Champion: Kentucky. The Wildcats were the best team all season long and that didn't change during the tournament. Relative to the competition, this is one of the most dominant teams in recent memory (anyone who doubts that after the relatively underwhelming second half in the title game needs to go search for the remains of Baylor after the Elite Eight). Even during the great game with Indiana (more on that later), there was never really a sense that Kentucky wasn't in control. If only Christian Watford hadn't beaten the buzzer in the first game back in December, we might have seen a perfect team (believe me Kentucky would have had more urgency against Vanderbilt in the SEC Tourney if perfection was still on the line).
Best Player: Anthony Davis, Kentucky. He just takes over games on defense and his offense is more than good enough to allow things to run through him. Playing against him is nearly unfair, especially if Kentucky's 3-point shooters are on their game. Amazingly, he was the best player on the floor by a wide margin in the championship game even though he didn't score in the first half.
Best Game: Kansas over North Carolina in the Elite Eight. Don't let the score color the thought process. This was a great game where Kansas made a huge run at the end. The first half was drawing Kentucky-Duke 92 comparisons on twitter (crazy but still, and most likely because of the lackluster tournament to that point) and was incredible basketball. The second half was a tight defensive affair that still held all of its entertainment value. Admittedly, this game doesn't win most years, but there were no truly fantastic moments in this year's tournament that could elevate some other game.
Honorable Mentions Best Game:
Kentucky over Indiana in the Sweet 16 – An incredible game of offensive execution on both sides. Still, I never got the sense Kentucky was really in trouble.
Indiana over VCU 61 in the Third Round (ugh) – Good, well-played slow tempo game where Indiana just made the right plays down the stretch and VCU couldn't win it at the buzzer.
North Carolina over Ohio in the Sweet 16 – A game made by the absence of point guard Kendall Marshall still was great theater down the stretch as Ohio threw everything it had at the favored Tar Heels before succumbing in overtime.
Biggest Upset: Norfolk St. over Missouri in Second Round. This was just inconceivable to pretty much everyone, particularly those that watched Missouri disembowel Baylor in the Big 12 Tournament final just a few days earlier. This game was bigger than Lehigh's 15 over 2 upset over Duke for a few reasons. For one, the efficiency stats actually showed that Norfolk St. was overseeded at 15 and should have been in a play in game while Lehigh looked more like a 14 seed. Second, Missouri was being passed at least to the Elite Eight if not the Final Four while Duke was considered a potential upset victim as early as a possible second round matchup with Xavier. Third, Norfolk St. played one of the worst tournament games in history the next time out against Florida. The Gators shut the engine down before halftime and won by 34. This is normal in 1 vs 16 games, but Florida was a 7 seed (if a 7 that underachieved during the regular season).
Best Comeback: 3-way tie between Louisville over Florida in the Elite Eight, BYU over Iona in the First Four and Western Kentucky over Mississippi Valley St. in the First Four. For Louisville, they turned up the pressure and Florida wilted late under it at the Elite Eight stage, just as they did last season against Butler. BYU coming back against Iona seemed inconceivable at one point. The Cougars were down 25 and Iona was basically shooting against air. Then BYU got the defense going and Iona couldn't hit the water from a boat. The best thing, it wasn't a change at halftime. It basically changed on a dime with no rhyme, reason or adjustments. Western Kentucky's comeback might have been the most improbable of them all with no reason to believe there was hope down 16 with only 37 points on the board with 5 minutes to go. The battle was to see if the Hilltoppers could reach 50 (my money would have been on no), not if they could win the game like they did.
Best Conference: SEC. It helps the have the champs, but the others in the tournament also puller their weight. Florida took advantage of some hapless teams and good matchups to come within a minute of the Final Four as a 7-seed. Alabama looked good in a one-point loss to Creighton and Vanderbilt lost at the expectation for its seed. Overall, it looks good while others were all over the map results wise.
Worst Conference: Mountain West. And thus ends a pathetic year for Western basketball. Nobody Rocky Mountains west managed to make the Sweet 16 and the standard bearer for this season was the MWC. From the league, only New Mexico showed well, pushing eventual Final Four participant Louisville to the final minute after winning its first game. Everyone else was bad. Colorado St. was meekly dispatched by Murray St. San Diego St. was upset by NC State and UNLV was awful for most of the game in handing the smoking crater (that's Pac-12 for those who don't know) its only win. Just horrid.
Other thoughts:
This normally would be a much longer post, but I can't bring myself to type that much more. The tournament, for all the lauding the committee got for getting the bracket right, ended up with a generally boring and awful tournament.
The whole tournament was a boring march to the Kentucky coronation. Even when Louisville tied the game in the Final Four, there was never a sense Kentucky was even in trouble. It dulled the proceedings everywhere, especially with no buzzer beaters or great moments late in any other game.
Missouri's loss and Louisville's ascension from the West stripped the tournament of its entertainment value. Both team got a lot of coverage during the regular season. Everybody loved watching Missouri and its entertaining brand of basketball. Nobody liked watching and its limited roster play up tempo games that still didn't reach 60 points. With Missouri gone and Louisville advancing, it bored the nation and annoyed many who picked Missouri to the Final Four and Louisville as an early upset victim (I only did one of those).
The committee needs to stop matching non-power conference teams in the first round when possible. There was no need for Wichita St./VCU or Saint Louis/Memphis (the games involving the Mountain West and non power teams were largely unavoidable given that ¾ of the ones in the tournament were seeded either 6 or 11 and the other one was a 5 meaning there was no ability to seed adjust). In addition, I think BYU-Iona and Cal-USF should have had the matchups juggled in the First Four. It would make everyone happier because everyone likes seeing the small schools take shots at the bigger ones (and lose) and it would also lend more legitimacy to a team like Murray St. that beat Colorado St. but no power conference teams the entire season.
Congrats to Kentucky. Hopefully next year is better.
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