Tag: 2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament

Photos from Miami’s comeback victory to punch their ticket to the Final Four

Miami joins Florida Atlantic and San Diego State as each school makes its first trip to the Final Four in their school’s history.

The Final Four is officially set for Saturday, Apr. 1 in Houston, Texas. The [autotag]Miami Hurricanes[/autotag] were the last team to punch their ticket. They won 88-81 on Sunday evening.

Early on in the second half, it appeared that the Texas Longhorns were going to run away with the game and head to Houston for a chance at their first national championship.

With 13:30 remaining in the second half, Tyrese Hunter gave Texas the 64-51 lead. The Longhorns were able to keep some distance between them and the Hurricanes but as the clock ticked under 10 minutes to go, Miami began to make their run.

Miami was led by Jordan Miller, who was a blistering 13-13 from the charity stripe and led all scorers with 27 points. In fact, the Canes would hit 28 of their 32 attempts from the free throw line which was the difference in this game. The Longhorns hit 11 of 15 in their attempts.

Check out these photos from the Midwest Regional Final.

Twitter reacts to end of game foul call in Creighton vs San Diego State

An end of game foul on Creighton in their Elite Eight loss to San Diego State has caused quite the stir on Twitter.

The Creighton Blue Jays and San Diego Aztecs followed up their NCAA Tournament meeting in 2022 with another fantastic game on Sunday afternoon in Louisville.

While the Aztecs came away on top with a 57-56 win, the large amount of conversation following the game surrounded a controversial foul call in the final seconds of the game.

To set up the scene…

After a Baylor Scheierman layup tied the game up for Creighton at 56-56, San Diego would get the ball with what would for all intents and purposes be the last full possession of the game.

With a foul to give, Creighton’s Trey Alexander would intentionally foul, stopping the clock with seven seconds remaining, which would also kill the shot clock.

After timeouts by both sides, San Diego State would get the chance for an in-bounds play from the left sideline. After the Aztecs’ original play was foiled by the Blue Jays, guard Darion Trammell would take a mid-range floater from near the free-throw line, the original shot missing. However, on the shot, Creighton’s Ryan Nembhard was called for a shooting foul.

Trammell would miss his first free throw before making his second to give San Diego State a 57-56 lead with 1.2 seconds remaining. The ensuing inbound pass by Creighton would be unsuccessful, hitting off several fingertips before landing out of bounds. After an officials review, it was deemed that the clock should’ve expired and the game was over, with San Diego State moving on.

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It wasn’t the movie-like ending that many love to see at the end of an NCAA Tournament matchup but it was certainly an ending that caused its fair share of discussion on social media.

MAULED: Twitter reacts to No. 15 Princeton’s domination of No. 7 Missouri

Revenge of the Nerds: Part II

The No.15 Princeton Tigers left little doubt on Saturday afternoon against the No.7 Missouri Tigers, upsetting the Tigers, 78-63, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament’s South Region.

Princeton was led offensively by guard Ryan Langborg, who had 22 points, six rebounds and four assists while hitting 8-of-17 shots from the floor, including 4-of-12 from beyond the arc. The Tigers also saw guard Blake Peters come off the bench and contribute 17 points, with all five of his field goals coming from three-point range.

The Tigers despite losing by 15 points had three starters with double-digit efforts offensively including guard Deandre Gholston who had 19 points, forward Noah Carter, and guard Kobe Brown also had good performances with 14 and 12 points respectively.

Overall, the story of the game was Princeton’s ability to shoot the 3. The Tigers took more than 50% of their shots in the game from beyond the arc (33 of 62) and they hit 12. Missouri, on the other hand, made 6-of-22 shots from 3-point range.

The Tigers move on to the Sweet 16. They are the fourth No. 15 seed in history to do so. They look to follow the lead of the St. Peter’s Peacocks, who made the Elite Eight last season before being beaten by North Carolina. The Tigers will take on the winner of No. 6 Creighton and No. 3 Baylor with the matchup set to take place at the KFC Yum Center in Louisville, Kentucky. Neither a date nor time has been announced.

