We didn’t really get into this Saturday, being focused on the Michigan game, but the NCAA released its top 16 seeds during the day. Michigan, Duke, Arizona and Iowa State were the #1 seeds – and then, naturally, Michigan and Iowa State lost.
Fortunately for Iowa State, so did #2 seeds Houston and Illinois (if you haven’t seen the end of the Illinois-UCLA game, you really owe it to yourself to see that).
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So who’s the most impressive of the four #1 seeds?
Well, Duke undeniably looked really good against Michigan. The Blue Devils took a prodigious offense and shaved about a third off the normal production. That was really a striking win. Duke played with real maturity and heart. Beating Michigan has not been easy this season. Shoot, keeping the score close has been challenging for most teams.
As impressive as that was though, what Arizona did yesterday was even more remarkable.
The Wildcats went to #2 Houston without ace freshmen Koa Peat, who was injured, and Dwayne Aristode, who was sick. And on top of that, Houston suppressed leading scorer Brayden Burries, holding him to just 1-5 from the floor.
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Arizona won that game, 73-66, despite shooting 3-12 from the bonusphere (25%), 25-56 overall (45%) and just 20-31 from the foul line (65%).
However, they held Houston to 8-26 from deep (31%), and 20-56 overall (36%). The Cougars did hit 18-22 from the line (82%), which kept them in this.
Arizona also harassed super frosh Kingston Flemings into a 6-17 (35.3%) outing.
The Wildcats, in other words, overcame tremendous adversity to win against a very tough-minded team, and did it on the road with world-class defense.
This win, to our way of thinking, marks Arizona as the team to beat in March. It’s probably the single most impressive victory of the season for anyone, anywhere.
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There’s a long way to go and some great teams out there, including Duke and Michigan, and March is a treacherous month. Being a favorite doesn’t always work out the way you expect.
That said, no one else can claim a win quite like this. Keep an eye on the Cats.
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