The Madness: Sweet 16 Thursday Wrap

Greetings...

• The Xavier/K-State game was one for the ages for how it went back-and-forth, double-OT, insane shot-making, etc... but it was honestly one of the worst executed games in memory on both ends (sorry for the damper)... That said, Jacob Pullen was unreal in the OTs for K-State and Jordan Crawford hit multiple 30-footers for Xavier... really entertaining battle, and despite my strong dislike for Frank Martin (K-State HC), they are into the Elite 8 and the favorite to make the final 4....
• Somehow Butler was upstaged a bit by the theatrics of the late game... but the way they battled back from the big Syracuse run (to take a 54-50 lead with 3 minutes left) shouldn't be forgotten... gritty team.... Syracuse was its own worst nightmare with turnovers galore and the absolute refusal to give the ball to Wes Johnson down the stretch (even though he had shown to be unguardable)... Kind of shocking from a veteran team to put together a meltdown like that...
• Kentucky/Cornell was certainly a "styles make fights" game... and there were stretches where the Big Red definitely seemed to have Kentucky flustered (even cutting the lead to 6 fairly late), but they couldn't make enough threes, and there was just enough fast break time for Wall and company to win fairly easily... The only "chalk" elite 8 matchup was set when...
• West Virginia exploded in the 2nd half against Washington.... this was a pretty ugly game as well... both teams shot 40% from the field, neither shot even 30% from distance, and both committed over 20 turnovers (wow)... those numbers tell the story, but WV gritted another one behind their vets and a big run in the middle of the 2nd half to put it away... I'm not the biggest Huggins fan, but I like their chances against Kentucky because they actually have the athletes to stay on the floor with them

Big games Friday... check out my preview edition (from Monday) for full writeups but I like Duke, Baylor, Ohio State and I've actually flipped on a game since then... picking Northern Iowa but let's just say I'd never bet against Tom Izzo in Vegas (aka I'm clueless on that game)