NCAA Tournament 2017: Saturday’s Elite 8 Scores, Updated Bracket and Schedule

“It’s always tough when it ends”.

Kansas, as an entire team, have the hot hand right now.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs have become a regular visitor to the NCAA tournament and in my view this appears to be one of their stronger teams. Their offense comes at you in waves, but the way Chris Mack is coaching, he might be able execute something that can limit the damage.

Half of the Final Four field is set after Saturday’s games, with Gonzaga and OR both winning to advance from their regional finals.

That was the kind of day it was for the Musketeers, whose memorable March run to the third Elite Eight in school history ended with a lopsided 83-59 loss to No. 1 seed Gonzaga on Saturday in the West Regional final.

The one-sided Elite Eight victory was very impressive, but also had many people on social media asking the same question: “How tall is Karnowski from Gonzaga?”

Unfortunately for Xavier, replay confirmed that J.P. Macura’s 80-foot shot was just a little after the buzzer sounded. They would go on to lose three of their next four games and entered the NCAA tournament having lost six of their last nine games, their offensive efficiency dipping into the 150s on KenPom.

There’s certainly an argument to be made for Pete Gillen’s nine-year tenure during the late 80s and early 90s. Their case was helped with two wins in the conference tournament, include a win over fellow Sweet 16 team Butler, before falling to Creighton in the Big East semifinals. Przemek Karnowski does a great job of clogging the paint, but he can’t do much if the Musketeers are hitting their shots from the outside. It will take a team effort.

The most intriguing matchup coming into the game was the forward spot for either team. Oh just wait, there’s plenty, plenty more. Xavier had five dunks to Arizona’s one.

Shortly after his press conference, Few remarked, not for the first time, that the NCAA tournament is a “crapshoot”, that matchups and good breaks are every bit as important as how good teams actually are. This means this game is going to come down to guard play.

Dylan Ennis added 12 points for the Ducks (33-5), but Jordan Bell proved to be the difference with an incredible all-around game that included 11 points, 13 rebounds and eight blocks.

None of this is to say Miller is a bad coach. If they don’t, like Kansas did for much of Saturday night, Bell will beat them to 50-50 balls and put OR in a position to win.

There’s just one thing: it wasn’t anyone on Xavier that shot this ball. He’s second on the school’s all-time wins list behind Pete Gillen (202) with 186 wins.

Williams-Goss said it took team defense to contain Bluiett, and sharp execution of Few’s game plan to make him work. His postseason play can only be helping his stock as a professional prospect. Xavier has been playing with house money for two weeks and is acting like it. They threw Mack’s usual grab-bag (or mishmash, if you prefer) of zone defenses at the Bulldogs in hopes of slowing down their offense.

Macura scored 14 points and impacted the game in a big way without hitting jumpshots. The guard had a couple of assists and pulled down five boards in 37 minutes on the court. In reflection, Few spoke about how in certain years, a raft of players can leave college early for the National Basketball Association draft in other parts of the country but not in the west, and vice versa. Let’s not minimize one iota the accomplishment of the Zags in this particular year.