• The Syracuse Orange defeated conference foe Marquette using a stifling defense and continued incredible play by guards Michael Carter-Williams and Brandon Triche to upend the Golden Eagles. The two guards combined for 21 points, 9 assists and 14 rebounds. The Orange will go on to play….
• The Michigan Wolverines defeated the Florida Gaters soundly lead by shooting guard Nick Stuaskas’ 22 points and Trey Burke’s 9 assists. Michigan makes it to their first final four since the 1993 “Fab Five” team.
• The Wichita State Shockers continued their surprising run through the tournament (that's right, we avoided the easy pun) by defeating the Ohio State Buckeyes thanks to a huge first half, going into the break with a 35-22 lead. A 44-point second half by the Buckeyes was not enough to come all the way back as Ohio State fell just short, sending the #9 seeded Shockers to the Final Four, only the second #9 seed and tied for the fifth lowest ever to make it to a Final Four.
Big Weekend for the Louisville Cardinals
• The Louisville men’s team rounded out the Final Four. The #1 team coming into the tournament continued their magical run with a monster second half against Duke. Russ Smith’s 23 points and Peyton Siva’s 16 points gave the Cardinals the victory. However, the most memorable moment of the game was with about six and a half minutes to go in the first half. When Duke’s Tyler Thornton gathered up to take a 3, Cardinals’ guard Kevin Ware came flying by for the block, but when he landed on his right leg his shin gave way with a clean break.
• The compound fracture led to his right shin poking through his skin, and his teammates literally sick on the sidelines. Ware, whose leg looked like it had two knee joints (we aren’t going to link to this, please search this video at your own risk), tried to get up once but quickly realized that wasn’t happening. Ware asked his team repeatedly to win the game for him, so he could travel back to his high school home town of Atlanta for the Final Four. Ware underwent surgery Sunday night that was successful. He is looking at probably a year of rehab before he can even think of playing again, everybody at Sportico wishes Ware the absolute best.
• The Cardinals’ women’s team looked like they were going to be the next victim of Brittney Griner and the Baylor Bears, who had only lost 1 game since the beginning of last season. However a very physical game by the Cardinal left Griner without any points in the first half, and didn’t hit her first field goal until 15 minutes left in the game. Even though Griner ended up with 14 points, the stars of the game were Antonita Slaughter and her 21 points, Shoni Shimmel’s 22. The Cardinals had a 19-point lead in the 2nd half. Though the Baylor Bears were able to take a 1-point lead with 9 seconds left (led largely by Odyssey Sims’ 22 points) the Cardinals hit a layup with 2 seconds left, and that lead stuck.
• Neither Griner nor Delaware's Elena Della Donne, both of whom are top 5 in career points in NCAA women's basketball made it to the Elite 8.
No comments:
Post a Comment