournament this season. If you looked at the last round of conference re-alignment, Dayton is absolutely one of those programs that should have been invited to join the Big East. Even in 2013, when the program went 17-14, the Flyers had fantastic attendance.

(And in my opinion, Dayton has one of the Top 10 pep bands in college basketball. Sadly, demonstrating this is a little tough. For whatever reason, I’m not finding a Youtube video that really shows how much fun this group has. This video shows the energy of band director Dr. Willie Morris, his jacket, and some weird hats, but it doesn’t really capture the spirit of the group. This video kind of captures the idea, as the Dayton band sneaks up behind a VCU fan cheering for the wrong team. I see nothing mean-spirited about the encounter; this is exactly what college fandom is all about. But perhaps I can explain it best in words. In the NCAA tournament in 2009, Dayton was playing Kansas and there were plenty of Michigan St. fans in attendance in the other half of the bracket. So in order to get the Michigan St. fans cheering for the Flyers, the Dayton pep band played the Spartan’s fight song.)

The only thing holding Dayton back from Big East selection was the fact that the team hasn’t really had a deep NCAA tournament run in recent seasons. Butler was selected for the Big East based on its recent history, and even a program like VCU seemed to be ahead of Dayton for future expansion based on what Shaka Smart had done. But I’m not sure I agree with that logic. The reason Dayton should be one of the next top expansion candidates, is because the Dayton fans turn out whether the team wins or loses. Coaches can come and go, but a passionate fanbase is a very valuable commodity.

As for the game, we got our first Cole Aldrich moment of the round. (Cole Aldrich was a Kansas freshman who barely played during the regular season but who broke out in the tournament.) In this case it was Dayton’s Kendall Pollard who had a career high 12 points coming off the bench. On Tuesday this week, I labeled Pollard as a defensive stopper, as he had scored less than 70 points on the full season. So of course on Thursday he had eight points in the first half, and really provided the key spark to give Dayton the lead.

The other key factor was obviously that Dayton played a ton of players, got Stanford in foul trouble, and got Stanford to go deep into its bench. While the Flyers were getting 34 points from their bench, Stanford played guys a bunch of minutes and only got two points.

The worst part for Stanford was that Dayton could not figure out a way to guard Stefan Nastic in the game, and yet Nastic kept committing dumb fouls. The most egregious was his fourth where he lost the ball and then grabbed a Dayton player around the neck while they were both on the ground. It was the kind of move you cannot make when you are in foul trouble.

I also thought that when Stanford went on its run and cut the lead early in the second half, the Cardinal were not playing great basketball. They took two or three bad shots in transition that really prevented the team from grabbing full momentum.

Thus despite the presence of Condaleezza Rice and Richard Sherman (who appeared to be chatting with each other), Stanford did not have enough to reach the Elite Eight.

#2 Wisconsin defeated # 6 Baylor

Baylor supporters were out again this week to claim that this Sweet Sixteen run means we cannot criticize Scott Drew. But they continue to miss the point. Scott Drew is a complicated coach whose impact cannot just be explained by saying he wins in March or his teams underachieve relative to their talent levels.

In my opinion, Scott Drew is basically a younger version of Roy Williams. I say this for a few reasons. First, Scott Drew is an outstanding recruiter. Second, he gives his players a large amount of freedom on the court. Baylor players have the freedom to be successful and the freedom to fail. Mike Krzyzewski likes to say he gives his players the freedom to grow, but that’s not how he coaches. If a Duke player makes a dumb decision, he is going to spend plenty of time sitting on the bench. But Roy Williams and Scott Drew are the kind of coaches who let their players get on the floor and play through their mistakes.

By not forcing former players like Perry Jones and current players like Isaiah Austin to focus on their strengths, those players have actually seen their draft stock plummet under Drew. But like Roy Williams Drew knows that if you let elite recruits work through their issues on the court, they often become elite performers.

It is fair to say that Drew is not a great in-game adjuster. We saw that in the Sweet Sixteen when Wisconsin absolutely shredded the Baylor zone. And by taking good shots and controlling the tempo, Wisconsin made sure Baylor never got any rhythm.

Drew never really adjusted when the zone wasn’t working. His team seemed to play a few possessions of man, but it mostly seemed to give up when nothing was working.

In-game adjustments are harder than they sound. Some coaches like Rick Pitino are great at making in-game adjustments in strategy. Pitino’s team can press or play straight defense; they can play zone or man; they can respond to the opponent.

But you might say that there are not very many Rick Pitino’s in college basketball. You might also argue that Jim Boeheim doesn’t switch out of his zone just because the opposing offense is shredding it. But if you watch Syracuse, they do make adjustments. Syracuse’s zone changes throughout the game. Sometimes it hugs three point shooters, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes the forwards lay back, sometimes they attack the player at the high post.