Furman’s Cinderella runs comes to an end against San Diego State

Furman makes history by beating Virginia but their dream season ends in the second round.

Furman had an opportunity to be the next Cinderella team in the NCAA Tournament after taking down No. 4 Virginia on Thursday. However, that dream came to a quick end with their 75-52 loss to San Diego State on Saturday.

It was the Paladins’ first tournament appearance since 1980 under head coach Eddie Holbrook. That season earned a No. 10 seed after finishing 16-5 in the regular season and winning the Southern Conference tournament. Furman was eliminated by Tennessee in the first round, 80-69.

Furman continued Virginia’s run of futility with another first-round exit. They were led this season by a pair of seniors, guard Mike Bothwell and forward Jalen Slawson.

San Diego State on the other hand moves on to the Sweet 16 as they await the winner of the Alabama and Maryland matchup. The Aztecs hadn’t reached the second of March Madness since 2015 when they were knocked off by Duke, 68-49.

As for Furman, they can walk away from the 2023 NCAA men’s tournament with their heads held high. The Paladins won a tournament game for the first time since 1974.

Head coach Bob Richey will have some work to do as he is tasked with replacing his senior leaders next season.

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March Sadness: Twitter reax to Iowa State’s abysmal shooting performance

“Iowa State owes the whole country an apology for making us watch this”

It was absolutely brutal to observe on Friday. The Iowa State Cyclones put on a clinic of what not to do in an NCAA Tournament matchup.

Iowa State shot a meager 2/21 from beyond the arc as they fell to Pitt 59-41. That breaks down to just 9.5% from three and 23.3% from the field on 14 of 60 shots made. It wasn’t much better from the charity stripe as they would sink just 11 of 19 attempts.

On the other side of the court, the Panthers shot 34.1% from the field with the same number of field goals, 14. However, Pitt was able to hit six of their 19 attempts from deep. The team would shoot 86.2% from the free throw line hitting 25 of 29 attempts.

Following the game, Twitter was alive and well. Check out some of the best tweets from during and after the game.

Second half flurry keeps Xavier’s March Madness run alive

Jack Nunge, Souley Boum save Xavier’s season, for now.

The college basketball world had its eyes on the No. 3 Xavier and No. 14 Kennesaw State matchup on Friday. We already saw No. 2 Arizona and No. 4 Virginia fall on day one of the tournament.

Heading into the second half, the higher-seeded Xavier Musketeers found themselves in a hole, 43-36. With 9:56 remaining in the game, the Owls held a 61-48 lead. That is when the wheels came off for this Cinderella story.

It would be seven-plus minutes without a made field goal for Kennesaw State. It allowed Xavier to make a run to re-take the lead at 62-61 with 4:47 remaining on a Jack Nunge free-throw attempt.

This one would come down to the wire as Xavier clung to a 68-67 lead with just 18 seconds remaining. A Nunge block with two seconds left would all but seal it for the Musketeers as they would survive. Souley Boum would make four straight free throw shots to give them the win, 72-67.

Xavier awaits the winner of Iowa State and Pittsburgh on Sunday in the Round of 32.

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A rage-filled Tom Izzo snapped a poor whiteboard during Michigan State’s 1st-round game

Guessing Izzo didn’t draw up a play during this timeout.

Tom Izzo was absolutely on one during Michigan State’s opening-round game against USC in the men’s NCAA tournament.

It’s not uncommon to see him lose his cool on the sideline, but that was especially the case Friday as he berated players and referees alike, then took it to a whiteboard during a timeout in the second half.

This particular moment appeared to be sparked by an offensive foul called on Spartans forward Malik Hall that Izzo vehemently disagreed with. Apparently, the words he had for refs weren’t enough to get out all of his frustration. The poor board paid the price.

Mind you, all of this took place while Michigan State was up — in a game it rarely trailed.

Hate to see what Izzo looks like when the Spartans are losing.

To his credit, he had a good sense of humor about it during his postgame interview after wrapping up the win, saying “these are harder to break than those old cardboard ones.”

Maybe try the 1, 2, 3 breathing exercise next time, coach.

