3/15: recap of Thursday Night games

Sticking with Thursday afternoon's theme, we'll quickly roll through the results from last night and how they impacted the bracket. There were several seeding changes, but we'll stick to the top story lines. Things are moving really fast, so try to keep up!


  Cal will still make the tournament

• Jarred DuBois broke the spirit of the Golden Bears last night when he hit a late three to tie the game for the Utes of Utah. After the game went to overtime, Cal had nothing left in the tank and gave up 20 (!) points in the extra session. Utah has done this from time to time this season, having already upset Boise State, Colorado, and Oregon. This is still a bad loss, though. While it will certainly drop the Golden Bears a seed line or two, they will be in the tournament. Their good wins are far too impressive to even think about leaving them out. They can do damage in the tournament, but they're going to have to get point production from players not named than Allen Crabbe and Justin Cobbs. 
  

                                                       Iowa could snag the last at-large

• Don't look now, but the Hawkeyes resume is starting to look legit. They own wins over Iowa State, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois and have just two bad losses to Purdue and Northwestern. The problem for Iowa is that they have done nothing away from home this season. That can change on Friday, however. If they can pull off an upset on a neutral court against Michigan State, the selection committee will have to seriously consider this team for an at-large. In order to beat Sparty, they need to get to the free throw line, which is one of their biggest strengths. This is especially true for Roy Devyn Marble. Also, they need to limit their threes. When they take a lot against good teams, they tend to struggle mightily. We'll learn a lot about this team by the end of the day.
  

                                  Hoyas and Cardinals in a dead heat for the final 1 seed

• Both clubs are rolling right now and were able to win impressively in the quarterfinals on Thursday. Georgetown has flourished since they started running their offense through Otto Porter (who totally deserves the national player of the year award, by the way). Louisville has improved dramatically on the offensive end of late, and as a result they've won eight in a row. The real story has been their defense, however. They Cardinals haven't given up more than 61 points since their five overtime loss to Notre Dame. They've been forcing turnovers at an incredible rate lately, and their half-court defense is collectively approaching lock down status. If both teams get to the finals, the winner on Saturday night will almost certainly get the last remaining one seed. 
  

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