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NCAA Tournament 2019: Top takeaways from 1st half of Round of 32 games

By Brian Rauf

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA - MARCH 23: Tremont Waters #3 of the LSU Tigers goes up for a shot against Jalen Smith #25 of the Maryland Terrapins during the second half of the game in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Vystar Memorial Arena on March 23, 2019 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA - MARCH 23: Tremont Waters #3 of the LSU Tigers goes up for a shot against Jalen Smith #25 of the Maryland Terrapins during the second half of the game in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Vystar Memorial Arena on March 23, 2019 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) /
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HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT – MARCH 23: Carsen Edwards #3 of the Purdue Boilermakers is congratulated by his teammates in the second half against the Villanova Wildcats during the second round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at XL Center on March 23, 2019 in Hartford, Connecticut. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT – MARCH 23: Carsen Edwards #3 of the Purdue Boilermakers is congratulated by his teammates in the second half against the Villanova Wildcats during the second round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at XL Center on March 23, 2019 in Hartford, Connecticut. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /

The second round of March Madness got underway on Saturday with eight quality matchups. Here are the biggest things we learned about each winner.

The first day of the NCAA Tournament’s second round provided a few traditional March Madness highlights, but also kept in form with the way this tournament has gone by not have a ton of great games.

LSU’s victory over Maryland might have been the best game of the tournament so far. The Terps fought back from a double-digit deficit to take the lead, give the lead back to LSU, and then tie it in the final seconds before Tremont Waters’ last-second shot pushed the Tigers into the second round.

Kentucky and Wofford provided another thrilling contest as neither team gained an advantage of more than one or two possessions throughout the game before UK’s defense ultimately led them to a victory.

After that, however, all the games were blowouts.

Florida State handled Ja Morant and eliminated Murray State with a 28-point victory. Purdue dominated the defending champions in Villanova thanks to a 42-point outburst by Carsen Edwards. Gonzaga and Michigan State both won comfortably as well.

While there weren’t any upsets – every higher seed with the exception of Kansas advanced to the Sweet 16 – it leaves us with the best of the best duking it out with a Final Four berth on the line next weekend. All of those will be elite must-watch matchups.

What did we learn from today’s games that might tell us who will be successful next weekend? Here are the biggest takeaways for all eight teams that advanced to the Sweet 16 on Saturday in this new Rauf Report.

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