NCAA Tournament Elite Eight preview: What to watch
Mar 26, 2016, 9:00 AM
The No. 1 seeds showed out in the Sweet 16, rolling into the Elite Eight with strong performances. All of Kansas, North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia won by double-digits in to advance.
On one side of the brackets, the initial NCAA Tournament selection committee appears to have gotten the seeding correct.
On Saturday, the Ducks and Sooners tip off at 3:09 p.m. MST in Anaheim, Calif. In Louisville, Kentucky, it will be another 1 vs. 2 matchup in the South Region as top overall seed Kansas faces No. 2 Villanova at 5:49 p.m. MST.
The Sunday slate has No. 10 seed Syracuse against No. 1 seed Virginia in Chicago for the Midwest Regional championship at 3:09 p.m. MST. And the East Regional, down to sixth-seeded Notre Dame and No. 1 seed North Carolina, closes the Elite Eight at 5:49 p.m. MST in Philadelphia.
What catches our eyes as we prepare for the matchups?
How will Oregon fare against the three-point happy Oklahoma offense?
Oklahoma put up the third-most makes of three-pointers this year. The Sooners ranked 21st in attempts and hit 42.6 percent of those looks. Meanwhile, the Ducks both allowed a good deal of three-point attempts and at 35.6 percent accuracy — not exactly great.
Oregon has the athletes to hang with OU gunner Buddy Hield and crew, and its solid ability to switch on picks should help Dana Altman’s team. Still, the defensive numbers don’t exactly go in the Ducks’ favor. In any case, this should be a eye-catching game considering the offensive capabilities of each squad.
Expect a few runs to go in both directions.
– Kevin Zimmerman
Is Villanova back?
Six years ago, Villanova looked like they were well on their way to being the next great college basketball program in the country.
Four of their last five tournament runs were to at least the Sweet 16. Two of those runs were Elite Eight appearances and one was to the Final Four.
Since that 2009 Final Four appearance, however, it’s been a dreadful run for Jay Wright’s team.
The Wildcats have failed to get to the Sweet 16 in their last five tournament appearances, with three of those teams holding either a No. 1 or No. 2 seed.
Becoming the go-to pick to be upset in the tournament this decade, Villanova looks like they could be back on track.
An average margin of defeat of 27.3 points per game in the first three rounds hasn’t even entertained the idea of an upset and now the Wildcats move on to who many consider the best team in the country, Kansas.
The Jayhawks are the favorite and while many are expecting Villanova to lose, the way they play Saturday will be telling in how seriously the country should take their dominance in the first three rounds.
– Kellan Olson
Can the No. 1 seeds on the right side of the bracket take advantage?
While Oregon and Kansas are facing No. 2 seeds on the left side of the bracket, the No. 1 seeds on the right side are both playing teams that most did not pick to reach a regional final.
It’s year three of Virginia’s rise in the ACC and it’s their best performance in the tourney thus far.
Shooting 56 percent in their last two games, the Cavaliers clinical offense is thriving at just the right time.
Syracuse’s zone can cause fits and is reliable enough to make deep tourney runs like this one, but if there’s one offense in the country that has the execution to beat it, it’s Virginia.
For North Carolina, they have dominated a bracket that some saw as a tough draw.
Providence’s dynamic duo of Ben Bentil and Kris Dunn was never enough to seriously threaten the Tar Heels and while Indiana’s high-powered offense put 85 points on them, North Carolina were never phased and scored 101 points to make it a comfortable win.
Now they face Notre Dame, a team some expected to be upset in the first round. Marcus Paige is coming off one of his best performances ever in his four years of consistent playing time at Chapel Hill, scoring 21 points against the Hoosiers and dishing out six assists with zero turnovers.
If the senior can ride that momentum into Sunday against likely NBA first-round pick Demetrius Jackson, it will be another easy win for the Tar Heels.
– Kellan Olson
The Associated Press contributed to this story
