I saw a lot of things in 14 hours of basketball.  I saw a ball ricochet off the side of Creighton’s Geoffrey Groselle’s head while he was running in transition. I saw Minnesota’s 5’9” Deandre Mathieu get an offensive rebound and tip the ball in over Ohio St.’s 6’11” Amir Williams. I saw UNLV PG Cody Doolin post up San Diego St.’s Skyler Spencer, one of the top shot-blockers in the country, and still find a way to get to the line. Steve Lappas, “I couldn’t figure out what he was doing down there, but it worked.” I saw ESPN re-air the clip where Bill Walton said, “I’ve milked a cow and I’ve been milked”, while superimposing a graphic of Bill Walton’s head on a cow. But one of the games in the SEC was still the oddest thing I saw all day:

SEC 2nd Round

-With South Carolina leading Ole Miss by three points and 11 seconds left, Frank Martin ordered his players to commit the foul near half-court. He wanted to send Ole Miss to the line so they wouldn’t have a chance at a tie.

When Ole Miss got to half-court, a couple of the South Carolina players reached out… and whiffed. Somehow, Ole Miss passed the ball ahead and Stefan Moody dribble to the 45 degree angle. Moody was surrounded by three South Carolina defenders. I couldn’t figure out if they were still trying to foul our not, but when he went up, as if to shoot a three, I knew it was trouble. If South Carolina fouled now, it would be a huge mistake. But Moody didn’t shoot the three. He passed to the corner where Jarvis Summers was waiting. And Summers calmly sunk the corner three while South Carolina’s Duane Notice finally got over and committed the foul. Ole Miss went from down three, to having a chance to win the game at the line, with 3 seconds left. And Jarvis Summers made the free throw to give Ole Miss a one point lead.

South Carolina was going to have to force a rushed shot with that little time left, and Tyrone Johnson pushed the ball up for the shot. Indeed his shot was long, off-the-mark, and the game should have been over. Except that, inexplicably LaDarius “Snoop” White reached up and whacked Johnson on the arm. At first it looked like maybe Johnson jumped into White. But no, the officials had it right. White simply reached up and hacked Johnson’s shooting arm. Johnson made all three free throws and South Carolina prevailed.

I can’t remember seeing not one, but two utterly boneheaded fouls in the closing sequence of a game quite like this. Somehow the probability of winning swung from roughly 95% in favor of South Carolina, to roughly 95% in favor of Ole Miss, back to 100% for South Carolina. If you scripted something like this for a movie, no one would believe it. But that is why we watch sports. Sometimes the truly improbable comes true.

-Thursday wasn’t a great day for bubble teams. I was trying to decide which bubble team had a more painful ending. Illinois was blown out by a struggling Michigan team. To trail by roughly 20 points, when you know a loss ensures the NIT, is bad. But the hopes of Illinois fans were not that high. Illinois probably would have needed to beat Wisconsin on Friday to claim an at large bid, and that was a low enough probability event, that the Michigan loss didn’t sting that much. The Old Dominion loss might have stung more. CUSA teams don’t always have the profile to be solid at large candidates, but Old Dominion did. So of course they blew it by losing to a Middle Tennessee team that wasn’t even in the RPI or Pomeroy Top 100.

Miami FL also had a pretty painful end to its season. They probably had to beat Notre Dame to claim an at large bid, and they basically lost their game twice. First the Hurricanes fell behind by double digits in the first half. And then, once they came all the way back and raised the Hurricanes’ fans hopes, Miami ran out of gas and lost the game again.

But I think Texas A&M’s loss might have been the most painful. At 11-7 in the SEC, there’s a good chance that Texas A&M just needed to beat a 4-14 Auburn team to make the field. But after losing to Auburn, A&M will probably have to settle for the NIT. And the loss was a true gut punch. Not only did A&M blow a 10 point half-time lead, the end of the game was excruciating. Texas A&M was never down by enough that it was over, but they kept having to foul and call timeouts. Instead of ripping off the band-aid and facing the harsh reality, the end of the game was a slow and painful process where the band-aid got stuck on quite a few hairs along the way.

And it was all the worse because A&M’s season has just been a painful series of what-ifs. What if the NCAA had cleared Danuel House at the start of the season before the one possession loss to Dayton? What if one more shot had fallen in the double OT loss to Kentucky? What if Danuel House wasn’t injured and out at the end of the year? If the Aggies don’t make it, at least they have a great recruiting class coming in. But losing like that to Auburn will sting for awhile.

-I spend a lot of time writing about the ending of senior’s careers, and the Alabama vs Florida game provided one more . Alabama’s Rodney Cooper has been a stellar player for four years. He was an important rotation piece on an NCAA tournament team as a freshman. But his team has never been able to make it back. While competitive defensively, Alabama always seems to make too many mistakes offensively to be a tournament-level team.

So how did Cooper’s career end? With 3 minutes left in a close game, Cooper got a key steal, hustled to the basket, and was called for an offensive foul. Though he appeared to Euro-step around his defender, the contact went against him, and Cooper fouled out. After he fouled out, Florida pulled away. Great defense that doesn’t translate into success; that pretty much sums up Cooper’s last three years at Alabama.

