Even with both favorites winning yesterday, there was not a lot of movement in yesterday's pool, but that doesn't mean there wasn't any changes. Basically, if you had either Duke or Villanova, you blasted up the standings. If you scored 0 points yesterday, you dropped. Pretty simple. I say either Duke or Villanova, because only Day Yi 2 of Forest Hills, New York, Jeremy Spuhler of St. Petersburg, Florida, Jessica Samuels of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida and Steph Stewart of Miami, Florida had BOTH Duke and Villanova advancing to the Final Four. Yes, you did just read Day Yi 2, so yes the rich get richer, or, the lead get leadierer (I want credit if this word ever catches on). So Day Yi not only remains in first place, he increases his lead! Jeremy Spuhler sits in second place, and cheering for every underdog from here forward is George Fox 1 of West Palm Beach, Florida, who is currently in third place, but can no longer earn any points. So, for picking both Duke and Villanova when almost everyone else selected Gonzaga and Arizona, Day Yi 2, Jeremy Spuhler, Jessical Samuels and Steph Stewart earn the "Selection of the Day" Awards.
Our champions list remains the same, with only Kansas in play today. Our champions are: Auburn, Arizona, Baylor, DUKE, Gonzaga, Illinois, KANSAS, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas Tech, VILLANOVA, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin.
As far as on the Court ...
Players of the Day
5. Taze Moore, Houston - Led the Cougars with 15 points and 10 rebounds, along with 3 steals. Fifteen points isn't ordinarily a lot, but when the game ends 50-44, then 15 points is commendable.
4. A.J. Griffin, Duke - Scored 18 points to lead the Blue Devils, on 7-9 shooting, 2-3 from three point range, and hit a key three as it looked like Arkansas was trying to make a game of it by cutting a double-digit lead to 5 points.
3. Jermaine Samuels, Villanova - The wing was the best player on the Court in the Villanova-Houston game, and he scored 16 points to go with 10 rebounds to pace the Wildcats.
2. Jaylin Williams, Arkansas - Williams received almost no help from anyone on the Razorbacks and finished the game with 19 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. Numbers might have been higher if he hadn't been forced to the bench with 5 minutes left in the first half because of his second foul.
1. Mark Williams, Duke - Easily the best player of the day, or more accurately the most dominating. He controlled the game in the paint, on both ends of the floor. He finished with 12 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocks, and countless other altered shots.
Stats of the Day
5. J.D. Notae from Arkansas had 5 fouls. With the Razorbacks best player on the bench having fouled out, there was no chance Arkansas could even think about a comeback. Even though Notae still played 35 minutes, they were largely ineffective as he could not be his normal relentless self for most of the game, and it showed.
4. Mark Williams of Duke won the ACC Defensive Player of the Year Award in this, his sophomore season. But, his sister Elizabeth Williams also played at Duke and was first team All-ACC 4 times, Conference Defensive Player of the Year twice, and NCAA Defensive Player of the Year once. She is 9th in NCAA history in total blocks.
3. Jaylin Williams of Arkansas led the NCAA with 54 charges drawn this year. This includes two that he drew in the first half last night.
2. The shooting percentage in the Houston-Villanova game was atrocious: Houston shot 29.8% from the field (17-57); Villanova shot a worse 28.8% (15-52) for a combined 29.3% (32-109). This is just horrible, and Villanova won despite shooting so poorly.
I remember a while ago, 1985 to be exact, when Villanova shot much, much better from the field. (And you thought you were going to get through this without a bit of tournament history.) Villanova had some talent in starters Ed Pinckney, Harold Pressley, Gary McClain and Dwayne McClain, and with sharpshooter Harold Jensen coming off the bench. But, this team was way undersized, with Pinckney the center only 6'9", and not very deep, with only Jensen playing meaningful minutes off the bench. Villanova entered the tournament as an 8 seed - and to this day is the lowest seeded tournament to ever win the tournament.
