March Madness 2019: Takeaways from second weekend of NCAA Tournament

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Saturday, Gonzaga vs Texas Tech was really the first game in a while Gonzaga faced a test from wire to wire. And that showed as when it came to crunch time one of their leaders made a crucial mistake. Josh Perkins after a Norvell lay in reached across the baseline and hit the player inbounding the basketball. The is a flagrant foul and basically cost them the game. tech would go on to make all their free throws, and win 75-69.

Then Purdue once again found themselves in a tight game. They were playing Virginia to the wire, a team that Purdue I did not think matched up well against. Purdue was carried by Carsen Edwards who scored 42. He did say after the game that he did not feel like he was carrying the team, he was just taking the open shot. Yet again in overtime Purdue played alright but, unlike Tennessee, Virginia played very well, and came away with the victory.

Sunday, the best day of the tournament so far by a long shot. it featured a great opener as Auburn kept on winning as they beat Kentucky in a thriller. Kentucky yet again seemed to falter in the second half. This may be in part due to PJ Washington not being 100% healthy. But, either way that should not take away from the pure genius that is Bruce Pearl.

That program before he took over not to long in 2014 was struggling, they were one of the laughing stocks of the SEC, and he changed that. Now he has them in the Final Four and I bet Charles Barkley is one happy man. They ended up toppling their rival Kentucky 77-71 in overtime. This could be the start of something special in Auburn. With the second game and the game that has all the people talking right now. Michigan State is the team to upset Duke. This is without much of a contribution from one of their top players in Nick Ward.

But, Cassius Winston who at the beginning of the year was my pick for the Bob Cousy Award took over, he had a double-double with 20 points and 10 assists. Despite a solid effort from Barrett and Williamson 21 and 24 respectively they could not get it done. Barrett missed an open look late in the game which sealed their fate. It has people thinking though as Cam Reddish was not completely healthy like Washington for Kentucky would both of their teams won.

After a very uneventful first weekend this weekend is one for the ages. with three games going to overtime and 8 games being decided by six points or less. This weekend was one that all college basketball fans hoped for. And for me someone who does like a good upset every once in a while the Final Four is set with a 1 seed, 2 seed, 3 seed, and a 5 seed. I hope just like many others that next weekend might live up to what this weekend brought.