March Madness Saturday recap: Villanova's loss opens up East for Duke

There are good NCAA tournament games. Then there are exciting NCAA tournament games. And then there are games that change the landscape of the NCAA tournament field. Saturday’s showdown between Villanova and Wisconsin was all three.

The Wildcats and Badgers traded punches and counterpunches, runs and responses, big shots and answers, until Nigel Hayes had the final say. The senior, playing in his 149th game in a Wisconsin uniform, channeled his inner Michael Jordan with a baseline “fake spin-back” that drove a dagger into the back-to-back title hopes of Villanova.

For the fourth time in four years, Villanova entered the tournament as a No. 1 or 2 seed, and for the third time in four years, the Wildcats failed to make it out of the first weekend. This time, though, they did so as defending national champions, and as the No. 1 overall seed. This time, therefore, their loss was more reverberant.

The Wildcats’ ouster opens up the East region for second-seeded Duke. The upper-left quadrant of the bracket looked like a two-team region on Selection Sunday. In one sense, it became a one-team region with the Badgers’ upset. But in another sense…

STARTING FIVE

1. Two threats to Duke emerge

Villanova fell, but as it did, of course, Wisconsin rose. The Badgers looked like the team that raced out to a 21-3 record over the first three months of the season. They played stout defense, got the ball to the rim on offense, and looked capable of winning two more games in a similar style. But first, they’ll have to fend off Florida, which played like the second-best team in the region in a comprehensive beatdown of Virginia. The Gators held the Cavaliers to 39 points, 0.64 points per possession, and should be a slight favorite over Wisconsin in the Sweet 16.

2. Gonzaga-Northwestern was all kinds of crazy

The most eventful game of the day initially appeared to be a snoozer. Gonzaga’s defense in a dominant first half against Northwestern was impeccable. The Bulldogs were superior in every shape and form. But midway through the second, the Wildcats staged their comeback, and things got fun. CBS found us our meme of the tournament. The refs gave us a grievous error. Chris Collins’ emotions compounded it. Northwestern’s rise was stunted. Gonzaga advanced, and looked impressive in the process, but showed a few frailties. Anything Gonzaga-related, however, has been overshadowed by the call.

3. The refs made a mistake; so did Chris Collins

The two aren’t mutually exclusive; both are true statements. Was the call bad? Of course it was. The NCAA admitted that. The ref who made the call, upon seeing the replay, surely would, too. But Chris Collins’ job in that situation is to control his emotions. It’s something he’s learned to do more and more in his four years as a head coach, but it’s something he failed to do Saturday. His players did. They had moved on. Immediately upon hearing the whistle and seeing the refs assess Collins with a technical, Bryant McIntosh brought his hands to his head, knowing the outburst could be costly. Vic Law and Dererk Pardon hung their heads toward the floor. They knew the call was wrong. They also knew Collins’ reaction was wrong. The refs bear the brunt of the blame, because it was the call that triggered Collins’ frantic jaunt onto the court. But neither, by the way, is any more than 10 percent of the reason Northwestern lost.

4. West Virginia can win the West

The most impressive performance of the day might have been the first. West Virginia clinched the first of 16 spots in the second weekend with a strong two-way performance against a Notre Dame team that had won nine of its past 11. The Mountaineers turned over the nation’s most sure-handed squad 10 times in the first half, and got hot from beyond the arc in the second. They’re extremely difficult to prepare for because their press is unique among the 351 teams in Division I. Gonzaga — West Virginia’s Sweet 16 opponent — has never seen it. Arizona and Xavier, the Mountaineers’ potential Elite Eight opponents, have never seen it. Bob Huggins is the only coach remaining in the West region that has been to a Final Four, and he might just be able to prevent a first-time participant from crashing the party in Phoenix.

5. Xavier blows out Florida State

The biggest upset of Saturday, if you go by seed differential, came from what many thought was the worst at-large team in the field of 68. Xavier entered the tournament having won just four games since Feb. 4. Three of the four came over DePaul. But the Musketeers, without star point guard Edmond Sumner, held off an overseeded Maryland team in the first round, then destroyed Florida State from opening tip to final horn on Saturday. Xavier isn’t the kind of team typically thought of as a Cinderella, but it could be the lowest-seeded team heading to the Sweet 16.

PLAYER OF THE DAY

Xavier’s Trevon Bluiett, in the absence of his co-star Sumner, has elevated his game to lead the Musketeers on their run. He had his way with a massive Florida State front line Saturday, scoring 29 points, six rebounds and three assists two days after dropping 21 on Maryland. Bluiett will be a handful for Arizona on Thursday.

BEST SPOILED COMEBACK OF THE DAY

With 14 minutes remaining in the final contest of the day, Purdue was already on its way to the Sweet 16. Viewers were already on their ways to bed. Some Iowa State fans were likely on their way to the exits. The Cyclones were heading home.

And then they weren’t.

Then they were storming back into the lead with three minutes to play. It would have been the fourth-biggest comeback in NCAA tournament history, and would have been the second year in a row that Purdue had thrown away a double-digit lead on the first weekend. Last March, the Boilermakers led Arkansas Little Rock by 14 with 4:12 left before losing in double-overtime.

But alas, P.J. Thompson hit a three to put Purdue back into the lead, and Matt Painter’s crew held on for a win, and for its first Sweet 16 since 2010.

BEST FAN OF THE DAY

This is Northwestern athletic director Jim Phillips’ son. He’s as passionate as anybody in the arena. And his emotions were on a roller coaster throughout the second half of Northwestern’s loss to Gonzaga:

He immediately became a meme — and part of that is because CBS kept going back to him against… and again… and again. The repetitive shots were unnecessary, given the kid’s age. But they also were an uninhibited reflection of what every Northwestern fan was feeling Saturday, and of the pure elation and dejection that the tournament elicits.

WORST CLOSE-OUT OF THE DAY

Virginia’s evening in one GIF:

BEST VOICE OF THE DAY

Two hours before a teammate delivered a play that will surely be in the closing montage after the tournament ends, Vitto Brown delivered a lovely rendition of “One Shining Moment”:

Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get to hear this song from Brown again down the road.