This year’s tournament has for sure lived up to its billing. This is the first time that four teams seeded 13 or lower have reached the Round of 32: Oral Roberts, North Texas, Ohio, and Abilene Christian. A number of teams have already punched their tickets to the Sweet 16, including 11-seed Syracuse, 12-seed Oregon St., 8-seed Loyola Chicago, and the aforementioned 15-seed Oral Roberts. Syracuse, with their famous 2-3 zone defense, beat 3-seed West Virginia by a score of 75-72 on Sunday night. Buddy Boeheim, son of coach Jim Boeheim, was the star for the Orange, scoring 25 points with six made three-pointers. The team shot 45% overall from the three-point line. Red hot Oregon St. beat Oklahoma St, handily, 80-70 behind G Ethan Thompson, who had 26 points and 7 rebounds. The consensus future #1 pick in the upcoming NBA draft, freshman G Cade Cunningham led the Cowboys with 24 points in a losing effort. Meanwhile. Loyola Chicago shocked 1 seed Illinois, beating the Illini, 71-58. C Cameron Krutwig led Loyola Chicago with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Kofi Cockburn led Illinois with 21 points and 9 rebounds in a disappointing end to the Illini’s season. Finally, the “Cinderella team” of the tournament has definitely been Oral Roberts. They beat Florida, 81-78 behind F Kevin Obanor’s 28 points and 11 rebounds. G Max Abmas also chipped in with 26 points and 7 assists for the Golden Eagles.
The common theme for successful teams so far in the tournament has been teams that play really good defense and also share the ball. It will be exciting to see if 13- seed Ohio behind lead guard Jason Preston can knock off 5 seed and if 14 seed Abilene Christian can beat 11-seed UCLA. In a season like no other, March Madness has definitely seen its share of madness.
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