Into the Regional Finals
Posted: Friday, March 28, 2008 by Travis Cody in
The overall 1 seed in the tournament advanced with a blow out of 4 seed Washington State. WSU did a pretty good job of controlling tempo early in the game, but they couldn't keep the offensive pressure on UNC. The Tarheels didn't get much offense from Tyler Hansbrough in the first half, but they were still too athletic and too big for the Cougars. In the end, WSU just couldn't match UNC offensively and the Tarheels played outstanding defense to advance to the East Regional final on Saturday.
3 seed Xavier raced out to an early 18 point lead over 7 seed West Virginia. The Mountaineers chipped away in the second half behind Joe Alexander, and took the lead in the final minute. Xavier re-took the lead, and then WVU tied it again. Alexander missed a free throw that might have won the game at the end of regulation. Alexander then fouled out early in the overtime. Joe Mazzula did his best to keep WVU in the game, but Xavier used strong outside shooting and timely rebounding to win and advance to the West Regional final.
The thing that has bothered me about 2 seed Tennessee all season is carelessness. They rely on athletic ability, and often play too loose and try to make althletic plays rather than the simple basketball play. That frenetic style is going to win plenty of games against teams that aren't as quick, but when you match against a team of equally skilled athletes it can do more harm than good. Louisville, the 3 seed, plays a chaotic defensive game as well, but they are much more controlled and mature offensively. The Cardinals exploited Tennessee's lack of basketball IQ at key moments, and reigned in their own tendency to play too fast. Tennessee started to panic and made too many bad plays out of the context of the offense. Louisville took advantage and advanced to the East Regional Final.
1 seed UCLA was just too strong for 12 seed Western Kentucky. The Bruins are one of the best defensive teams in the country, and they showed it by holding the Hilltoppers to 20 points in the first half. UCLA contested every drive to the goal and had a hand in the face of every jump shooter. They controlled the boards on both ends of the floor and broke the Western Kentucky press with ease. UCLA freshman Kevin Love is one of the best passing big men I've ever seen. His outlet passes made it almost impossible for Western Kentucky to put any pressure on the Bruins. However, Western Kentucky made a furious run in the second half, forcing turnovers and creating foul trouble for UCLA, putting the issue in doubt until the Bruins restored order late to preserve the win and advance to the West Regional Final.
East Regional Final: 3 Louisville vs 1 North Carolina
West Regional Final: 3 Xavier vs 1 UCLA
Since I know absolutely nothing about any of this whatsoever, I would just like to take this moment to point out that I really like nachos.
And pizza.
But not together.