2016 NCAA Tournament, Regional Finals
Two posts to squeeze in; this will be the longer one, because I barely paid attention to the national semifinals. ^_^;;
So this is the round where three of the four #1 seeds disappeared. Pity Virginia, which got to avoid Michigan State to lose to Syracuse. No such pity for Oregon getting pasted by Buddy Hield. Kansas met its demise at the hands of Villanova in the closest game of the round. The one #1 left? North Carolina, which mauled Notre Dame.
Again, I barely paid attention to the next round. This round was why. Updated stats:
- Big East: 1-0 this round, 7-4 overall. Villanova keeps the dream alive.
- Big XII: 1-1 this round, 11-7 overall, and the team losing wasn't the one you were expecting. It helps to face a team that's all offense and no defense when you can match the offense with Buddy Hield. Stephen Curry may have a serious contender for the NBA scoring title in a couple of years.
- PAC-12: 0-1 this round, 4-7 overall and done. Oregon may not have been that overrated, but the rest of the conference sure was.
- ACC: 2-2 this round only because they had to take each other on; 18-5 overall. They will be 19-6 next round. That Syracuse is the one going forward is a small, not entirely welcome surprise; North Carolina is not a surprise.
So, the rooting interest is for the left side of the bracket now. Either Villanova, out of the remodeled Big East, or Buddy "Oklahoma is not Davidson but who cares" Hield, will come out of there. The other side of the bracket is getting rightly raked by reporters for the indiscretions of the two schools - Syracuse and its failure to follow its own written drug policy, and North Carolina and its failure to have academic standards. Syracuse has taken their punishment already, and it nearly-but-not-quite put them out of the tourney; UNC is waiting and very much concerned there may be enough paper trail for the Committee on Infractions to consider the whole twenty years of fake classes. They may wish to consider holding off on a Final Four banner ceremony this year.
Next, the national semifinal. It'll be shorter.