What We Learned Day 4 of NCAA Tournament

Here is some aspects we learned from Day 4 of the NCAA Tournament:

It is not over until the clock hits zero- Playing the best team in the ACC, and an argument can be made that they are the most complete team in the tournament, Michigan fought back from 15 points to push Duke to the limit. By hitting shots and playing good defense, Michigan shook Duke by cutting the lead down to two. Unfortunately, Michigan missed a runner with no time remaining. Michigan was a team who was tied for last in their conference for an amount of time this season, and led by heart and passion almost pulled off an unthinkable comeback.

The stars come out to play at the right time- Down two and under ten seconds against Texas, Arizona star Derrick Williams made a circus shot and hit the free throw to complete the and one, that put Arizona ahead. Arizona completed the win and move onto the next round. Williams had 17 points, and 14 of them came in the second half. Despite the shaky ending, Nolan Smith of Duke proved why he is a player of the year candidate, scoring 24 in Duke's winning way. Harrison Barnes the star and standout at North Carolina hit timely threes and led the Tarheels to a tough victory over the #7 Washington Huskies as well, moving them to the Sweet 16.

Even good coaching goes bad- Coach Rick Barnes can make mistakes. Barnes a good, veteran coach may have lost this game for the Longhorns today (losing to #5 Arizona). Having a freshmen inbounds the ball that late in a game is not the correct call. This showed as soon as the ref blew the whistle and Texas got called for a 5 second violation. Coach Barnes... tisk tisk it meant the season. Coach Boheim of Syracuse also was at fault as late in the game he didn't use timeouts when appropriate. Instead of calling a play late to shorten a lead, he let his team play which hurt the game. Scoop Jardine missed a forced three and #11 Marquette takes the upset in heroic form. Darius Johnson-Odom hit the go ahead three pointer before the Jardine force.

Final Scores of Day 4

(2) North Carolina 86, (7) Washington 83
(1) Duke 73, (8) Michigan 71
(1) Ohio State 98, (8) George Mason 66
(5) Arizona 70, (4) Texas 69
(11) Virginia Commonwealth 94, (3) Purdue 76
(11) Marquette 66, (3) Syracuse 62
(1) Kansas 73, (9) Illinois 59
(10)Florida St 71, (2) Notre Dame 57

We are now on to the Sweet 16. Check back for the thoughts on the Big East, and the reaction to the "great," conference only getting two of their eleven into the round of 16.