Kansas-Wichita State, Dayton's Cinderella bid are just the start of Sunday's NCAA fun
Half the Sweet 16 field is set. Hello to you, NC State. And UCLA. And Xavier.
It’s not all surprises so far, though, as one team continues to tower over all others. Kentucky, now the first Division I men’s team to go 36-0, has cemented its expected spot in Cleveland next week. Several of Sunday’s most intriguing contests involve the Wildcats’ side of the bracket.
A quick primer:
Game of the Day: Kansas-Wichita State. Shockers standout Ron Baker — who’s played in a Final Four, mind you — told reporters Saturday his phone’s been blowing up with Wichita supporters telling him this is the biggest game of their lives. “I’m like, ‘Hey, I’m the one playing in it. How do you think I feel?’” Baker said. Kansas coach Bill Self said, “If we played in shirts and skins tomorrow, we’d still have 18,000 [fans] here.” The in-state foes meet for the first time since 1993. Wichita State point guard Fred VanVleet could give the second-seeded Jayhawks problems, but Kansas’ size could do in the seventh seed.
Close second: Virginia-Michigan State. The East already has lost its No. 1 seed, Villanova, so this one takes on added importance. It’s another 2 vs. 7 game in which the teams are a lot closer than their seeds. While hardly a vintage Tom Izzo team, the Spartans still rank 17th overall on KenPom.com. Virginia is fourth. Tony Bennett’s team is an impressive 30-3, but Izzo is an astounding 12-1 in Round of 32 games.
Cinderella Watch: Dayton will be the only double-digit seed in action Sunday. The 11th-seeded Flyers, who’ve managed to go 27-8 despite playing most of the year with just seven scholarship players, could be on serious fatigue watch against No. 3 seed Oklahoma. This will be their sixth game in 10 days dating to last week’s Atlantic 10 tournament. Then again, they’ll be playing in front of a de facto home crowd yet again in Columbus. Sooners coach Lon Kruger now has won NCAA tourney games at five schools. Flyers coach Archie Miller is 5-1 in tourney games dating just to last season.
Who gets to play Kentucky next? Maryland and West Virginia square off for the honor. The Terps just keep pulling out close games, improving to 11-1 in games decided by six points or fewer in Friday’s 65-62 win over Valpo. Veteran Dez Wells and freshman point guard Melo Trimble make a heck of a tandem. Bob Huggins’ Mountaineers are plenty tested, though, having taken down Kansas and Oklahoma during Big 12 play.
Who gets to play Steve Alford next? It’s either going to be Gonzaga, which beat UCLA 87-74 on Dec. 13, or … Iowa, whose fans still haven’t forgiven their former head coach for, well, a bunch of things.
Will another No. 1 seed go down? Neither Wisconsin (against Oregon) nor Duke (against San Diego State) seems as vulnerable as Villanova, but hey, it’s March. Perhaps Ducks star Joseph Young, who put up 27 against Oklahoma State on Friday, puts on an all-timer to take down Frank Kaminsky’s Badgers, or Steve Fisher’s Aztecs suffocate Jahlil Okafor and Tyus Jones with a defense ranked in the top five nationally in efficiency.
First one to 45 wins: Louisville-Northern Iowa could be an incredibly competitive 4-5 game. It’s definitely going to be laborious. Northern Iowa likes to sloooow the tempo to a grind, averaging just 58.7 possessions per game, which is probably fine with Rick Pitino, whose offensively challenged team would be ill-suited for a shootout.
These same teams took part in a very chalk-heavy set of Round of 64 games Friday. Here’s guessing Sunday provides at least a couple more surprises.
Stewart Mandel is a senior college sports columnist for FOXSports.com. He covered college football and basketball for 15 years at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter @slmandel. Send emails and Mailbag questions to Stewart.Mandel@fox.com.
