2015 NCAA Tournament: Sweet 16 Day 2 Winners and Losers

What an insane weekend that was. The 2015 NCAA Tournament opening weekend provided us as many insane moments as any other, a fair amount of upsets, and plenty of bracket being busted. In the end, we have 16 teams set up for next weekend’s games, so let’s review the final day and hand out some awards.

MVP – Like yesterday, our MVP comes from the first game of the day with Travis Trice of Michigan State. He started off the game with a seemingly incomprehensible 13 straight points to get the Spartans off to a fantastic start. While he essentially was non-existent over the middle 20 minutes of the game, he then made all the big plays late in the game, including a crowd-silencing and essentially game-ending deep three-pointer with the shot clock expiring.

LVP – Those who picked against Tom Izzo in their brackets. Michigan State’s win just makes me wonder, why would anyone bet against Izzo in March? I’ve clamored for him and the Spartans for about the last month, warning those to not bet against them. They’re an unbelievable Denzel Valentine turnover from being Big Ten tournament champions going into the NCAA tournament, but they still took their 7-seed and made it to the Sweet 16. Now, with the shape of East region’s bracket, you’d have to consider Michigan State the favorite, right?

Best “Little Brother” Award – After watching Virginia bow out of the tournament, the next big match-up was between Kansas and Wichita State, and in honesty, it didn’t feel like a contest for much of the game. I made the comparison many times on Twitter, but this game felt entirely like the little brother (Wichita State) finally being better than the big brother (Kansas) and subsequently rubbing it in the big brother’s face.

The Shockers were relentless, playing with a nothing-to-lose mentality, because they didn’t. Lose and you’re supposed to because the Jayhawks are better. Win and you’ve dethroned the big boys. They went shot for shot. Every time you’d think Kansas was about to make a run, Greg Marshall’s boys answered with a big shot of their own. Now, we get a fantastic match-up between Wichita State and Notre Dame that will be a memorable one.

Block of the Day Award – Buddy Hield possibly saved Oklahoma’s season after Jordan Woodard nearly ended it. Woodard turned the ball over with just over a minute to go, near half-court, in a game OU led by only four. Dayton’s Darrell Davis drove to the rim on the fastbreak with only Hield in front, made a nice move for what looked to be an open lay-up that would pull the Flyers within two and create a situation where they wouldn’t have to foul. Then Heild did this:

Instead of needing a score to seal the game, the Sooners could wait to be fouled and iced the game away at the free-throw line. Bravo, Hield.

Honorable Mentions: This one doesn’t have a vine, but was nearly as pivotal. The Louisville Cardinals needed a career night from guard Terry Rozier to be up on the Northern Iowa Panthers. However, late in the game, the Panthers had a fastbreak with a chance to cut the Cardinal lead down to four with four minutes to go, Wayne Blackshear blocked a Wes Washpun dunk attempt from behind, which then led to an alley-oop dunk by Montrezl Harrell, making it an eight-point game and effective taking the fight out of the Panthers.

Oh, and Justise Winslow murdering some man

Lucky Dogs of the Day – West Virginia was given an easier road to the Sweet 16 when, in the second half, Melo Trimble went down with an apparent head injury after teammate Damonte Dodd kneed him in the head. With the freshman out, the Terrapins had no ball-handler to handle the Moutaineers’ trap and they ate Maryland alive.

Would West Virginia have won with Trimble? Very possibly. Maryland was struggling with that press even with Trimble. However, they had a MUCH easier road minus Trimble. It was gut-wrenching to see the youngster on the sideline crying after being told he couldn’t re-enter the game. That type of passion is what makes college basketball so great.

WTF Chuck Award – Charles Barkley really said during a real half-time show with real words that “Cliff Alexander was playing pretty good.” Alexander is suspended indefinitely by the NCAA and hasn’t been with the Kansas Jayhawks this weekend…..

This brings up a point that I discussed on Twitter that has been a pet peeve all weekend. For as great as Turner Network does with coverage and assigning one game per channel so fans can watch any game, the analysts have been doing a terrible job for the most part. I recognize and understand that this is not their fault as they’re programmed as NBA analysts that are suddenly told to go cover the biggest basketball weekend in America. However, listening to Chuck talk about Cliff Alexander’s play, announcers refer to Indiana University’s point guard as Yogi Pharrell (instead of Ferrell), and many other odds and ends mistakes, it’s clear that Turner Network needs a new gameplan next year. Hire some college basketball analysts to avoid these silly mistakes.

Jahzilla Moment of the Day – If this isn’t a nickname of his, it needs to be. Jahzilla is so great and so fitting.

Prettiest Play of the Day – This one also goes to Duke, who had the most dominating performance of the day. This fast-break was basketball sex. A Winslow steal sets up this finish, which is NSFW.

The Vine doesn’t do the whole sequence justice, as this was the moment when you knew San Diego State just had no chance. When Duke is clicking on all cylinders, there isn’t an offense better in the nation, and there may not be a defense that can stop them. We’ve seen it in flashes, like the last ~2 minutes in Virginia with their decisive 11-0 run to finish the game, and in most of the game against Notre Dame in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

However, they’re just as prone to elongated lapses of virtually no offense. Duke put up 35 points over the first 17:15 seconds of this game, then scored a whopping seven points the next 11:08 of game time. Sure, they were going against an Aztec team that is one of the best in the country, but they had no issues with them for most of the first half.

It’s the biggest question mark for this team going forward. Against Utah, they’ll have a tough match-up, but should be favored. However, they can’t afford offensive no-shows for long periods against the Utes and most likely the Zags going forward.

Next: Coaching Carousel: Mississippi State in Talks With Ben Howland