The Best Moments From The NCAA Tournament’s Second Weekend

By Andrew Musur on March 31, 2015

Sixteen teams came into this weekend with a chance to go to the Final Four. Unfortunately, 12 of those teams were sent home early.

It is never easy to end a season with a loss, but it is even harder when you are one of the final 16 teams playing in college basketball. After 60 tournament games our Final Four is finally set. Kentucky, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Duke will all battle for the greatest achievement in college basketball.

This year’s Final Four may be one of the most historic Final Fours in history as coaching legends will collide.

The Final Four is set to kick off in six days, so until then I wanted to rewind the clock and talk about the best moments from the NCAA Tournament’s second weekend.

Michigan State puts on the glass slipper.

There is something special about Tom Izzo during March. The Iron Mountain, Michigan native has been the head coach of Michigan State for 20 years, and his Spartans have been in the dance the past 18 years. What’s even more impressive about Coach Izzo is that Michigan State has not failed to make at least the Sweet 16 since 2011.

It seems like almost every year, the Michigan State Spartans are playing their best basketball during March. In the Sweet 16, Michigan State took down an Oklahoma team that could score.

The Spartans held the Sooners to 58 points, their second lowest scoring output this entire season. The Cinderella Spartans were heading to the Elite Eight, and weren’t going to go down easily.

Four-seed Louisville awaited Michigan State, and a battle ensued. The Cardinals and Spartans went back and forth delivering heavyweight blows to each other for 40 minutes, but that wasn’t enough to determine a winner. Another five minutes were played and ultimately the Spartans put it together and won by six.

The Spartans are headed to their seventh Final Four under Coach Izzo. Michigan State will have to knock off two more Goliaths if they hope to win their second national title under Izzo, but completing tall tasks is nothing new to this Spartan squad.

As the only non-one seed left in this year’s tournament, I hope the Spartans continue to make noise.

Kentucky survives and advances.

There is no denying that the Kentucky Wildcats have been the most dominant team this year. Kentucky sits at 38-0, two games away from proving they are the best college basketball team to ever step foot on a court.

But as dominate as the Wildcats have been, their journey to Final Four came with a mighty challenge from a resilient and nifty Notre Dame team. The Irish played a nearly perfect game, and were one shot away from knocking off Kentucky.

But here is the thing, Kentucky always finds a way. The Wildcats have been hit in the face several times this season, and the Notre Dame game was no different. But Kentucky always responds.

The Wildcats turned it up offensively during the final 10 minute stretch of the game, hitting their last nine field goal attempts. Most importantly the Wildcats used what got them there, their defense, to survive a scare from the Irish.

It goes without saying that if Kentucky wants to beat Wisconsin in the Final Four they are going to have to turn it up, a lot. The Wildcats were lucky the Irish were unable to hit their three pointers like they did against Wichita State, but something tells me Wisconsin won’t miss many open shots from beyond the arc.

The battle between Wisconsin’s offenses and Kentucky’s defense is what I am looking forward to the most.

Sam Dekker is cold blooded.

If there is one thing I am going to take away from this tournament, it’s that Sam Dekker is clutch. Dekker led his Badgers in scoring in their Sweet 16 match up with North Carolina. The Sheboygan native scored 23 points and went 10 of 15 from the field and grabbed 10 rebounds.

In a game that North Carolina had a great chance of winning, Dekker took over down the stretch and didn’t let that happen. Wisconsin won and they were headed to their second consecutive Elite Eight.

A rematch of last year’s Elite Eight was set to take place as the Badgers were matched up with Arizona once again. The game was close throughout, but the Badgers caught fire from beyond the arc in the second half hitting 10 of 12 three pointers.

There was nothing Arizona could do to stop the bleeding, but they fought till the end. With Arizona down five and 50 seconds to play, the Wildcats elected to trust their defense and try to force a bad shot or turnover. Bad call …

The 6-foot-9 Sam Dekker showed the heart of a champion as he stepped back and drained a three over the out-stretched arms of Arizona forward, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. Dekker finished the half 5 of 5 from deep, scoring 20 points and punched Wisconsin’s Final Four ticket for the second year in a row.

Cold. Blooded.

Justise Winslow goes off.

Can we talk about Justise Winslow for a minute? The freshman has played his best basketball of the season, when Duke needed it the most. In the Blue Devils’ Sweet 16 match up with Utah, Winslow caught fire in his hometown.

The day after his 19th birthday, the Houston native hit 62 percent of his field goals, scoring 21 points. Winslow also helped out with the rebounding effort, as he brought down 10 boards and pushed Duke into their first Elite Eight in two years.

Winslow didn’t let his first year status scare him from the Blue Devils match up with Gonzaga. The 6-foot-6 forward scored 16 points, including all six of his free throws. The Bulldogs gave Duke a fight taking a four point lead early in the second half.

However, Winslow and the Dukies were resilient and finished off the Zags, beating them by 14.

The win marks the 12th time Coach Mike Krzyzewski will be in the Final Four.

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