-I try to watch every game possible, but I love nights like this because you miss great action. In watching Creighton’s near upset of Georgetown and the Iowa St. vs Texas ending, I somehow missed the fact that Tennessee came from behind to beat Vanderbilt. When there are too many good games to track them all, that’s a good thing.

SEC Winners: #8 Florida, #13 Auburn, #10 Tennessee, #11 South Carolina

Big Ten 2nd Round

-At some point in the Penn St. game, head coach Pat Chambers was in the huddle and drawing up a play. Then he wrote one of the favorite things I’ve seen this week. Chambers scrawled, “Why not us?” on his whiteboard. That pretty much perfectly encapsulates March. Yes, there are the favored teams. But everyone playing in these conference tournaments is still theoretically alive to win a national championship. Even a 13 seed in the Big Ten Tournament can still dream.

Penn St. has had such a weird season. In the preseason, I was probably way too high on this team. I think I projected Penn St. to have margin-of-victory numbers in the 70s. But I liked their roster. They had a 3-year superstar in DJ Newbill. They had some other solid guards like Shep Garner and Geno Thorpe. And they had a solid group of forwards. (Ross Travis suddenly forgot how to shoot free throws this year, but last season he was a very good forward.) And with a 7-foot defensive presence like Jordan Dickerson anchoring the middle, it felt like Penn St. should at least make some noise at some point.

And in the early season, Penn St. did make noise. They started 12-1, with the only loss coming in double OT. They started the year with four wins by single digits, so the margin-of-victory numbers weren’t predicting great things. But if your team isn’t going to be great, it never hurts to win the close ones.

And then Big Ten play hit. And Penn St. suddenly stopped winning the close games. Twice they had a six-game losing streak. The season with promise ended with a whimper, and no hope of even reaching the NIT.

And then suddenly, the team decided to make some plays. Penn St. won at Minnesota on a beautiful DJ Newbill buzzer beater. They survived against Nebraska. And then on Thursday, Penn St. beat an Iowa team that was playing good basketball. Iowa had won 6 in a row. Why not Penn St? And as for that ranking I gave them in the preseason, Penn St.’s margin-of-victory is now all the way up to 82nd in the country. Not bad for a team that was 4-14 in conference play.

-As noted above, Illinois had a painful loss that will likely result in an NIT bid.

-With Northwestern losing to Indiana, Chris Collins couldn’t help but crack a tear as seniors Dave Sobelewski and JerShon Cobb checked out of the game.

-And despite the Gopher’s only two post scorers picking up two fouls in the first four minutes of the game, Minnesota gave Ohio St. a scare.

Big Ten Winners: #9 Michigan, #13 Penn St., #7 Indiana, and #6 Ohio St.

American Athletic Conference 1st Round

-When you watch this much basketball, you see games turn on strange things. Houston led Tulane by five points in the final minute. Tulane had the ball, but a comeback seemed like a long-shot. But then a Houston player fell down, reached up and grabbed the Tulane player’s shorts while sending his leg out in a kicking motion. A flagrant foul was called, and suddenly Tulane was in position to tie. All Tulane needed to do was make both free throws and nail a three and the five point lead would be erased. Of course the Green Wave could do neither. They missed one of the two free throws, and then missed their jumper, and Houston hung on. But for a moment, it seemed like a catastrophic foul.

-UCF vs East Carolina proved a common meme that not all OT games have memorable shots. In a tie game, East Carolina missed a buzzer beater to win at the end of regulation. And down one point, UCF missed a buzzer beater to win at the end of OT.

-Meanwhile UConn, playing on its home court, began what some expect to be a miracle run at the NCAA tournament

AAC Winners: #8 East Carolina, #10 Houston, #6 UConn

A10 Second Round

-I don’t have the energy after such an exhausting day, but at some point I have to run the splits and show how VCU has performed since Briante Weber went down. They just aren’t playing like a Top 25 team anymore, and Fordham gave VCU a huge scare. They showed a graphic that VCU was getting one less steal per game without Weber, but it sure feels like his loss has had a much greater impact than that.

A10 Winners: #9 La Salle, #5 VCU, #7 St. Bonaventure, #6 George Washington

MWC Quarterfinals

-The oddest happening I saw in the MWC tournament was in the UNLV vs San Diego St. game. Apparently, in the previous game, UNLV had intentionally fouled Skyler Spencer away from the ball because Spencer is such a terrible free throw shooter. And the refs had fallen for it.

Though it was a week later, UNLV head coach Dave Rice decided to try it again. This time however, the refs made the right call. Fouling a player away from the ball intentionally is not a legitimate basketball play, and it results in two free throws and possession of the ball. Kudos for the refs in the MWC tournament from being smarter than the regular season refs.

