WITH my fave Los Angeles Lakers out of the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs for the sixth year in a row despite the presence of free-agent acquisition LeBron James, who will be missing his first postseason activity since his pro sophomore campaign in 2005 after consecutive trips to the NBA Finals in the past eight years, my attention has shifted to the ongoing March Madness that is the one-loss-and-you’re-out, 68-school U.S. NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, which is down to the Sweet 16 following two rounds of action (plus four play-in games) over the weekend.
For sure, there will be a new king sitting in the throne following the early exit of 2016 and 2018 national titlist Villanova University. The sixth-seeded Wildcats fell to third-seeded Purdue University, 87-61, in second-round play in the South Regional.
Boilermakers playmaker Carsen Edwards, playing with a sore back, torched the Wildcats for a career-high 42 points and set a school record with nine triples. It was the highest individual score in the NCAA tournament since Gerry McNamara netted 43 points for Syracuse in 2004.
For Villanova (26-10), the 26-point debacle was the largest ever in an NCAA tournament contest in program history and the second-largest by a defending national champion. A pair of Wildcats seniors – Phil Booth and Eric Paschall – lost a chance to duplicate the three-championship feat (1967-69) of UCLA’s Lew Alcindor (now known by his Muslim name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), the most title rings by any player in NCAA Division I history. (Note that freshmen were not allowed to play varsity ball until 1972-73.)
Members of the Wildcats’ 2016 and 2018 NCAA title units, Paschall (19) and Booth (15) combined for 34 points in their farewell appearance with Villanova.
There were a dozen off-chart results (wins by lower-seeded teams) in the 32-game first round but only one in the 16-game second round.
The top seed in each of the four regionals – East, South, Midwest and West – made it to the Sweet 16, which is slated to be played on Friday and Saturday, both Manila times.
Nationally fourth-ranked Gonzaga University (32-3), the top seed in the West Regional, was the first to reach the third round, blasting ninth-seeded Baylor University, 83-71, last Sunday.
Yesterday, the three other regional No. 1 seeds also advanced to the Sweet 16.
The University of Virginia (31-3), the No. 2 overall seed, pulverized ninth-seeded University of Oklahoma, 63-51, in the South Region second-round action. University of North Carolina (29-6), the No. 3 overall seed, whipped ninth-seeded University of Washington, 81-59, in second-round play in the Midwest Regional.
Duke University (31-5), the No. 1 overall seed and the oddsmakers’ choice to romp away with its sixth NCAA title overall (after 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010 and 2015) all under current Blue Devils head coach and former Olympics bench boss Mike Krzyzewski, escaped with a come-from-behind 77-76 decision over upset-conscious University of Central Florida, in an East Regional second-rounder. Trailing 76-73, the Blue Devils banked on the heroics of their dynamic left-handed freshman duo of Zion Lateef Williamson and Canadian Rowan Alexander (RJ) Barrett Jr., who each scored a basket in the final 14.4 seconds of the game. Williamson, a 6-foot-7 frontliner, made a layup over 7-foot-6, 23-year-old Knights senior Tacko Fall, U.S. college basketball’s tallest player out of Dakar, Senegal who fouled out on the play
The 18-year-old Williamson, who is projected to be the No. 1 selection in the NBA draft in June, failed to connect on the accompanying free throw, but Barrett, a 6-foot-7 shooting guard out of Toronto, got the offensive rebound and scored on a putback for the game-winning twinner.
Aubrey Dawkins, the son of UCF coach Johnny Dawkins, a former Duke guard (1982-86) and NBA player who later spent more than 10 seasons on Coach K’s staff, missed on a tip-in with less than two ticks to go.
Duke, Virginia and North Carolina all belong to the Atlantic Coast Conference. It’s the first time that a conference claimed the top three spots in the final Associated Press poll. The ACC tournament was won by the Blue Devils behind Williamson, the ACC Rookie of the Year who is also the first frosh ever to capture both the league’s Player of the Year and tournament Most Valuable Player honors.
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