In the first round, Villanova played 9th seeded Dayton, and won 51-49 behind Pinckney's 20 points. The fought another close game in the second round, narrowly defeating the number 1 seed Michigan Wolverines with Roy Tarpley, Gary Grant and Richard Rellford, 59-55, this time led by Dwayne McClain's 20 points. Things stayed tough in the Sweet Sixteen, but Villanova outlasted the Maryland Terrapins 46-43, with Ed Pinckney leading the way with 16 points, but more importantly holding Len Bias to only 8 points. The Elite 8 was easier as Villanova defeated the North Carolina Tar Heels 56-44 to earn a trip to the Final Four in Lexington, Kentucky, where they joined two other Big East Conference foes, Georgetown and St. John's. North Carolina received 17 points and 12 rebounds from Brad Daugherty and 5 assists from Kenny Smith, but just couldn't match the four players in double figures for Villanova, led by Harold Pressley's 15.
In the Final Four, Villanova met the Memphis Tigers led by Keith Lee (the same Keith Lee from a previous update in this year's tournament), and won 52-45. Dwayne McClain's 19 led the Wildcats into the championship game against a powerful Georgetown Hoyas team that not only was the defending champions, but had also defeated Villanova twice already that year. Georgetown was led by Patrick Ewing, but had plenty of other talent around him in the forms of Reggie Williams, David Wingate, Michael Jackson and Horace Broadnax - one of the best names in college basketball history. The Hoyas played pretty well in the finals with all 5 starters scoring at least 8 points (and four in double digits), led by David Wingate's 16, but the fell to Villanova 66-64 because VILLANOVA SHOT 78.6% FROM THE FIELD!!! 78.6!!!! Dwayne McClain scored 16, Ed Pinckney scored 16 and Gary McClain and Harold Jensen didn't miss a shot in scoring 8 and 14 respectively!
Villanova's 1985 shooting percentage in this game is still the highest single-game shooting percentage in the tournament, and it just happened to occur in the championship!
Pinckney was named the Most Outstanding Player and was drafted 10th in the first round of the NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns. After playing in the NBA for 12 seasons. Harold Pressley was the 17th overall pick by the Sacramento Kings where he played for 4 seasons, before playing several more overseas. Dwayne McClain was a second-round pick by the Phoenix Suns, where he played 2 seasons, before playing 10 more overseas in 4 different leagues. Harold Jensen was drafted in the sixth round by the Cleveland Cavaliers but never played a game in the NBA and only played once season professionally. Gary McClain was drafted in the 7th round by the New Jersey Nets, but never played a professional game. McClain was the subject of a famous Sports Illustrated article in 1987 in which he admitted that he had been doing drugs since junior high school and started doing cocaine at Villanova. He admitted to doing cocaine at the Final Four, but was adamant that he played the championship game clean.
The most famous member of that Villanova Wildcat team was easily its coach, Rollie Massimino. Massimino continued to coach at Villanova until 1992, was the head coach at UNLV from 1992-1994, at Cleveland State from 1996-2003, and at Northwood University (down the street from me actually), which was sold to and became Keiser University 2006-2017. Massimino was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013. He died in West Palm Beach, Florida, in August 2017.
1. Duke went on an 8-0 run in the last 2:00 minutes of the first half to take a 45-33 lead into halftime before winning the game 78-69. Coincidentally, Jaylin Williams of Arkansas was on the bench with 2 fouls during the entire run.
Best Social Media Posts
2. Grayson Allen is going to be tripping all over himself to try to get to the Final Four in New Orleans. - Nobody on social media (I just made it up), but I just felt a good Grayson Allen tripping joke was in order.
1. Sean Farnham of ESPN on Twitter about the Villanova-Arkansas 50-44 game. "I can't wait to watch the second half of this battle!"
STANDINGS
Onto the standings, and remember, please double-check your scores, and let me know if you think I made a mistake.
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