Inside the games
Sunday’s leaders
Scoring
| I. McFarlin, Okla. St. vs. S.Illinois | 31 |
| S. May, N.C. vs. Iowa St. | 27 |
| T. Sorrentine, Vt., vs. Mich. St. | 26 |
| C. McNaughton, Bucknell vs. Wis. | 23 |
| M. Wilkinson, Wis. vs. Bucknell | 23 |
Rebounding
| J. Homan, Iowa St. vs. N.C. | 20 |
| S. May, N.C. vs. Iowa St. | 17 |
| S. Williams, Duke, vs. Miss. St. | 15 |
| J. Frasor, Villanova vs. Florida | 15 |
| P. Davis, Mich.St. vs. Vt. | 14 |
| T. Coppenrath, Vt. vs. Mich. St. | 14 |
Assists
| R. Felton, N.C. vs. Iowa St. | 8 |
| C. Stinson, Iowa St. vs. N.C. | 7 |
| J. Hodge, N.C. St. vs. UConn | 6 |
| W. Blalock, Iowa St. vs. N.C. | 6 |
| J. Graham, Okla. St. vs. S.Illinois | 6 |
| D. Neitzer, Mich. St. vs. Vt. | 6 |
| J. Jack, Ga. Tech vs. Louisville | 6 |
| K. Bettencourt, Bucknell vs. Wis. | 6 |
Call them Big Least
Villanova and West Virginia saved the Big East from an otherwise rough weekend.
The conference that boasted one-fifth of the final Top 25 has just two of its six teams still alive in the NCAA Tournament.
The most stunning of the teams eliminated was second-seeded Connecticut, the defending national champions, which lost to No. 10 North Carolina State on Sunday.
The Huskies, who shared the regular-season championship with Boston College, didn’t look good in the Big East tournament last week and never looked like the team that closed the regular season winning nine of 10 games.
The other time Connecticut defended a national title it also lost in the second round, to Tennessee in 2000. The last national champion to lose in the first round was UCLA when the Bruins lost to Princeton in 1996.
What made the loss to North Carolina State even more stunning was that the Huskies under Jim Calhoun were 27-0 against teams seeded sixth through 16.
Boston College and Syracuse, both No. 4 seeds, also lost to double-digit seeds. The Eagles lost to No. 12 Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the second round; the Orange, the conference tournament champions, were knocked out in the first round by No. 13 Vermont.
Pittsburgh, a 9 seed, lost to eighth-seeded Pacific in the first round.
Seventh-seeded West Virginia beat No. 2 Wake Forest 111-105 in double overtime on Saturday night in the most exciting game of the tournament thus far, while fifth-seeded Villanova beat No. 4 Florida in the second round Sunday.
The Big East will change dramatically next season with five schools coming over from Conference USA and Boston College leaving for the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Par for the course
Six teams seeded sixth or worse reached the Sweet 16 and although that may sound like a lot, it’s right about par for the last eight years.
Since 1997, at least four teams seeded sixth or below have moved on to the second weekend with an average of 5.6 per season.
The most during that stretch was 2000 when half of the round of 16 were seeded sixth to 16th. The lowest in that period was 2003 when four moved on.
This year’s group includes three No. 6 seeds – Texas Tech, Utah and Wisconsin – one No. 7 (West Virginia), one No. 10 (North Carolina State) and one No. 12 (Wisconsin-Milwaukee).
Rough regional
No. 1 seed North Carolina was the only one of the top four seeds in the Syracuse Regional to advance to the round of 16.
Second-seeded Connecticut lost to North Carolina State in the second round, No. 3 Kansas lost to Bucknell in the first round and fourth-seeded Florida was beaten by Villanova in the second round.
That’s seems like good news for North Carolina as the Tar Heels head for the Carrier Dome.
It could be great news.
Last year the Phoenix Regional lost Nos. 1 (Stanford), 3 (North Carolina State) and 4 (Maryland) in the second round.
The No. 2 seed that moved on was Connecticut, which went on to win the national championship.
Gator bait
To say Florida juniors Anthony Roberson and Matt Walsh had a rough NCAA Tournament as far as shooting goes would be quite an understatement.
Both entered the tournament shooting 46 percent from the field. They didn’t get to half that number in the Gators’ two games this week.
In the first-round win over Ohio University, a game in which the Gators blew a 20-point lead in the second half, the two were a combined 6 for 28. In the second-round loss to Villanova on Sunday they were 5 for 21. That’s 11 for 49 (22 percent) in the tournament.
Associated Press