Duke defeats Texas Tech; Gonzaga, Arizona lose

On Jan 11, 2023

Lace up those dancing shoes. The Sweet 16 has arrived.

Four men’s games Thursday night kicked off an exciting weekend of March Madness that will set the Final Four in both the men’s and women’s brackets. (The women’s Sweet 16 round begins on Friday.)

And what a night it was!

Arkansas upended No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga, 74-68, to reach the Elite Eight for the second consecutive season. Villanova prevailed again over Michigan as the second-seeded Wildcats won it, 63-55. Duke won a thriller vs. Texas Tech to move into the Elite Eight in Mike Krzyzewski’s final season. And in the nightcap, No. 5 Houston sent No. 1 Arizona home in a game they controlled from the jump.

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Houston knocks out Arizona as another No. 1 seed goes down

SAN ANTONIO — For the Houston Cougars, it doesn’t matter if they’re playing a bottom-rung team in the American Athletic Conference or one of the favorites to win the national title. They’re going to bring it every second of every possession and make it absolutely miserable to try and beat them.

Arizona may have seen it on film coming into the South Regional, but they couldn’t have actually known what it meant until the ball was tipped Thursday. And it was even more unpleasant in person than they could have imagined as they became the third No. 1 seed to fall in the NCAA Tournament.

Houston’s defensive pressure, aggressiveness on the glass and willingness to go all-out for every contested ball turned one of the best teams all season into dust, grinding away everything the Wildcats wanted to do in a 72-60 victory that may have been an upset by seeding but was not according to the analytics.

In fact, the Cougars came into the Sweet 16 as the No. 2 team in the country according to the Ken Pomeroy efficiency metrics — Arizona was No. 3 — and looked every bit the part in a game they controlled from the opening tip until the final minute.

The Cougars, seeded No. 5 in the South, will face No. 2 seed Villanova on Saturday in hopes of making their second consecutive Final Four.

The Cougars bottled up Bennedict Mathurin, Arizona’s best player, holding him to 15 points on 4-for-14 from the field. But even that doesn’t tell the full story of how they pretty much just erased Mathurin for most of the game, challenging every catch, every shot and eventually just forcing him into poor decisions when he tried to fuel a last-minute comeback.

Without Mathurin facilitating offense, Arizona struggled to generate good looks, shooting 33.3% from the field and turning it over 14 times.

After a first half struggle that left them fortunate to trail just 34-28, the Wildcats cut the deficit to one possession a couple times early in the second with some crisper ball movement. But Houston never gave up the lead and got timely shooting from Kyler Edwards, who made four threes in the second half — the last one with 1:20 left that put the game away after Arizona had crawled back within six.

Houston also beat Arizona up on the glass with 19 second-chance points and 24 points off turnovers. As brilliant as Arizona was for most of this season in going 33-3 with the Pac-12 title, Houston was simply the tougher and better team.

— Dan Wolken

Duke fights off Texas Tech to reach Elite Eight

SAN FRANCISCO – Mike Krzyzewski’s coaching career continues for at least one more game, and so does the possibility of ending his legendary tenure at Duke with a sixth national championship.

After looking overwhelmed by Texas Tech’s suffocating defense at times, the Blue Devils responded with an inspired second half behind star freshman Paolo Banchero and 7-1 center Mark Williams to power Duke to a 78-73 victory Thursday in the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament’s West Regional.

Blanchero and Williams combined for 38 points, imposing their size against a Red Raiders team that had allowed an opponent as many as 70 points only twice this season.

Duke was fortunate to trail only 33-29 at intermission after leading only once, when it went up 24-22 on a Jeremy Roach jumper at the 7:47 mark. The Red Raiders promptly launched a 7-0 run from that point but failed to capitalize on holding the Blue Devils to 2-for-12 shooting the rest of the half.

A renewed emphasis on taking advantage of their superior size, especially the combination of Blanchero and Williams, fueled the comeback victory.

— Jorge L. Ortiz