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Virginia among biggest losers on day one of the NCAA Tournament

UVA is among the biggest losers from Thursday’s round one action.

Only three things seem to be certain when it comes to this time of year. Death, taxes, and the [autotag]Virginia Cavaliers[/autotag] choking in the first round.

For the third time in the last four appearances, UVA dropped a first-round matchup. This time they fell to No. 13 Furman after an ill-advised heave downcourt right into the waiting arms of Paladin’s player Garret Hien. Once the ball was passed to JP Pegues, it was all she wrote for Virginia.

The Cavaliers lost to UMBC in the 2018 tournament. The following year they made a run to the title but in their last two appearances both as a No. 4 seed, they were bounced in the first round. In 2021, it was to No. 13 Ohio, and again this year to Furman.

According to Lindsay Schnell of USA TODAY Sports, Virginia is among the biggest losers from Thursday’s action.

What Schnell Says…

Trivia time: What happened to Virginia basketball on March 16? If you said, “they made history,” you’d be right. It wasn’t the good kind of history — and this year, history repeated itself. This is becoming a jinxed date for UVA.

On March 16, 2018, Virginia became the first No. 1 seed to lose to a 16-seed in the men’s NCAA Tournament. Five years later to the day, UVA again blew a game in which it was a clear favorite. What’s worse is how it happened. Tony Bennett’s teams are typically disciplined and smart, so to lose because of an extremely dumb pass is rough.

Virginia hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since the 2019 title run, having lost twice in the first round since then.

Virginia wasn’t the only team to fall to a lower-seeded opponent as the Arizona Wildcats had a similar fate against No. 15 Princeton on Thursday. Those two Cinderella teams were amongst the big winners on the first day of the tournament.

First, in the Virginia-Furman game, the Paladins’ suffocating, trapping defense made Virginia senior Kihei Clark panic, and he heaved a dangerous, cross-court pass as the game’s final seconds wound down. That pass was intercepted by Furman’s Garrett Hien, who kicked it to JP Pegues, who’d missed his three previous attempts from long distance. Pegues calmly buried the 3 to go up 68-67. After a timeout, Virginia’s game-winning attempt was off.

Then, in Arizona-Princeton, the Wildcats went ice cold from the field in the final 4:43 (0-for-7) as Princeton pulled off an improbable 59-55 upset. Arizona missed numerous shots in the final couple of minutes that could have won it, and Princeton iced the win with free throws. It’s the third consecutive year a 15 has beaten a 2.

What does day two have in store for us?

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Where is Furman, the team that upset Virginia in the 1st round of the NCAA tournament?

If you’re wondering where Furman is, you aren’t alone.

The first major upset of the 2023 NCAA men’s tournament happened Thursday when Furman beat Virginia.

That’s 13-seed Furman, to be exact.

The Southern Conference champions knocked off 4-seed UVA, causing absolute pandemonium just a couple games into the first round.

If you’re anything like me, the exciting finish after an unbelievable late turnover caused a loud noise to escape your body. Then, after you calmed yourself down enough to process what just happened, you asked yourself, “where the heck is Furman anyway?”

Thankfully, I looked it up for you. Furman is in Greenville, South Carolina. And the team’s mascot is a Paladin, in case you were wondering.

The more you know.

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Joe Biden picked Arizona to win national title in one of the chalkiest brackets out there

Mr. President didn’t even try.

Presidents have a hard job. I get it.

Keeping up with all things domestic and international requires a lot of focus and attention, so I could see how something as trivial as a basketball tournament could take a backseat. But someone should tell President Joe Biden his NCAA men’s tournament bracket is gonna get busted so fast.

To be fair, all of ours is. But Biden’s is especially bust-able because he went almost as chalk as possible. Sure, he picked 2-seed Arizona to win it all, but his Sweet 16 is made up entirely of the top four seeds in each region.

No way that happens.

At least former President Barack Obama lied a little bit about how informed he is and threw some upsets into his bracket — like Michigan State reaching the Elite 8.

Biden didn’t even try until the Final Four, where he has three 2-seeds and a 1-seed, Kansas, which he has losing to Arizona in the title game.

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