March Madness 2024: NCAA Tournament Highlights

March Madness is the greatest sporting event of the year

Actually, my bad MDK Supreme won. In my opinion, it's the greatest sporting event of the year

So today in this video, we are going to recap all eight games from the third day of the tournament

and day one of the round of 32. Game one took place between seven seed Dayton

and two seed Arizona. The Flyers got down big early in this one

40 to 23 with 244 to go, but would go on a 10-0 run to finish the half down seven

and in the second half, Dayton would get it as close as four numerous times

but would go without a field goal from the 10-minute mark to the 637 mark in the second half

Arizona wins this one 78-68. Arizona's defense was just too much for Dayton in this game

as they shot 40% from the field and 29% from three, which just isn't going to cut it from

a team that is 24th in the nation in offense and 4th in the nation in three-point percentage

Future first round NBA draft pick Deron Holmes did all he can to keep his flyers in this one

finishing with 23-11, but Dayton just had two points off the bench

I'm getting more and more intrigued by this Arizona team. According to Ken Palm, they're ranked 9th in offense and defensive efficiency in the nation

They'll be matching up with the winner of Baylor Clemson today for a shot at the Elite 8

but the final four is what's really on the Wildcats' mind. They haven't made one since 2001 with Gilbert Arenas and Richard Jefferson

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Game two on day three took place between four seed Kansas and five seed Gonzaga

Two teams that are considered to be having down years compared to recent success

The first half of this matchup was super competitive with the Jayhawks having a one-point lead at halftime

But then Gonzaga goes on a 15-0 run to begin the second half

And from there, it was pretty much a blowout. Gonzaga would win 89-68

The Jayhawks just look tired and completely beat down in that second half

And that's due to a lot of things. For one, Hunter Dickinson is beat up, still playing

They're missing arguably their best player, if not their second best player in Kevin McCuller Jr

who was shut down with a knee injury. And then that Samford game took a lot out of them two nights ago

And let be honest there a chance they just aren even in this game if we don get the worst foul call of all time Bottom line is Kansas had zero depth and it caught up to them in the second half Gonzaga on the other hand shot 60 from the field Fifth year senior Anton Watson led the way with 21 points

And yes this is the same Watson that was a very important role player on those Jalen Suggs and

Chet Holmgren teams. Wyoming transfer and leading scorer Graham Ike finished with 15 and Nolan

Hickman had 17. But the biggest story here is that Mark Few, Gonzaga's coach, has now made a sweet 16

in nine straight years. I feel pretty foolish buying into the McNeese State hype upsetting

them in the first round. I know Gonzaga has had a down year in comparison, but you just cannot

bet against Mark Few coach teams, at least early on in the tournament. Gonzaga now awaits the winner

of Purdue and Utah State, which are playing later today. Game three, number one seed North Carolina

versus nine seed Michigan State. I was nervous for the Tar Heels early in this one

They got down big to start, which you never want to do against Tom Izzo in the NCAA tournament

But after that 26 to 14 deficit, UNC would go on a 20 to one run

and take the lead heading into the half up nine. Sparty kept it close until about the 10 minute mark

when UNC turned it on and would end up winning 85 to 69 in this one

I know Michigan State is a nine seed. I know they are not having the type of year

they usually have. But as a 10 seed last year, they upset Marquette in the round of 32. And any

time you have senior guard play led by a Tom Izzo team, I don't care if you're a one seed, you have

to feel good about beating them and advancing. Tyson Walker did all he could in this one, scoring

24 points on 9 of 16 from the field. And on the UNC side, RJ Davis led the way with 20. Armando

Baycott had 18 and Harrison Ingram finished with 17. UNC awaits the winner of Alabama Grand Canyon

today and if both Arizona and UNC can make it to the Elite Eight they would face each other

in a revenge game. If you don't know back in 2022 when UNC made the title game as an eight seed

RJ Davis, Armando Baycott, and Caleb Love were all huge parts of that team. All three of them

returned for 2023 and they started out the number one seed in the preseason but they wouldn't make

the tournament. Caleb Love then got out of Chapel Hill and transferred to Arizona and the rumors are

there's bad blood between RJ Davis and Caleb Love. I have no idea if that's true or not. However

it could be a really cool storyline for an elite eight matchup game. Number four, number two seed

Iowa state versus seven seed Washington state. The cyclones do not have the best offense

but they have the nation's second best defense, according to Ken Palm. And early on, it looked

like their offense may be leading them to an early exit. It took them a whole five minutes

to score their first point. And they didn't reach 10 until the seven minute mark in the first half

However, their defense kept them in it. They would bounce back and tie it at half, 27-27

And in the second half, their offense would step up a bit and their defense would continue to clamp Washington State

finishing the game 67-56 and sending the Cyclones to the Sweet 16

for the seventh time in school history. Iowa State has never, in fact, made a Final Four

unless you include 1944 when there were just eight teams in the tournament So if ISU wants to make their first legitimate final four appearance in school history they have a lot of work cut out for them matter of

fact kem pomeroy put out this brilliant tweet i have to share with you iowa state was unranked in

the preseason top 25 no team that has been that and has finished as a top two seed in the tournament

has ever made a final four if they're able to do so they won't just be making school history

but tournament history. Head coach TJ Otzelberger deserves a ton of credit. He inherited a 2-22 team

in 2021 that went winless in the Big 12, turned it around to a Sweet 16 appearance that next season

in 2022, made the tournament in 2023, and here we are in 2024 being a second seed making the Sweet 16

