Syracuse Regional Recap (Day 2 Round 2)

(10) NC State 65 - (2) UConn 62
As predicted UConn was too big and the defense too much for NC State. Unfortnately for UConn the 3's were not falling. 10 3's for NCState vs 2 for UConn. You can blame the loss on a terrible non-call at the end of the game which resulted in a 3 pointer for NC State instead of the ball for UConn, but the real problem for UConn was the inability to hit the three, followed by their lack of intensity for the first 35 minutes of the game. UConn absolutely controlled the paint those last 5 minutes, well except for the layup and foul and the end of the game that gave NC State the lead and the game. So UConn fans don't blame the refs, blame your team.

(1) North Carolina 92 - (9) Iowa St. 65
North Carolina looks so good right now. They are firing on all cylinders. They just absolutely dominated Iowa St. on the inside. Not only were they good inside, they were good in transistion as well. North Carolina just ran and ran and ran until Iowa St. could not keep up anymore. After that North Carolina blew the game wide open. Even though Iowa St. was in striking distance for a while you never got the sense that they were ever in the game. North Carolina looks the best of any tournament team right now and this is written from the perspective of someone who does not like North Carolina very much. All I can say is wow.

(6) Wisconsin 71 - (14) Bucknell 62
Not sure why Wisconsin could not put the Bisons away. I thought that Wisconsin could have gone inside more since they did have success in the paint. Wisconsin played like they were not taking the game seriously at times. Whenever they got a lead they let their guard down, got lazy on offensive which allowed Bucknell to stick around. When the Badgers got serious, it was clear which team was the Sweet 16 team and which team was wearing glass slippers. Give Wilkenson credit (23 pts, 9 boards), he is the heart and soul of the Badgers and a big reason why they are moving on to the second week.

(5) Villanova - (4) Florida
Remind me again why I liked Florida in this game. They are constant underacheivers in the NCAA tournament. Villanova just spanked them, let the gators back in the game and just crushed them down the stretch. 19 turnovers and a -8 rebounding differential sealed the fate of the Gators. Villanova's defense has looked sharp the first two rounds and will have to be even sharper if the are going to slow down North Carolina in Syracuse. Should be an interesting game if Villanova's defense was as good as the first two rounds seems to indicate.