Thursday's NCAA men's tournament Sweet 16 takeaways: New faces going to the Elite Eight
The Sweet 16 of the NCAA men's college basketball tournament kicked off on Thursday night with a couple of No. 1 seeds in action and a rematch of last year's national championship game. One of those No. 1 seeds (UConn) is moving on. One of them (North Carolina) is not.
We take a look at all of that and more with some takeaways from Thursday's action.
Some new teams reaching the Elite Eight
We are used to seeing Clemson and Alabama play each other for national titles on the football field.
Now we get to see them do so on the hardwood.
Both teams punched extremely rare tickets to the Elite Eight on Thursday night by scoring major upset wins in their Sweet 16 matchups.
No. 6 seed Clemson earned its first ticket to the Elite Eight since the 1979-80 season with a 77-72 win over No. 2 seed Arizona, while No. 4 seed Alabama pulled off a major upset against No. 1 seed North Carolina, 89-87, to make its first trip to the Elite Eight since 2004.
It is only the second trip to the Elite Eight in program history for both schools.
This is especially uncharted territory for Clemson. Prior to this season, the Tigers had made the tournament just two times in the previous 12 years and had won just three total tournament games dating back to 1997. They have won three tournament games this year alone.
Now the two teams will meet Sunday with a trip to the Final Four on the line.
Neither school has ever reached a Final Four in men's basketball. That is guaranteed to change for one of them.
RJ Davis picked a bad time for an off night
The big story for North Carolina on Thursday night was an off night from ACC player of the year RJ Davis.
Even though he finished the game with 16 points, almost all of that came from the foul line. He was a complete non-factor from the field, making just 4-of-20 field goals while going 0-for-9 from three-point range.
Just to put those numbers in some perspective, it was his second-worst shooting performance of the season (ahead of only a 1-for-14 performance against Virginia) and the first time all season he did not make a single three-point shot.
Another disappointing ending for Arizona
Arizona Wildcats fans are starting to get used to NCAA tournament disappointment and Thursday was another chapter in that saga.
It has been nearly a decade since the Wildcats have advanced beyond the Sweet 16 and Thursday's 77-72 loss to Clemson was the sixth consecutive tournament appearance in which have been eliminated by a lower-seeded team.
That trend also doesn't paint a very promising picture for what next year's tournament appearance might look like.
UConn looks unstoppable
The defending national champion UConn Huskies are not only back in the Elite Eight, they are absolutely crushing teams. Thursday was no different with an emphatic 82-52 win over a very tough San Diego State team in a rematch of last year's National Championship game.
UConn was never really tested in this game and that has been a recurring development in the past two tournaments.
Not only do the Huskies have a nine-game tournament winning streak dating back to last year's championship run, they have also rarely trailed over the past seven tournament games. And by rarely, we mean just a little more than five minutes out of 280 total minutes of game time.
That looks like a team on a mission and a program that has become the class of the NCAA.
Terrence Shannon JR. is carrying Illinois
There are a lot of reasons for Illinois making a run to the Elite Eight, and Terrence Shannon Jr. is at the top of the list. He is playing his best basketball of the season and continued that on Thursday in a 72-69 win over Iowa State. Shannon paced the Fighting Illini with a 29-point effort, giving him at least 25 points in each of their first three NCAA tournament games.
His incredible run started in the Big Ten Tournament, where he was even more dominant offensively to help lead Illinois to the conference title. In six postseason games (conference and NCAA tournaments), Shannon is averaging 31.1 points per game. He averaged 23 points per game in the regular season and has raised his game even higher at the most important time. They will face UConn in the Elite Eight in a matchup of the top two scoring offenses in the country.
Iowa State gave it away in the paint
If Iowa State wants to point to anything for its Sweet 16 loss to Illinois, it can look no further than its inability to make the high percentage shots in the paint.
The Cyclones were just 11-of-25 on dunks and layups, a shocking number that made all of the difference in a three-point game.
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