Game 5 was one of the best games on this slate. 11 seed NC State versus 14 seed Oakland, a bid

Steeler who won five games in five days in the ACC tournament forcing their way into the field

versus a darling mid-major that stole the hearts of America on Thursday when they defeated Kentucky

This game was back and forth the entire way and would actually end up going to overtime. The

Grizzlies would throw the ball away at the end of regulation in what I thought was an incredible

opportunity to win the game right then and there, but in OT it just seemed like Oakland was tired

The size and the physicality of NC State had kind of gotten to them, and they would fall 79-73

Oakland shot really rough in this game, 36% from the field. Their star Trey Townsend did everything

he could to keep his team in this game, putting up 30-13. And the hero of the first round of the

tournament, Jack Golke, would finish with 22 points on 6-17 from 3, but they just didn't really

get much from the rest of their team. If Oakland could have pulled this win off, they would have

been just the third 14 seed of all time to make a sweet 16. As unfortunate as it is that we didn't

see that happen at the same time NC State is an incredible story in their own. DJ Burns would

finish with 24 and 11 on 9 for 12 from the field in this game. Simply put he was just too big for

Oakland. This marks the first time the Wolf Pack have been to the sweet 16 since 2015 and the last

four times they've been there in 89, 2005, 2012, and 2015. They failed to make an Elite Eight

They'll meet the winner of Marquette in Colorado for a chance to beat that 38-year streak. Game

six, Tennessee a two seed versus Texas a seven. Both teams struggled from the field shooting

but Tennessee seemed to be in complete control of this game up until the final minutes. Max

Aismas would cut the lead to one with 30 seconds left, and then Jonas Adu would make both free

throws extending it back to three before max ace miss missed a potentially game tying three with

13 seconds to go and two seed tennessee would move on 62 to 58 i told you guys this game was ugly

texas shot 36 percent tennessee shot 33 but i'm not too worried about the volunteers their defense

is elite and their offense is good it just seemed to be one of those grinded out games and they did

that tennessee is now one step closer to making their second elite eight their first since 2010 and more importantly their first ever Final Four in program history Game 7 3 Illinois versus 11 Duquesne

I'm not going to cover this game too much because Illinois dominated it from start to finish. It was

by far the least competitive game on the day. Terrence Shannon finished with 30 on 10-for-14

from the field. Marcus DeMask had 22-7 on 9-for-16, and I have to say in round one, my apologies

He had the 10th ever triple-double in NCAA tournament history, the first one since John Morant

This win was huge for the Illini as they broke a five-game streak dating back to 2006 of

losing in the round of 32. The matchup with Iowa State for a chance at the Elite Eight on the line

The nation's best offense in Illinois versus the nation's second best defense in Iowa State

A team that wants to run versus a team that wants to slow down. I'm super excited for this matchup as they are complete polar opposites in their style of play and their strengths

And finally, Game 8, the last one of the day. And in my opinion, the best game on this slate

Yes, even better than NC State and Oakland. Number 3 Creighton versus number 11 Oregon

Oregon has a very similar story to NC State. They forced themselves into March Madness by winning the Pac-12 tourney

And Folly Dante and Jermaine Kuznard have been sensational during this run

and they were again in this game Dante finished with 28 and 20 Kuznard had 32 and 8 and this game

was back and forth the entire game it was 36 to 34 at half obviously tied at the end of regulation

the Ducks led 62 to 58 with the ball with 34 seconds left when Kuznard missed a jumper and

Baylor Shireman would make two free throws Dante would miss the front end of a one and one and

Baylor Shireman would make a jumper, tying the game and sending it into overtime

In the first overtime, Jermaine Kuznard would hit an incredible three with 18 seconds left

tying the game before Trey Alexander missed a jumper as time expired

But the second overtime was all Creighton, outscoring Oregon 15-2. You could tell Oregon had just completely lost all of their legs

Kuznard was exhausted. Dante was exhausted. Senior guard Steven Ashworth came up huge for Creighton with 21 points

This felt like a game to me that Oregon gave away at the end of regulation. Being up four with ball with 30 seconds left, you should almost never lose

But props to Creighton. This is their third time in four years making the Sweet 16

They made their first ever Elite Eight last year. We'll see if they can make their first ever Final Four this year

That concludes our day three recap. If you enjoyed this video, I'm recording this early Sunday morning

I'm excited for the slate we have today. All I'm asking for is tie on Grant Foster to lead GCU to a Sweet 16

And fine, maybe a James Madison Sweet 16 appearance as well. I feel extremely confident saying that Texas A&M is going to give Houston a hell game

Colorado is going to be a problem for Marquette. I'll post the day four recap video tomorrow

You can also check out my recap videos for Thursday and Friday here. And as always, thanks for watching and we'll see you on the hardwood