INSIDE THE GAMES

Madness returns in second round

Now this is March Madness.

After a first round in which the games were decided by an average of 16.1 points and only four games with a final margin of less than nine points, the NCAA tournament lived up to its nickname with the start of the second round Saturday.

The first six second-round games were decided by an average of 4.6 points, and there was an extra 20 minutes of hoops thrown in with two games going overtime and another double overtime.

Top-seeded Ohio State beat Xavier 78-71 in overtime, while Pittsburgh needed an extra 5 minutes to beat Virginia Commonwealth 84-79.

Vanderbilt beat Washington State 78-74 in double overtime, the first tournament game to go that long since West Virginia beat Wake Forest 111-105 in double overtime in the second round in 2005.

There were six overtime games in last year’s tournament, including two in the regional finals.

Sweet streak

How impressive was Duke’s run of nine straight appearances in the round of 16 that was snapped this season?

Georgetown’s 62-55 victory over Boston College moved the Hoyas into the third round for the second straight season. That is now the longest current streak.

UCLA, Texas, Memphis and Florida could all match Georgetown with a second-round win.

Small rebounder

You don’t always have to look to the big men for the biggest rebounds.

Mike Green, a 6-foot-1 guard, led Butler in rebounding this season and he came up with the biggest one of the Bulldogs’ season Saturday in their 62-59 victory over Maryland in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Butler led 61-59 with about 40 seconds to play and Maryland coach Gary Williams decided to have his team play defense rather than foul. Butler’s Julian Betko missed a 3-point attempt as the shot clock ran out, and Green, who averaged 5.9 rebounds this season, grabbed his eighth of the game and was fouled.

He made one free throw and Maryland didn’t even get off a possible tying shot.

The game was proof that inside statistics can be deceiving. Maryland finished with a 37-23 rebound advantage and the Terrapins blocked eight shots, eight more than the Bulldogs.

“That’s just the way we have to play,” Butler’s A.J. Graves said. “We have a lot of other physical deficiencies. I mean, we’re just not that big. We’ve got to play as a team.”

Four for all

Ohio State proved a team can win without getting much from its bench, or even all of its starters.

Greg Oden, Mike Conley Jr., Jamar Butler and Ron Lewis scored all but three of the Buckeyes’ points in their 78-71 overtime victory over Xavier. Butler and Conley both played 43 minutes and Oden and Lewis both played 35.

Freshman reserve Daequan Cook had OSU’s other points – a 3 in overtime. Ivan Harris, the fifth starter, went 0 for 2 from the field and didn’t score.

Odd fact

It should have been obvious that Butler was going to beat Maryland in their second-round matchup.

This is the third straight odd-numbered year that a team from the Horizon League has advanced to the round of 16.

In 2003, Butler became the first team from that conference to reach the third round with wins over Mississippi State and Louisville before losing to Oklahoma.

Two years later, 12th-seed Wisconsin-Milwaukee, beat Alabama and Boston College to reach the third round before losing to Illinois.

Fifth-seeded Butler beat Old Dominion in the first round, then topped the Terrapins 62-59 to advance to a third-round matchup against the winner of today’s game between top-seeded Florida and Purdue.