March Madness living up to its reputation

March Madness living up to its reputation
 March Madness is again living up to its reputation this year as the field of the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament is set with favorites Villanova and Duke both getting bounced in the Second Round. 
 Reigning tournament champion and 2017 Big East Champion Villanova easily defeated Mount St. Mary's 76-56 as the number one seed in the East Region before getting badgered by Wisconsin 65-62. "I say this every year at Villanova, we can't take it for granted," head coach Jay Wright told the Associated Press. "It's so special to be a part of it. Every time you win and you get a chance to advance, cherish it. You're playing the best teams in the country. You're going to come down to games like this. We had a game like this against Kansas last year and we came out of the good side of it. We had a game like this against N.C. State last year, and we had a shot to win it and we missed it."
 "To me, there's no dishonor in losing in this tournament — and we've lived through it. You are judged by how you play in this tournament and that's the reality of it. So, you have to accept it," he continued. 
 Duke was the number two seed in the East and earned an 87-65 win over Troy before losing 88-81 to South Carolina. "That's the most physical team we've faced all year," Mike Krzyzewski told the AP about the Gamecocks.
 Meeting the Badgers at Madison Square Garden in New York City will be the fourth seed Florida Gators coming off a 65-39 win over Virginia in the Round of 32 and a 15-point win over East Tennessee State in the opening game. The seventh seed South Carolina Gamecocks will face off against the third seed Baylor Bears who reached the Sweet 16 after dispatching New Mexico State and USC.  
 The Northwestern Wildcats reached the Tournament for the first time ever this year and won their first game against Vanderbilt 68-66. They then lost to number one seed in the West Region Gonzaga on a controversial call at the buzzer giving the Zags the 79-73 win in Salt Lake City. The NCAA admitted missing a goaltending call that caused a technical foul to be called on Northwestern's Chris Collins. Nigel Williams-Goss made both free throws and gave Gonzaga enough separation on its way to the school's third consecutive trip to the Sweet 16.  
 "If I see a guy from another team put his hand through the rim and block a shot, I'm going to react to it if the play isn't called,'' Collins said to the AP. ''I think all of you would. Of course. That cuts it to three. We're all emotional. We're coming back from 20 down.''
 Standing between Gonzaga and a trip to the Elite 8 are the Mountaineers of West Virginia with a 12-6 record Big XII record and the four seed in the West Region who got past Bucknell 86-80 in the first round before doing the same against former Big East rival Notre Dame 83-71 in Buffalo.
 Xavier and second seeded Arizona battle each other for a chance to meet the winner between Gonzaga and West Virginia in the Elite 8. Xavier as the 11th-seed upset Florida State in the Second Round 91-66, and Arizona as the second seed cruised past North Dakota 100-82 before escaping 69-60 against the Gales of St. Mary's. 
 "We don't think of anything as pressure," Williams-Goss said according to the AP. "We had pressure all year long. We were undefeated and we didn't feel any of that. This is what we live for, what
we prepare for and we enjoy doing. We all enjoy competing at the highest level."
 "All year we've been telling ourselves that we got the best group of guards in the country, and we truly believe that," West Virginia's Jevon Carter told the AP. "So, when it's time for us to play, we go out there and give it our all. Sometimes it worked. But we're going to put forth 100 percent and we're going to live and die with it."
 With the losses of Villanova and Duke, Kansas and North Carolina emerged as favorites to the win the Tournament. Kansas Jayhawks earned a date in the Sweet 16 against the Purdue Boilermakers after trouncing 16th-seed UC Davis 100-62 and winning 90-70 over Tom Izzo's Michigan State Spartans. The Boilermakers with the four seed in the Midwest steamed past Vermont 80-70 and Iowa State 80-76. The two teams will meet in Kansas City which is 35 miles from the Jayhawks' home court in Lawrence. "We know it'll be hostile there, but we can draw energy from that," Boilermaker center Isaac Haas said via Twitter according to the AP. "Gotta put ourselves in best position possible."
 Fellow Big Ten team Michigan reached the Sweet 16 as the Wolverines are still riding high off a conference championship in Washington, DC. The team's plane crashed on the runway as it was leaving Detroit due to the high winds affecting much of the Midwest. The team then had to play the first game of the Big Ten Tournament in its practice jerseys as the luggage got delayed. The Wolverines since then won six games in a row and won their first two games in the NCAA Tournament 92-91 over Oklahoma State and 73-69 over Louisville. 
 The third seed Oregon Ducks flew into the Sweet 16 and will face Michigan after a slim three point win over Atlantic 10 Champion Rhode Island in the Second Round 75-72. ''During the game I had to let it go. There was two minutes left, I dropped them and I had to keep playing, and we kept playing and kept fighting and hit the glass and got crucial offensive rebounds,'' Oregon's Tyler Dorsey told the AP. ''I just hit some big shots.''
 North Carolina as the number one seed in the South Region  will go up against Butler in what would have been a rematch of the Second Round in the 2009 NCAA Tournament. That year Butler lost to LSU in the opening round, and the Tigers lost to North Carolina as the Tar Heels went on to win the National Championship. 
 The winner of North Carolina and Butler will then meet the winner of UCLA and Kentucky in the Elite 8. UCLA emerged past Kent State 97-80 then took care of Cincinnati 79-67 in Sacramento. SEC Champion Kentucky narrowly defeated instate rival Northern Kentucky 79-70 and even more narrowly defeated Wichita State 65-62 in Indianapolis. 
 According to the AP, Coach John Calipari said about his Wildcats, "They're young, but they have a will to win and play with courage and are skilled basketball players and great kids."