The Big 12 Conference had one team play in the Sweet 16 of the men’s NCAA Tournament on Friday.
Friday’s Sweet 16 Results
No. 1 Houston 62, No. 4 Purdue 60
Saturday’s Elite Eight Game
No. 3 Texas Tech vs. No. 1 Florida, 5:09 p.m. CT, TBS/truTV
Here are three takeaways from the latest day of men’s basketball action.
DON’T FORGET THE INBOUNDER
Purdue did. And that’s why Houston is moving on.
I thought we were heading for overtime after the penultimate Houston possession led to a missed basket by Milos Uzan and — let’s be honest — an offensive foul he probably got away with.
But, with 2.8 seconds left in the game Houston got ball underneath the basket after the loose ball went out on Purdue. It’s been a while since I’ve seen this inbounds play from any team.
This looks like a simple action. The player out of bounds gets the pass into a player nearby, steps in and establishes himself on the floor and then takes the pass back and scores. Uzan did the honors, finishing up a 22-point night.
The success of this play hinged on one thing. Houston needed the defender nearest Uzan to clear out. If you watch that video all the way through, Purdue is in man-to-man and there’s a defender near Uzan. But he really isn’t watching Uzan. He’s watching for any player coming into the lane. It’s a good plan. But then the defender makes a mistake, and Houston lured him into it.
The Cougars ran multiple screens at the top of the key. LJ Cryer screened for Emanuel Sharp across the top of the key to try and free Sharp up at the 3-point line on Uzan’s side of the court. It was well-defended.
Then, Joseph Tugler came up from the low block on the opposite side of that screen to set a pick for Cryer at the top of the key. This triggered the defender near Uzan. Why? Because Cryer came off the screen with defender is trailing, and Cryer had just made a huge 3-pointer.
Stop the play at three seconds and look at what’s happening. Cryer is freed up enough to present himself for a lob pass from Uzan. That defender has turned his back and is now running toward Cryer to cut off a potential pass. And Uzan STILL has the ball. Tugler rolls off the screen and no one is watching Uzan. The double screen has distracted Purdue so well it doesn’t know what’s coming.
Remarkably, the only Boilermaker that had any realistic shot to stop Uzan was Cryer’s original defender, who was screened well out of the play. He’s the one that ran in late and tried to contest, to no avail.
Houston coach Kelvin Sampson has forgotten more about basketball than the rest of us remember. I don’t know how long he’s had that in the playbook, but he picked the perfect time to unearth it. And you can bet the Cougars practiced that sometime this week.
This is why screen action away from the ball on inbounds plays are so important. It’s not for show. It has purpose. Just watch that play one more time. Everything is working toward one purpose — to get Uzan the ball underneath the basket.
And it worked.
FORMER BIG 12 COACHING MATCHUPS
The early games featured three teams with head coaches that have Big 12 ties. In fact, one game pitted them against each other.
Kentucky and Tennessee squared off in the game before Houston-Purdue. Kentucky is led by first-year coach Mark Pope, who was at BYU last season. Tennessee is led by Rick Barnes, who coached at Texas for more than a decade when the Longhorns were still in the Big 12.
Pope left BYU to head to his alma mater, where he helped Kentucky win a national championship in 1996. Back then, Barnes was the head coach at Clemson.
The Wildcats and Volunteers played twice this year, and the Wildcats won both games by a combined 14 points.
Well, this time the Volunteers took it to the Wildcats the entire game, winning 78-65. Barnes, who led Texas to the Final Four one year and is still reaching for that elusive national championship, keeps dancing for a couple of more days.
The other game featured Ole Miss and Michigan State, with Ole Miss led by a coach that absolutely no one in the Big 12 is ambivalent to — Chris Beard. To stir the pot even more, one of his assistants is Mark Adams, who replaced Beard when he left Texas Tech for Texas and lasted two years.
It’s safe to say that most Big 12 fans were Michigan State fans on Friday and the Spartans pulled through, as they won, 73-70, in a game the Rebels led most of the way.
I’m sure Beard will be forgiven in Lubbock one day, right? RIGHT?
That may be asking way too much.
NO. 1, STILL
I didn’t have a particular problem with Auburn being installed as the No. 1 overall seed, even with three losses in their last four games entering the tournament. I felt the Tigers’ body of work supported it.
Now, there have been stretches where the Tigers have been challenged so far in this tournament. But each game has been won by double-digits, including Friday’s 78-65 win over Michigan.
Auburn seems to find a new gear each game, even if it’s a small one. Those are the kinds of things that help you win a tournament like this.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
