Hope was high when the BIG EAST landed six teams in the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday last week. But at the end of play on the tournament’s first weekend, only Villanova remains in the hunt for the National Championship.
The Wildcats, the number one seed in the East Region, posted a pair of lopsided wins over No. 16 Radford and No. 9 Alabama as they put on quite the shooting show from three-point range
Xavier, Seton Hall and Butler were the other BIG EAST teams to post first-round wins in the tournament while Creighton and Providence were one-and-dones in their games versus Kansas State and Texas A&M, respectively.
Villanova opened things up by rolling to an 87-61 victory over an overmatched Radford team as the Wildcats used a 37-9 spurt in the first half to break away from the Highlanders for good. Six different Wildcats scored in double figures with Jalen Brunson leading the way with 16 points. But it was the 3-point shooting that was the difference for Villanova as they dropped 14 trifectas on Radford. And when Eric Paschall delivered his second-half 3-ball, it marked the 400th three-pointer of the season by the Wildcats, making them only the sixth team in NCAA history to record 400 or more threes in a season.
Villanova kept up its three-point barrage in its second-round win over No. 9 Alabama when the Wildcats dropped in 14 more threes in an 81-58 rout of the Crimson Tide. Donte DiVincenzo was the story in the first half when he knocked down five 3-balls and finished the half with all 18 of his points in the game. But Mikal Bridges answered the bell in the second half when he scored 16 of his game-high 23 points in the first five minutes of the second half and what had been a tight contest was no more.
The victory moved the Wildcats into the Sweet 16 for the sixth time under head coach Jay Wright.
“There is a youthful exuberance with this team that is exciting to me,” Wright said after the victory over Bama. “The guys get so excited and it’s really a lot of fun. This is a unique squad, it really is. That’s why I think we’re getting better every day, because they still have a lot of room to grow.”
Villanova will face No. 5 West Virginia in the Sweet 16 in Boston Friday night at 7:30 p.m. ET on TBS.
Xavier, the BIG EAST’s second No. 1 seed, began its tournament run in the West Region with a convincing 102-83 drubbing of No. 16 Texas Southern as senior J.P Macura went off for a career-best 29 points. Macura delivered 18 of those points in the first half when he shot 7-of-9 from the field, including a blistering 4-of-5 from 3-point range. Fellow seniors Trevon Bluiett and Karem Kanter added 26 and 24 points, respectively in the win.
But things went south for the Musketeers in the second round when they couldn’t hold onto a 12-point second-half lead and ended up on the short end of a 75-70 decision to the Seminoles.
Macura again led the Musketeers with 17 points but foul trouble limited his time on the floor in the second half before he fouled out in the waning moments of the game. Bluiett finished with just eight points on 2-of-8 shooting from the floor. Xavier thus became the second No. 1 seed to exit the tournament after overall number one Virginia went down to UMBC last Friday night.
“It’s tough. I got a group that I love being around,” Xavier head coach Chris Mack said. “I love coaching them. Our seniors have been amazing, not just this year but throughout their entire career. I couldn’t ask for a better group, a more selfless group, a group that thinks about the team before self and I’m going to miss coaching them.”
Seton Hall came into the tournament with a senior-laden team and in search of its first tournament win in 14 years. The No. 8 seed Pirates then went out and got that long-awaited victory with a 94-83 win over No. 9 N. C. State in the first round.
Khadeen Carrington poured in 26 points in the win over the Wolfpack with Desi Rodriguez adding 20 and Ismael Sanogo recording the first double-double of his career with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
The Pirates then went into their second-round game against No. 1 seed Kansas feeling confident of pulling off the upset in a tournament that has been rash with them. But despite a historic outing from senior Angel Delgado, the Hall fell to the Jayhawks in a hard-fought battle, 83-79.
Delgado logged the first 20-20 game in an NCAA Tournament game since 2012 when he piled up 24 points along with 23 rebounds in a valiant effort. Carrington also would not go quietly as he registered 28 points and finished his career at Seton Hall in ninth place on the school’s all-time scoring list. The fabulous run of the Pirates’ senior class ended with three-straight 20-win seasons, a BIG EAST Tournament title, three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and three straight winnings seasons in the BIG EAST regular season.
After the tight loss to Kansas, Pirates’ head coach Kevin Willard, had only glowing praise for his outgoing class.
“It’s why I love those guys,” Willard said. “This game was exactly how their careers (were). Not pretty at times but absolutely unbelievable grit, unbelievable effort. And they never, ever walked off the floor without giving it their all and I think that’s something that not a lot of kids can say for their careers.”
Butler’s first-year head coach LaVall Jordan got his first taste of the NCAA Tournament with a victory in his very first tourney game as the No. 10 Bulldogs upended No. 7 Arkansas 79-62. The tandem of Kelan Martin and Kamar Baldwin put on quite the show as they combined for 51 points in the win, a victory that ran Butler’s record in NCAA Tournament first-round games to 11-1 in their last 12 appearances. As a nice aside, Martin’s 27 points in the game put him over the 2,000-point mark in his career at Butler.
The win moved the Bulldogs into a second-round matchup with in-state rival Purdue with a shot at the Sweet 16 on the line. But despite 29 more points from Martin, the Bulldogs were unable to take down the Boilermakers. And when Baldwin’s three-point heave from halfcourt hit the rim and bounced away, Butler’s season was over in a 76-73 loss.
A silver lining in the loss was that the senior class of Martin and Tyler Wideman will exit Butler as the only class in school history to win at least one game in the NCAA Tournament in each of their four seasons. Martin finished his career with 2,047 points to place second in Butler history.
“As you get into this, what we’re in this for as mentors and teachers, the relationships, you love being around these guys,” Jordan said, who is also a Butler alum, Class of 2001. “Every day at practice, this group, they came and they embraced and they were willing to learn. So I just wish we could have done better so we could still coach them for a few more practices and at least one more game.”
In Creighton’s first-round matchup against Kansas State, it was a reunion of sorts for Bluejays’ senior guard Marcus Foster, who previously had attended K-State for two seasons before moving to Creighton. And while Foster was hoping for a monster game, it didn’t exactly turn out that way as he was held to just five points, his lowest total in 68 career games with Creighton, as Kansas State prevailed, 69-59..
The Bluejays trailed 10-2 to open the game and never held a lead all night. Senior Toby Hegner closed out his career with a 12-point, seven-rebound effort in a game that saw Creighton score just 59 points, matching a season-low.
Foster finished his two-year Creighton career with 1,293 points, good for 21st in school history and the best output ever by a two-year player.
“We probably didn’t get as good as shots as we’d have liked, especially early in the game,” Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said. “We just weren’t very good offensively and K-State certainly had a lot to do with that.”
Providence was making its school-record fifth straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament and threw everything it had at Texas A&M. But despite 22 points from Rodney Bullock and 21 from Alpha Diallo, who also had a team-high seven rebounds, it was a late spurt by the Aggies that spelled the end for the Friars as they fell, 73-69.
The game was tied at 50-50 with 8:53 to play after a jumper by Providence’s Kyron Cartwright. But before the Friars could even enjoy being back in a tie game, the Aggies responded with a 12-2 run for a 62-52 lead with just over 2:00 to play and that was it for the Friars. It was also the final college games for seniors Bullock, Cartwright and Jalen Lindsey.
“It’s just sad. It’s the finality,” Providence head coach Ed Cooley said. “You don’t have any more games with these guys and I couldn’t be more proud of them. I don’t think we played the way we wanted to play and then we tried to hold on for dear life and we weren’t fortunate enough to move on. But you know, it’s a part of life.”