Most intriguing Sweet 16 matchups
Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz, Krysten Peek and NCAA champion Danny Green discuss the juiciest matchups coming up in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
Video Transcript
JASON FITZ: One of the themes of the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament has to be chalk, because for only the fifth time in tournament history, every 1 and 2 seed has advanced all the way to the Sweet 16. That means epic matchups to come. Kristin Peek, Danny Green, I'm Jason Fitz for Yahoo Sports. And with epic matchups to come, let's figure out which ones we're the most pumped for. KP, which ones got you excited?
KRYSTEN PEEK: It has to be Duke versus Houston. And Houston is the number 1 seed, but they had some trouble getting to the Sweet 16. They had a little bit of scare in that Texas A&M game. Texas A&M outrebounded them 48 to 35, went on a 13 to 3 run. At the end of the game, Andersson Garcia hit the 3 at the buzzer to send the game into overtime. Then four Houston players fouled out, and they barely squeaked by. So this rest will really help them. But I think the guard play is where they match up the best. On the Duke side of the ball, got Jared McCain, he just hit eight 3's, a Duke record in the tournament, finished with 30 points. Jeremy Roach, senior floor general.
And then on the other side, you've got Jamal Shead and LJ Cryer, the best backcourt in college basketball this year. They can beat you inside and outside. So I think that is going to be where the matchups are even. And then Kyle Filipowski for Duke is where they're going to have the advantage. I mean, 7-foot pick and pop shooter, very tough. So I think they're going to try to look to get him the ball more.
DANNY GREEN: But the game for me to watch outside of my Carolina boys would be the Illinois-Iowa State game. Terrence Shannon Jr. is just an ultimate baller, man. And he's one of the players that I've been watching since before the tournament started. And I think he could be the player of the tournament. Iowa State has great defense, so I want to see if they can slow him down. But I'm looking forward to seeing that 2 versus 3 match-up.
JASON FITZ: Yeah. I like that 2 verse 3 match-up. But I like the 2 versus 3 match-up with Tennessee and Creighton also. And this is really about shooters, right? Right now, there's a beauty of the shooters. We know a bunch of guys on Creighton that can shoot. We also know Dalton Knecht can shoot. But I keep thinking that we're underrating the defensive ability of Creighton. So can they come up with a plan when they have days to plan for it to shut down Dalton? I'll give Tennessee credit. They played better when Dalton didn't play well in their second-round match-up than I expected. Let's see if he can rise to the challenge or if Creighton can shut him down. What I know is we got a ton of basketball left to come. That's why it's the Sweet 16. It's going to be so sweet to watch.