-Also, I’m not sure if Utah St. will participate in any of the smaller post-season tournaments, but with the loss to Wyoming the NCAA dream is over. I want to take a moment to send best wishes to retiring Utah St. head coach Stew Morrill. From 2004 to 2010, Morrill put up shockingly dominant offensive numbers. And he helped guide Utah St. from the Big West to the WAC, and ultimately to the MWC. Though the MWC may not be the SEC in terms of revenues or TV packages, it remains a league with great resources and great teams, and Morrill’s success ensures that Utah St. will stay relevant in the decades to come.

MWC Winners:  #1 Boise St., #4 Wyoming, #2 San Diego St., #3 Colorado St.

Pac-12 Quarterfinals

-I’ve been down on UCLA’s Isaac Hamilton. He had a stretch of three games earlier this year where he was 2 of 24 from the floor. More recently, he had a five game stretch where he was  11 of 37 from the floor. UCLA has to play him whether he is making shots or not, because of their lack of depth. But sometimes he can look very good. And he hit 7 of 9 threes on Thursday in the win against USC.

Pac-12 Winners: #1 Arizona, #4 UCLA, #2 Oregon, #3 Utah

ACC Quarterfinals

-Ken Pomeroy defines something called game leverage, how often a game’s outcome appears to be in doubt. Well, the ACC might have been the lowest leverage conference of the day on Thursday. Though Florida St. and Miami had late runs, the games were rarely close. And Duke’s win over NC State never seemed close.

-I hate to break out the “microcosm” line this early, but I have to do it for Louisville. Thursday’s game against North Carolina was a microcosm of Louisville’s season. They showed flashes of brilliance early. Montrezl Harrell and Terry Rozier are just that good. But with no depth, they’ve been falling apart down the stretch this year. And against North Carolina they ran out of gas too.

The best thing I can say is that UConn looked horrible in last year’s AAC tournament and won a national title. So a team’s play late in the year doesn’t necessarily prove they can’t win games in the NCAA tournament. But you would be hard pressed to find a college basketball expert who would bet on Louisville after the way they closed the season.

ACC Winners: #1 Virginia, #5 North Carolina, #2 Duke, #3 Notre Dame

Big 12 Quarterfinals

-The Big 12 featured the second best ending of the day after the South Carolina game. Texas somehow blew a 16 point lead, but had the ball in a tie game in the final minute. They took and missed a shot, but Texas forward Connor Lammert got the offensive rebound. Texas was now in position to hold for the final shot, but instead Javan Felix, who was 4 for 4 on the night, decided to jack up a three instead. Felix’s first miss of the night ended up in Iowa St.’ hands and they Cyclones now had the ball with a chance to take the final shot in a tie game. Iowa St.’s Monte Morris has been one of the best passers in the nation, but on Thursday he drove to the right side of the lane, and decided to shoot instead of pass. And Morris nailed the game-winner.

In his Big 12 preview, Ken Pomeroy argued that Texas deserved to be in the field. Certainly, I suspect he thinks a team with Top 20 margin-of-victory numbers deserves to be in. But his argument was basically that Texas’ road games were close to unwinnable, since they came against so many Top 25 level teams. My response to that is that Texas gets a huge luxury because these great teams have to play at Texas. I’m not as concerned about their road losses as their lack of marquee home wins. Texas has had the chance to play Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa St., Baylor, West Virginia, and Oklahoma St. at home, and they went just 2-4 in those home games. Murray St. would kill to have even one Top 50 opponent come into their building.

Texas has a good team, and if they make the field, I won’t complaint too vociferously. But the Longhorns have had their chance to prove they are a great team, and they’ve failed. Teams like Murray St. will never really get that chance.

-West Virginia seems to play admirably without lead-guard Juwan Staten, but when forward Devin Williams is out, they struggle. Williams fouled out late in the game against Baylor, and the Bears coasted from there.

-TCU’s Trey Ziegler had one of the more memorable games of his career, but he tried to force the action late in the game, and you don’t want to force the action against a Bill Self coached team. Kansas prevailed.

Big 12 Winners: #4 Baylor, #1 Kansas, #2 Iowa St., #3 Oklahoma

Big East Quarterfinals

-Providence has been a great mystery to me. Despite a great NCAA resume, they tend to win close games, so their margin-of-victory numbers have been stuck in the 40s or 50s all year. But a 17 point win against St. John’s, on what was essentially St. John’s home floor, changed that. For the first time all year, Providence has reached #29 in the Pomeroy rankings. As great as it is to know that Providence is peaking at the right time of year, the only problem is their Big East semifinal opponent is peaking too. Villanova has won 14 in a row, and they crushed Marquette on Thursday.

-After Georgetown’s Devaute Smith-Rivera had a late drive and bucket to seal the win against Creighton, I liked how the Fox Sports One interview team asked him whether he or Creighton’s James Milliken looked better with the dyed Mohawk.

-Butler has a Top 10 defensive team, but sometimes struggles on offense. So perhaps it is appropriate that neither Xavier or Butler scored in the final 2:37 of regulation in a tie game. Xavier did finally pull away in OT after Butler’s Kellen Dunham fouled out. Butler and Georgetown will not meet for the fourth time this season (they met in a preseason tournament) thanks to Xavier’s OT win.

Big East Winners: #1 Villanova, #4 Providence, #2 Georgetown, #6 Xavier