Eight games with “Sweetness” on the line. Join the conversation. Take a seat on the Pine.
No.1 Seed Syracuse Orange (32-2 Big East) vs. No.8 Seed Kansas State (22-10 Big 12)
Syracuse and Kansas State have split the two previous meetings between the two schools. The Wildcats defeated the Orange , 88-68, in Manhattan, Kansas during the 1968-69 campaign. The most previous meeting was in the NCAA Tournament East Region final in 1974-75. The Orange posted a 95-87 overtime victory to advance to its first Final Four.
Syracuse won its NCAA Tournament opener for the fourth straight season with a 72-65 victory against UNC Asheville on Thursday, March 15. The Orange rallied from a four-point deficit at halftime to win its school-record 32nd game of the year.
Senior Scoop Jardine tallied seven quick points after intermission and his layup at 15:07 gave SU a 41-40 lead. The teams traded baskets before James Southerland connected on his second three-pointer of the game to put the Orange ahead 50-48. Freshman Rakeem Christmas extended the lead to four when he converted on an assist from Jardine with 8:30 to play.
Kansas State advanced to the NCAA Tournament Third Round with a 70-64 victory against Southern Miss. The Wildcats enter Saturday’s game with a 22-10 record.
Junior guard Rodney McGruder is Kansas State’s leading scorer, averaging 15.9 points per game. He scored a game-high 30 points in the Wildcats second-round victory. Senior forward Jamar Samuels also averages double figures in scoring (10.0 ppg.) and leads K-State on the boards, grabbing 6.6 per game.
No. 2 Seed Ohio State Buckeyes (28-7; 13-5 Big Ten Conference) vs. No. 7 Seed Gonzaga Bulldogs (26-6; 13-3 West Coast) NCAA Tournament Third Round
Gonzaga is playing in its 14th straight NCAA Tournament and its 15th in school history, first making the dance in 1965. The Bulldogs have won at least one game in each of their last three appearances and advanced to the Sweet 16 for the fifth time in 2006. The Bulldogs lone appearance in the Elite Eight was 1999 when the current streak of NCAA appearances began. Ohio State University is playing in its 28th NCAA Tournament, the Buckeyes 42-22, not counting a 6-4 record from 1999-2002 when the NCAA vacated OSU’s NCAA Tournament results. The Buckeyes have been in five NCAA Championship games but won their only title in 1960. This will be the inaugural basketball meeting between Gonzaga and OSU, the latter ranked seventh in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Top 25 rankings this week. Two of the active winningest NCAA Division I coaches will be on opposing benches Saturday when Gonzaga faces Ohio State University. Bulldogs head coach Mark Few is 342-89 for a winning percentage of .794 to rank second behind Roy Williams. OSU coach Thad Matta is 322-95 for a winning percentage of .772 to rank fourth.
(3) Marquette (26-7) vs. (6) Murray State (31-1) NCAA Tournament – West Region
The Racers have played Marquette only once in their 87 seasons of college basketball and that meeting came in the NCAA Tournament in 1969. The game, played at the SIU Arena in Carbondale, Ill., featured legendary MSU coach Cal Luther. The Racers came away with an 82-62 loss and ended their season at 22-6. MSU also won a share of the Ohio Valley Conference regular title in that 1968-69 season. In the game with Marquette, MSU trailed 42-32 at the half. The Racers were led by Claude Virden with 17 points, while Hector Blondet added 15. The game at SIU was significant because it would be 1988 before the Racers got another shot at the NCAA Tournament.
#5 VANDERBILT (25-10 SEC) vs. #4 WISCONSIN (25-9 Big Ten) NCAA 3rd Round, East Regional
Vanderbilt and Wisconsin have never met on the hardwood. Coach Stallings is 1-2 all-time against Wisconsin, with both meetings coming while he was the head coach at Illinois State.
Stat Comparison (2011-12)
VU WIS
All SEC All B10
Record 25-10 10-6 25.9 12-2
Scoring Offense 73.1 70.8 64.1 60.6
Scoring Defense 65.1 63.8 52.8 57.1
Scoring Margin +8.0 +6.9 +11.4 +3.5
FG% .461 .457 .425 .399
FG% Defense .419 .402 .383 .406
3FG% .391 .423 .365 .323
3FG% Defense .309 .289 .290 .299
Free Throw % .698 .708 .746 .774
Rebounding 34.5 33.9 33.9 32.7
Rebounding Margin +1.4 +0.1 +2.6 -0.1
Turnovers/game 13.3 12.8 9.0 9.2
Opponent Turnovers 12.7 10.7 10.9 9.3
Steals 6.0 4.8 5.1 4.3
Blocks 4.0 4.6 3.6 3.4
No. 4 INDIANA (26-8, 11-7 BIG TEN) vs. No. 12 VCU (29-6, 15-3 CAA)
IU returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2008 and notched its first tournament win since 2007 after defeating New Mexico State, 79-66. The Rams, who were in the 2011 Final Four, defeated Wichita State,62-59. The Hoosiers have won six of their last seven and nine of 11 games since February 4, and are 4-0 all-time against No. 12 seeds.