Scott Drew at this point in his career is not a coach who can match those legends. But he is still an outstanding teacher. He took a Baylor team that was playing horrible defense for a stretch this year, and got them to play the kind of zone defense that shut Doug McDermott down completely.

And this is all a long way of saying that Drew is a bit of an enigma. He absolutely deserves a ton of credit for turning Baylor from one of the worst power conference schools into a consistent winner. But he also deserves some blame for the times when his team looks lost on the court.

But give Wisconsin credit for winning this game too. The Badgers almost never turn the ball over, and that was a huge reason they controlled this game. The Badgers had four turnovers in the first half. They had a travel, they had two odd throw-aways, and the ball also was dribbled off a Baylor leg and the officials got the call wrong. But the beauty of all four of those plays is that even when the Badgers turned the ball over, they weren’t live ball turnovers. They didn’t allow Baylor to get out in transition and get some confidence. To not have any live-ball turnovers against a zone defense is a truly impressive feat.

#1 Florida defeated #4 UCLA/#1 Arizona defeated #4 San Diego St.

These games happened nearly simultaneously, so let’s talk about them together.

Which was the better dunk in the losing effort? Was it Dwayne Polee’s steal and emphatic throw-down to make it 27-22 San Diego St? Or was it UCLA’s Norman Powell with the coast-to-coast semi-posterization of Patric Young?

The insanity of these two games was that the two best offensive players, Florida’s Scottie Wilbekin and Arizona’s Nick Johnson were playing equally terrible basketball and almost cost their teams the game. The evening seemed particularly cruel for Johnson. Not only did he have a buzzer beater disallowed before the half, he hit a shot that rolled around the entire rim before popping out near the 10 minute mark of the second half. It seemed like it wasn’t the night for either of these guys. But then Wilbekin hit a step-back three for Florida. Johnson caught a fast-break pass for a lay-up and nailed a three. And Wilbekin hit a ridiculous bank-shot while being guarded by one of the Wear twins in the post. By the end of the night, the two goats were heroes once again.

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The UCLA game drove me the most insane because UCLA kept leaving Michael Frazier open for three. I know Frazier had been in a mini-slump, but when a player has over 100 threes on the year, you don’t leave him open for any reason. Even if you are playing zone, you never help off that kind of player. But as I thought about it later in the game, this is the story of the Bruins season. UCLA gives up more points from three point range than any team left in the tournament, by far.

The real issue was that when Kyle Anderson went out, UCLA fell apart. As Kevin Harlan noted late in the game, UCLA was +6 with Anderson on the floor and -14 with Anderson on the bench.

It wasn’t that the UCLA subs were terrible. Zach Levine’s draft stock probably got a little too high with his play early in the season. He slumped late in the year and had just 6 points in UCLA’s last 4 games. But Levine was aggressive in the first half, taking the ball to the basket on numerous occasions.

The problem is just that you cannot replace Anderson’s production in all areas of the floor. And you have to think that the turning point in the game might have been when he picked up two fouls early in the first half. Granted, Steve Alford was smart enough not to make Anderson sit for the whole first half with the two fouls. But the two deficits when Anderson was out were the difference in the game.

On the flip side, Florida’s impressive depth was on display. It must feel wonderful to bring a PG as skilled as Kasey Hill of the bench. When Wilbekin sat down, Florida was still aggressive at attacking the basket.

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As for the Arizona game, I said last week that San Diego St. might be the toughest matchup Arizona faces all tournament. It isn’t that I don’t believe in Wisconsin. This is a dynamic Badger offense. And I certainly like a bunch of the teams that will make the Final Four. But from the opening tip, Arizona was never going to see a team as physical and dominant on the glass as San Diego St. When the Aztecs scored on their fifth shot of the opening possession, you knew it was going to be a tough game.

Josh Davis hit that shot and I loved Craig Sager’s feature on his recruitment. Apparently Steve Fisher did not fly to Tulane to recruit Davis as a graduate student. Instead Fisher met with Davis’ mom, a math teacher, and shared his own background as a math teacher. Mom told her son that Fisher was a “nice old man” and that Davis should go and play for him. That’s just a wonderful story.

Even though I think this is the only truly physical team left that can manhandle Arizona like this, it was concerning how little depth the Wildcats had after Rondae Hollis-Jefferson fouled out. Had Kaleb Tarczewski picked up his fifth, it could have been a dangerous situation for the Wildcats. But oddly San Diego St. started jacking up three pointers very early. Since many of them went in, it wasn’t terrible strategy, but against a foul-plagued team, it seemed like the Aztecs should have considered attacking the basket more in the final minute.

But probably my final words of praise should be saved for Arizona’s Aaron Gordon. He hit a rare three to give his team a 22-20 lead in the first half. And he had a crazy tip for a bucket to make it 52-50 Arizona in the second half. His video in the second half said it all. Gordon doesn’t care about the stats, he is playing to win a national title. Every team should want an elite recruit with priorities like that.