By the numbers, order returned to the NCAA tournament Saturday afternoon. But seeds don’t tell the story of Virginia Commonwealth.
The No. 12 Rams became the fifth consecutive lower seed to lose Saturday afternoon, but this time it was a stunner. Last year’s mid-major darling was trying to victimize No. 4-seed Indiana as it did Georgetown, Purdue, Florida State and Kansas to get to last year’s Final Four.
But the short-handed Hoosiers had answers where VCU didn’t, and the tournament’s first late game-winning jumper went to Indiana sophomore Will Sheehey.
He scooped up a blocked shot on the baseline and fired it in for a 15-footer with 12.7 seconds left for the 63-61 victory. Indiana advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since its Final Four run to Atlanta in 2002.
The Hoosiers will return to the Georgia Dome on Friday with a chance to play the No. 1 overall seed Kentucky.
The Hoosiers were one of only two teams to defeat Kentucky during the regular season, 73-72 on Dec. 10. They also defeated Ohio State to give them victories over teams ranked first or second in the same season for the first time in school history. On Saturday, without injured point guard Verdell Jones III, they knew it would be a similar challenge to defeat tournament-tested VCU.
“We played against a great team; we knew it,” Indiana coach Tom Crean told a TV reporter after the game. “But these guys just stuck with it. They had a resolve about them in those last few timeouts, especially down six, that I’d never seen. It was scary. The resolve they had, and the belief in winning and one another was downright scary.”
Indiana held VCU to only one field goal in the last 12:31, while overcoming a five-point deficit behind six clutch points from freshman Cody Zeller, brother of North Carolina standout Tyler Zeller.
The Big Ten moved to 8-1 in the tournament and saw No. 4-seed Indiana, No. 2-seed Ohio State and No. 4-seed Wisconsin advance to the Sweet 16.
SEC tournament champion Vanderbilt, a No. 5 seed, had the stage and sharpshooter John Jenkins had the ball, but his 3-point attempt rimmed out with 2.1 seconds left, allowing Wisconsin to escape 60-57.
The Badgers, who’ll face No. 1-seed Syracuse, advanced to the Sweet 16 for the fifth time under coach Bo Ryan. He got there by doing what former Kentucky coach Rick Pitino would love to have done 20 years ago against Duke: guard the inbounds pass. Ryan sent 6-foot-10 Jared Berggren to guard Lance Goulbourne’s baseball pass attempt from the base line with 1.9 seconds to go, and Berggren deflected it, avoiding a Grant Hill-to-Christian Laettner miracle.
No. 3-seed Marquette was the higher seed but in some ways the spoiler Saturday, handing No. 6-seed Murray State (31-2) only its second loss of the season and 228 miles from campus in Louisville.
Murray State’s Isaiah Canaan never got loose in this NCAA tournament, going a combined 8-for-30 from the floor in the first two games for first-year coach Steve Prohm, a Northwest Whitfield graduate. Canaan finished with 16 points in the 62-53 loss Saturday but made only four of 17 attempts.
Villa Rica native Jae Crowder didn’t have that problem, hustling his way into every key play and all over the stats sheet with 17 points, 13 rebounds, two assists, two blocks and three steals in 39 minutes for Marquette.
After both Duke and Missouri lost Friday, Syracuse and Ohio State were well aware of the dangers of double-digit seeds, and both did their part to stabilize brackets.
The Buckeyes advanced to their third consecutive Sweet 16 with a 73-66 win over Gonzaga by getting the ball in to Jared Sullinger when it mattered most. The All-American center scored on a pair of hook shots in traffic in the final 3:36 and made two free throws to help Ohio State make a 7-0 run after Gonzaga had tied the score 61-61. Sullinger finished with 18 points.
Syracuse did what it couldn’t in the opener against North Carolina Asheville and played like a No. 1 seed in a 75-59 win over No. 8-seed Kansas State.
With a game to get used to playing without center Fab Melo, the Orange found some rhythm and Scoop Jardine. The senior guard poured on 14 of his 16 points in the second half to help Syracuse advance to its third sweet 16 in the past four years.
Not that you can spell excuse without ‘Cuse’, but Syracuse (33-2) continued to leave its off-court problems off — from the Bernie Fine scandal to an NCAA drug investigation to Melo’s ineligibility. And in the process the Orange moved coach Jim Boeheim into a fifth-place tie with the legendary John Wooden with 47 tournament wins all-time. He’ll be coaching in his 16th Sweet 16.
“Yeah he did it in 10 years; it took 29 for me,” Boeheim told reporters afterward. “That’s about right for me.”
Kansas State coach Frank Martin was reduced to tears in the postgame press conference, when asked about senior Jamar Samuels, who spent his last college game on the bench after being withheld for eligibility concerns. Between Samuels absence and a sore ankle for Rodney McGruder, who scored half as many points (15) as he did Thursday (30), the ending came quick.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this article.
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