This game was all too familiar for both teams. They met last year in the Sweet 16 with the Cavaliers getting the best of the Spartans. The air exuberated “revenge” for Michigan State as they pined for an upset. They fought early to get a small lead and kept it through the entire game. Michigan State outlasted a Virginia team that just couldn’t seem to get its shots to fall. It wasn’t hard to keep the sub-30-percent-shooting Cavaliers underneath in terms of score. Michigan State wins 60-54 and continues dancing.
This game matches up two great coaches in Tom Izzo and Tony Bennett. The ACC regular season champ, Virginia, was able to win its first game in the tournament after losing 2 of the last 3 games beforehand. The final score of its victory over Belmont may have been by 12, but the lead was only 2 with less than five minutes to play. Virginia can’t let up runs to Michigan St. like it did to Belmont or the Cavaliers will be heading back to Charlottesville.
Michigan St. has come on strong lately and made it to the Big Ten championship, only to lose to Wisconsin in overtime. The Spartans have played in seven overtime games over the span of the season. Tom Izzo has his team coming together at the right time as they look to be this year’s 7 seed to cut down the nets at the end of it all. The Spartans were able to beat the Georgia Bulldogs 70-63 in second round action on Friday.
The game started how Ohio State wanted it to start. You couldn’t have asked for a better half of basketball. Arizona came in as a 2-seed and completely dominated its first match-up against Texas Southern but today was a different story going against the highly under-rated Buckeyes and D’Angelo Russell. Russell has stepped into the national spotlight by leading the NCAA in points per game by a freshman. And if you can remember Ohio State sent Arizona packing two years ago in the West Regional semifinals, but it didn’t happen this time despite a great effort from Ohio State. Arizona pulled away late for a 73-58 win.
Dorm Room Hoops 