Trav's Thoughts

10 seed Davidson played with tremendous confidence against 3 seed Wisconsin, normally an outstanding defensive team. The Wildcats had success early with a balanced attack. Leading scorer Stephen Curry rubbed his defender off multiple screens, freeing himself for open looks. Although smaller than Wisconsin, Davidson played quicker than the Badgers with a full court press that forced rushed jump shots and turnovers. Wisconsin seemed to panic just a bit early in the second half and tried to take advantage of their size. But Davidson countered with the brilliance of Curry and an unwillingness to back down. The Wildcats took advantage of every mistake Wisconsin made to win in decisive fashion and advance to the Midwest Regional final. Curry has scored 103 points in three tournament games.

Note: Davidson College paid the way for hundreds of its students to see the basketball team compete in the Sweet 16 in Detroit. The college paid for transportation, lodging, and a ticket to the game. Read the story here.

3 seed Stanford had trouble with the quickness of 2 seed Texas. For whatever reason the Cardinal perimeter players refused to dump the ball inside to the 7' Lopez twins until mid-way through the first half. Texas had no answer for it and Stanford gradually crept back into the game. The Longhorns were forced to double team in the post, which freed up Stanford's perimeter shooters for wide open looks that they failed to make consistently. Ultimately Stanford failed on the defensive end to adjust to the quickness of the Texas guards. The lesson from this game is this: if you have two excellent post players, but you don't know the proper fundamental way to get them the ball in the right place at the right time, you might as well not have them at all. Texas played a solid all around game to advance to the South Regional final.

1 seed Kansas is big, strong, and athletic. They play a controlled, unselfish style. They can get out and run on the break or play a physical half-court game. They are deep, well-coached, and they don't make a lot of mistakes. The Jayhawks over-powered 12 seed Villanova. It's great when the lower seeds pull off upsets and bust the brackets. But sometimes it sets up a situation where the lower seeds can't compete in later rounds. Kansas took advantage of Villanova's inability to compete and advanced easily to the Midwest Regional final.

1 seed Memphis was too fast and too talented for 5 seed Michigan State to handle. When the Tigers are interested and motivated, they look unbeatable. MSU looked like they were playing with 10lb weights on their sneakers. Memphis smothered the perimeter players and dominated the interior. The Tigers were prepared for everything MSU wanted to do, and were about 5 steps quicker than the Spartans. Memphis outrebounded the best rebounding team in the Big 10 by double digits. MSU was able to take advantage of the lack of focus from Memphis in the second half, going on a run to cut into the Tigers' 34 point lead. The Spartans got as close as 14 and then began to foul, hoping to capitalize on Memphis' poor free throw shooting. Memphis finally did enough to win by 18 and advance to the South Regional final.

Midwest Regional Final: 10 Davidson vs 1 Kansas

South Regional Final: 2 Texas vs 1 Memphis