NCAA Tournament 2017: Memorable moments from Friday’s action

This time of year always is filled with unlikely Cinderella references. When Oklahoma State did miss, it crashed the boards with 16 offensive rebounds.

It’s a credit to MI coach John Beilein and his experience as a coach. While they don’t shoot the three with the same fervor as the Wolverines, they’re accurate.

The win improved the team’s chances of making the NCAA tournament.

Heading up the offense for Michigan State this year is Miles Bridges, with 16.7 PPG and 8.3 RPG. They got right. They got rolling, popping IL (by 9) and IN (by 30). The Wolverines commit fewer turnovers than any team in the nation, and can be highly flammable when the shots are falling.

Derrick Walton Jr. led MI with 26 points, 11 assists and five rebounds and helped lead the team to a blistering shooting day from beyond the arc in the second half.

As good as Beilein has been, Rick Pitino has dealt him his two most hard losses. I feel like I’m gonna regret some of that when I saw the second half (of Kansas’ win) on TV, but then again think about how we played three different teams this year that were ranked No. 1 at one time so now we get a fourth.

“Normally, that would be a winning effort”, said Cowboys guard Jeffrey Carroll.

But last I checked, the calendar still says March. A lot of credit to them. I felt good with the execution. “I watched the second half”.

That took 10 minutes.

Those numbers, along with eliminating the silly turnovers, helped the Spartans go on a 30-8 run over the final 10:39 of the first half to take a 38-27 lead into the locker room. They stayed hot, too, remaining just out of reach of every Cowboys rally attempt.

John Beilein has figured out a quality recipe for success.

But as Walton and the rest of the Wolverines rejoiced through the afternoon, Irvin celebrated in front of the hometown crowd in muted but self-assured fashion.

Penn State (22-11-2), which set a program record for wins in a season, will face regular-season conference champion Minnesota in the semifinals at 8 p.m. Friday.

MI has won six games in a row and just stormed through the Big Ten tournament as a No, 8 seed, the lowest ever to win the league event.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Paul George made six 3-pointers and finished with 39 points to lead the Indiana Pacers to a 98-77 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday night.

Combined, the Hurricanes’ Davon Reed, Ja’Quan Newton and Bruce Brown average about 40 points per game and nine assists.

Still, like Mason III and Morris, Walton was at least Evans’ equal. He distributed, made his teammates better. We had to make shots.

It wasn’t just Walton, either. But the Wolverines enter the first round against a strong opponent, an Oklahoma State team with a talented point guard of its own: Jawun Evans, who has been averaging 19 points and 6.2 assists.

Of most concern to Pitino was the Gamecocks’ ability to burn UofL’s defense from deep, hitting 10-of-19 three-pointers, because the Cards will face a much tougher challenge in that department from MI.

“I was anxious about whether these freshmen would handle the big stage, even though they’ve been on one, but it’s still the NCAA Tournament, and the difference now is it’s one-and-done time, ” Izzo said. “We practice this – pressure free throws late, with the music going – and I’m just proud of how we were able to hit those free throws”.