Last night, many brackets were busted due to the upset of Duke by Arizona. In a game, where Duke was expected to dominate, they failed to keep up with Arizona’s strength and dominant play. Arizona was a better team in this matchup, and they outscored the Blue Devils 55-33 in the second half. Derrick Williams led the Wildcats to victory. While I had Duke going to the Final Four, I have to admit as a Maryland fan (full disclosure and I am certain that fans of other ACC schools agree)…there is a silver lining to Duke’s loss.
Another bracket buster was Butler defeating Wisconsin, 61-54. Butler used their man-to-man defensive prowess to stop Wisconsin from scoring. Last year, Butler surprised everyone by knocking off top seeds, and they continue to do so in this tournament. Led by Matt Howard, who had 20 points and 12 rebounds, the Bulldogs could prove to be quite a challenge to Florida (who ousted BYU, 83-74 in overtime).
Of course, there were two other games played last night. UConn defeated San Diego State University. UConn is the team to watch, and there is no doubt that Arizona might see a tough challenge from the Huskies, who has an amazing guard, Kemba Walker, who dominated in last night’s game against SDSU. Walker scored 36 points. The other game was BYU and Florida. This was a close game, as it went into overtime. Jimmer Fredette did not have a good night against the Gators, as he only had 32 points (none in the overtime period), and Kenny Boynton of Florida played a good defensive effort against Fredette. Florida advances to play Butler. The Gators need to continue playing good defense and rely heavily on their top scorers against Butler.
Today’s games are as follows: Ohio St. vs. Kentucky, North Carolina vs. Marquette, Kansas vs. Richmond, and VCU vs. Florida State. Yesterday, I covered the Richmond and VCU games. The other two games should be fairly good. Ohio State has been on a roll both offensively and defensively, but Kentucky could prove to be an even match in the same categories. With the way that Marquette played against Syracuse last week, I am actually predicting that the Golden Eagles could beat UNC. UNC barely pulled out a win against Washington last week, and they will need to step it up both offensively and defensively to win this matchup.
Your Daily Bracket will be back tomorrow with a recap of tonight’s games, and then, we will look ahead to the Elite 8 predictions.
