Busting Brackets
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NCAA Tournament 2019: Top takeaways from first night of Sweet 16

By Brian Rauf

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - MARCH 28: Ryan Cline #14 of the Purdue Boilermakers reacts after a three pointer against the Tennessee Volunteers during the second half of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament South Regional at the KFC YUM! Center on March 28, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - MARCH 28: Ryan Cline #14 of the Purdue Boilermakers reacts after a three pointer against the Tennessee Volunteers during the second half of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament South Regional at the KFC YUM! Center on March 28, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – MARCH 28: Carsen Edwards #3 of the Purdue Boilermakers goes up for a layup against Admiral Schofield #5 of the Tennessee Volunteers during overtime of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament South Regional at the KFC YUM! Center on March 28, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – MARCH 28: Carsen Edwards #3 of the Purdue Boilermakers goes up for a layup against Admiral Schofield #5 of the Tennessee Volunteers during overtime of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament South Regional at the KFC YUM! Center on March 28, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

Purdue 99, Tennessee 94 (OT)

The Carsen Edwards Show continues
Full disclosure – I picked Purdue to lose in the first round and the biggest reason I did was because of Carsen Edwards. The Boilermakers go as he goes and to say he was struggling at the end of the year would’ve been kind.

But Edwards has recaptured his All-American form in the NCAA Tournament and has been the best player in the Big Dance. His 26-point performance against Old Dominion was followed by a 42-point outburst against Villanova, and he followed that up with a 29-point showing against Tennessee.

That level of play has made him the first player since Stephen Curry to record four consecutive NCAA Tournament games with at least 25 points. He’s making three-pointers at a high clip (18 through three games in the tournament) and is shooting a higher percentage than he did during the regular season.

If Edwards plays well on Saturday against Virginia, Purdue could be playing in their first Final Four since 1980. However, if he struggles, the Boilermakers could get blown out.

Matt Painter won the game with his coaching
If you’ve been reading these Rauf Reports this year, you know that I have not been very high on Tennessee this year, particularly when it comes to their defense. Purdue head coach Matt Painter exploited the Vols’ weakness on that end of the floor with a couple of excellent play calls in overtime.

With Cline red-hot in overtime, Painter ran the same screen play they had been running to get Cline free behind the arc. Tennessee predictably switched on that, leaving Haarms, the screener, with a mismatch in the post – except he stayed at the high post and didn’t go to the block.

Why? With the defense focused on Cline’s shooting and the Haarms mismatch, Edwards came off a weakside screen and took the ball all the way to the rim thanks to the wide open lane created by Haarms.

That was followed by Edwards setting a back screen for Matt Haarms, which the Vols were not expecting and led to Haarms getting an easy dunk to essentially put the game away.

Coaching can sometimes be overstated, particularly at this time of the season, but that doesn’t apply to the job Painter did in overtime.

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