Today’s matchup is the second head-to-head meeting between the Rams and Indiana. The only other time these two programs faced off was in 1988 in Bloomington, when the Hoosiers took home a 85-68 win.
VCU is 4-5 all-time against current Big Ten institutions, with just two of those contests coming in the past 10 years. It will be the second straight year that the Rams battled a Big Ten opponent in the NCAA Tournament Third Round with VCU taking down Purdue last year, 94-76.
Indiana is 10-2 all-time against teams from the CAA and 1-0 against VCU. Of those 10 victories, two have come in the NCAA Tournament (vs. George Mason in 1989 and vs. UNC Wilmington in 2002).
No. 1 Kentucky (33-2/16-0 SEC) vs. No.8 Iowa State (23-10/12-6) NCAA Third Round South Regional
Kentucky Wildcats • #1
Record: 33-2, 16-0 in SEC
Rankings: No. 1 (AP)/No. 1 (Coaches)
RPI/SOS (CollegeRPI.com): 2/25
Last Game: Defeated Western Kentucky, 81-65
Head Coach: John Calipari
Overall Record: 542-154 (.779)
at UK: 97-14 (.874)
vs. Iowa State: 1-0
Last five games: 4-1
Iowa State • #8
Record: 23-10, 12-6 in Big 12
Rankings: nr/nr
RPI/SOS (CollegeRPI.com): 33/39
Last Game: Defeated UConn, 77-64
Head Coach: Fred Hoiberg
Overall Record: 39-26 (.600)
at Iowa State: 39-26 (.600)
Hoiberg vs. Kentucky: 0-0
Last five games: 3-2
No. 5 seed (#21/22) New Mexico (28-6) vs. No. 4 seed (#17/18) Louisville (27-9)
The Lobos are 0-2 all-time against Louisville, including the last matchup, which was a round of 32 game on March 16, 1997 inPittsburgh, a game won by Louisville 64-63 when a last-ditch UNM shot missed at the buzzer. New Mexico was a 3-seed in that tournament. UNM is 4-20 against the current configuration of the Big East. Although Louisville in 1997 was a member of Conference USA, the Lobos have been eliminated from the NCAA Tournament four times by Big East teams…in 1996 (Georgetown), 1998 (Syracuse), 1999 (Connecticut), and Villanova (2005). The Lobos shot 50% or better in an NCAA Tournament game on Thursday for the first time since shooting 52.1% against Cal State Fullerton in 1978, a game UNM lost.
That is three charges on Vanderbilt now.
For all of the great defensive plays Marquette has been making, how did they allow that baseline drive?
How did Marquette suddenly establish their post game?
Didn’t they do it while Daniel was out of the game? The traditional power forward is dead in the NBA, but every March we see that position come alive in the NCAAs. Crowder and Daniel played amazing games today. Absolute energy on both ends. Throw in the O’Quinn guy from Norfolk State.
Even the Fresh Prince of Bel Air struggles from the free throw line. 🙂
Rey – great point about the traditional power forward. It’s kind of like the tight end in the NFL. Nobody was using them for a while…them BAM this season TEs are killing it.
Oh yeah. It’s kind of like they realized, “Hey, everyone is keying in on our receivers. Oh – this guy is eligible?! I’ll throw to him.” The power forward is the same way. Playing 4 perimeter players and one post really seems to limit transition and hurts rebounding. Murray State and Marquette had Crowder and Dan iel getting to the block in transition so fast. Defensively those guys were so active in the middle third it made those passes tough. And then the rebounding! They were relentless. Loved the energy from those two today. Fun to watch.
Crowder reminds me of Faried, – and not just because of the dreads pulled back into a pony tail – they both play with so much and they are GREAT ball getters.
Iowa State is never going to beat Kentucky by taking threes less than :10 into the shot clock.
Anthony Davis has a sweet stroke. I’ve heard people say it but I never really paid attention.
Yeah and he dunks like a monster. 🙂
This is also true
Louisville hangs on for another ugly win. Great defense though. They had a 15 point lead with their chaotic full court style and then it was completely shut off instantly and the Lobos started to chip away at the lead. Kentucky looks real tough from the few minutes I watched. That poor guy from Vanderbilt missing those 2 late game foul shots.
Joe,
Great to see you on the Pine! Come back more often. It ain’t ugly when you win.
Louisville hangs on for another ugly win. Great defense though. They had a 15 point lead with their chaotic full court style and then it was completely shut off instantly and the Lobos started to chip away at the lead. Kentucky looks real tough from the few minutes I watched. That poor guy from VCU missing those 2 late game foul shots.
Redid my post. Made a correction. Didn’t know how to delete the first one.