Here we are once again, on March 27, right in the heart of
the NCAA March Madness Tournament. Like everyone else in the nation, my bracket
is shot. Shout out to Dayton, Mercer and Gonzaga especially for making this
possible. My co-writer Edward has been focusing in on the Midwest bracket, so
today I’m going to take my talents to South (beach). First off, my champion
predicted Florida Gators have reached the Sweet 16. On March 20, the Gators
hosted Albany in Orlando, and had an impressive showing against one of the
toughest 16 seeds we’ve seen in a while. Casey Prather and Dorian Finney-Smith
combined for 32 points to seal the Gators 12 point victory. Colorado played
Pitt later on that night, and the massive front court of the Panthers was
dominant en route to a predictable 9-8 upset. Big man Talib Zanna scored 16
points in the first half alone, and the Panthers sealed a 77-48 victory. In San
Diego, Virginia Commonwealth University faced off against Stephen F. Austin in
a 5-12 seed battle. “Fear the 12 seed” has become the motto of the tournament
for me, as 3 of the 4 5-12 games required extra time, and 3 of the four 12
seeds pulled through with upsets. SF Austin had a late 4 point play in OT to
help them advance to the next round with a 77-75 victory. UCLA then faced off
against Tulsa, and the Bruins, led by sophomore Jordan Adams, held off the
Golden Hurricane on their way to a 20 point winning margin. The prior day, in
Buffalo, NY, the Buckeyes took on the Flyers of Dayton, and the game went as
follows; a Flyer swingman scores on a 10 foot jumper with 4 seconds left, then
without a timeout, Ohio State puts the ball in the hands of their clutch senior
point guard, Aaron Craft, who attempts a coast-to-coast play, however, he
drives into traffic and fails on his floater attempt, and Dayton wins by 1. A shaky
Syracuse squad then hosted 14 seed Western Michigan. I was nervous for this
game, regardless of the Orangemens’ opponent, since they haven’t played well in
quite a while. However, they pulled it together, and played as they had in the
beginning of the year, and Cooney led 4 double digit ‘Cuse scorers on the way
to a 22 point victory, the largest margin in the South Bracket. 10 Seed Stanford
took on the 7 seed New Mexico Lobos, and Cardinal big man Chasson Randle scored
23 points to led the 58-53 upset. Kansas had a decent showing, without big man Joel
Embiid, beating Eastern KY by 11.
We’ll
go from the bottom to the top now. So Kansas plays Stanford. This game must
have been very frustrating for Jayhawk fans, as the experienced front court
that leads Stanford was dominant defensively, and one of the nation’s best
players in Andrew Wiggins was held to just 4 points. Stanford comes up with
another upset, possibly the biggest of the tournament so far, sealing their
spot in the Sweet 16. Then Syracuse took on Dayton, in a game that I was in
attendance for. This was quite possibly the worst that I’ve seen the Orange
play this year. They scored just 18 points in the first half. Jerami Grant had
a quiet night. CJ Fair played well for approximately 2 minutes and was nowhere
to be found for the rest of the night. Tyler Ennis was off all night, and the
Syracuse big man didn’t help out at all either. Trevor Cooney shot 40% from 3
point range to start this year. In the second half of the year, he’s been
shooting just 20% percent. Just an awful game to watch. Ennis had two chances
to win the game and was unsuccessful both times, lacking the clutch factor that
he had all season long. The worst part about the game was that Dayton didn’t
even play well. However, they advance to the Sweet 16 where they’ll play
Dayton. That’s all for today, and we’ll most likely finish up the South next
week!
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