After a 37-point game against Oregon in the Elite Eight, he's now averaging 29.3 points per game in the tournament.īut Hield is no one-man show for the Sooners. The Bahamian superstar is putting up the type of dominant offensive performance in the NCAA tournament that only Kemba Walker and Stephen Curry have managed in the past decade. Reason to Buy: Buddy Hield is the best player left in the tournament. Three-point shooting for both teams will be crucial. The Road Ahead: The Sooners will draw Villanova in the Final Four for a rematch of an oft-discussed regular-season game -the 78-55 beatdown of the Wildcats in Hawaii. Iowa and Miami have experienced backcourts, but they were both flustered by the Villanova ball pressure, as the Wildcats are averaging 9.0 steals per tournament game. Threes keep falling and the defense keeps driving opposing guards bonkers. They also entered the tournament just 1-3 against teams seeded No. If the night comes where the long ball fails the Wildcats, there really isn't a plan B. Reason to Sell: Though they have been on fire these past few games, this is still the same Villanova team that shot 4-of-32 from three-point range in getting blown out by Oklahoma. Their perimeter defense has been phenomenal in this tournament. The craziest part is that the three-point stroke failed them in the Elite Eight against Kansas, yet the Wildcats still managed to pull off the upset. For a group of guys allegedly feeling the pressure of having not been to the Sweet 16 since 2009, the Wildcats have played with all the confidence in the world, beating UNC Asheville, Iowa and Miami by a combined margin of 72 points before taking down the onetime favorite to win it all. Reason to Buy: No team is playing better than Villanova right now. The Wildcats will be looking to shoot better than 4-of-32 from three-point range in the rematch. The Road Ahead: Villanova took down the Jayhawks on Saturday night and will get a chance to exorcise some December demons against Oklahoma in the Final Four. They keep deriving motivation from being repeatedly told they never belonged in the tournament in the first place. However, with nothing but ACC teams remaining on the right side of the bracket, the Orange won't be surprising anyone with their defensive game plan. Reason to Sell: The 2-3 zone works well against teams that haven't faced it before. For a coach who has allegedly been running the same defense for 40 years, Jim Boeheim was masterful with his defensive strategies in Chicago this weekend. Proper application of the full-court press has also been crucial. And if we learned anything from the Battle 4 Atlantis, it's that Syracuse can beat anyone when it's hot from beyond the arc. Reason to Buy: Syracuse didn't shoot well in the Sweet 16 against Gonzaga or for the first 75 percent of the Elite Eight game against Virginia, but it was shooting 36.8 percent from downtown over its previous three games. The Road Ahead: We can't even comprehend how this team is still standing after the early deficits it faced against Gonzaga and Virginia, but the Orange are a win over either North Carolina away from becoming the most improbable participant in a national championship game in NCAA tournament history.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |