Day 2 of Sweet 16 Recap

By Djack

Butler 4 vs UNC 1:
When Justin Jackson and Joel Berry play as good as they did last night, I don't know if there's anyone in the country that can beat them. Kansas is the only team that truly has a shot at bringing them down when UNC is on a roll like last night. Luckily for Kentucky, Joel Berry and Justin Jackson don't always show up like that, a la the ACC tournament semifinal. Butler just couldn't contain the two stars last night as they combined for 50 points, shooting at a great percentage from the floor. UNC also dominated on the boards and just in the paint in general. Consistently getting to the line even though they shot a garbage percentage from the stripe. The Tar Heels run away with a comfortable win as the Bulldogs were just simply outmatched, resulting in a 92-80 loss to UNC.

South Carolina 7 vs Baylor 3:
Baylor basketball is the fraud of the tournament what seems like every year. They'll have a solid regular season beating up on bad teams, losing to the few good teams on their schedule, get a high seed in the tournament, and exit early every time. Surprisingly enough they made it to the sweet 16 this year, which shouldn't be very hard as a 3-seed, nevertheless it's a challenge for Baylor, regardless it didn't matter because their annual exposure of being fraudulent occurred last night. The South Carolina Gamecocks, the nobody's of the tournament continue to bully teams. This one was over late in the first half when South Carolina went on a 14-0 run. The suffocating defense was getting to Baylor as they couldn't buy a bucket for minutes at a time throughout the first half. Meanwhile, South Carolina seemed like they couldn't miss shooting 40% from 3-point land, and they had 4 players in double figures compared to Baylor only having one. South Carolina was the team everyone coming into this game thought was a fraud, in turn they showed the world Baylor was the real fraud when they crushed them 70-50.

UCLA 3 vs Kentucky 2:
What was supposed to be the matchup of the night turned out to be quite the disappointment. In the first half it was back and forth, lead change after lead change. Sure, the scoring wasn't there like fans had expected, yet it was still the competitive matchup we were all craving. The second half was all Wildcats. De'Aaron Fox sliced and diced the UCLA defense into pieces. All he had to do was come off a screen and get the hole, he was a man on a mission to prove Lonzo Ball wasn't the only great point guard in the game, and boy was his statement received. Have to respect a performance like that. Lonzo Ball on the other hand, didn't quite show up. It's tough to say that when he almost had a double double, however his shooting was poor, his defense was poor, and he turned the ball over too much. Kentucky's guards outplayed UCLA's guards by a long shot, and that's why the result was 85-76, Kentucky moves on.

Wisconsin 8 vs Florida 4:
The game of the night, the game of the tournament, probably just the game of the year. Wisconsin vs Florida last night was an instant classic. Wisconsin jumped out to an early lead, it looked like their offense was too much for Florida's defense, and Florida's offense couldn't handle the physicality of the Badgers defense. Wasn't looking good for the Gators early to say the least. The Gators stuck to their game plan and started marching back at end of the first going on a nice run to close out the half. Wisconsin's biggest lead was 11 in the first and they managed to be down by 2 going into halftime. The second half was basically the exact opposite, Florida would lead then Wisconsin would close the gap. This trend continued for the entirety of the second half. With 4 minutes left the Badgers were down by 10, Florida looked like they were on their way to wrapping this game up, although Ethan Happ and Zack Showalter had different plans. Those two basically carried the Wisconsin team back by themselves in the final minutes. Showalter would hit a 3 to tie the game up at 72 a piece and send the game to overtime.

In overtime KeVaughn Allen led the way like he did the entire game offensively for Florida, however it didn't look like it'd be enough with the way Wisconsin was playing. Down by 2 with 35 seconds left, Florida's Chris Chiozza decides to come alive. He gets a rebound that turns into a fastbreak lay up to tie up the game 81-81. Wisconsin has the ball for what should be the final possession of the game, that was until Justin Leon fouled Nigel Hayes, sending him to the free throw line. Hayes hit both it looked like Wisconsin was going to keeping marching on with only 4  seconds left on the clock and no timeouts for Florida, all hope seemed to be lost. Chris Chiozza runs the ball up the court, sprints to the 3-point line, takes a running 3-point shot, it falls, Florida wins on a buzzer beater in overtime 84-83 in the greatest college basketball game of the year!!!!