This feature is part of VICE Sports’ March Madness coverage.
Day four of the 2016 NCAA Tournament is over, and after a chalk-y Saturday, madness made a Sunday comeback. Let’s get caught up.
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The biggest collapse in college basketball history
Forget recency bias. Northern Iowa’s collapse against Texas A&M — giving up a 12-point lead with 35 seconds to play — is unequivocally the biggest collapse in the history of the sport. Now, it’s true that I haven’t watched every single collapse of the past almost-century (editor’s note: Arizona’s meltdown against Illinois in 2005 was pretty, pretty bad), but I feel confident about this one.
Read More: Buddy Hield’s Home Court
The Panthers did absolutely every wrong thing a team could do while trying to hold a 12-point lead, while the Aggies got every possible break to go their way. Here’s the sequence:
Texas A&M’s win percentage was legitimately as low as it could be on most models without actually being zero:
For that kind of collapse to happen, you have to be both terribly unlucky and very bad. One or the other alone won’t do. Even the team with the worst press-break in the country would be able to get out of that situation 99 times out of 100.
Texas A&M needed to hit all of its shots, hope for unforced turnovers, hope the refs didn’t get whistle-happy when it was on defense and get a friendly whistle on offense. And all of those things happened!
And so the Aggies tied the game, then won in double overtime. There will never be anything else like it.
Wisconsin’s buzzer beater
Wisconsin will never make things easy, but after squeaking out a win against Pitt, the Badgers got two big three-pointers from Bronson Koenig in the final 11 seconds to stun No. 2 seed Xavier and move on to the Sweet Sixteen:
Poor UNI. First it collapses, then the buzzer beater in its game gets upstaged.
March Sadness face of the day
Xavier fan Bill Murray was so, so sad. The last time Murray was this convincingly despondent onscreen, he was in Rushmore. Folks, he did not enjoy the end of the game very much, is what I am saying:
Charge calls are getting out of control
Wisconsin might not have even been in position for that game-winning shot if it weren’t for a charge call against Xavier on the previous possession. The problem was, it wasn’t a charge at all—the Badgers’ Zak Showalter just sold it really well:
This was example of NCAA tournament referees calling phantom offensive fouls. And those misguided whistles have decided big games.
Against Indiana, Kentucky was called for a whopping six offensive fouls, five of which came in the first half. The Hoosiers never took more than three charges in an entire game before Saturday.
Often times, there’s a major foul disparity between teams because one of them is fouling more and/or less athletic or skilled than its opponent, but the charge calls during Indiana-Kentucky were random and made little sense. On one occasion, Kentucky’s Jamal Murray did a spin move, causing the Indiana defender to fall over, and the official whistled him for a charge. Later, after another bad charge call on Kentucky, the official responded with an equally bad makeup charge call against Indiana on the next possession.
Charges happen, but simply playing basketball better than your opponent is not a charge. Unfortunately, those calls are having a big effect on some of the tournament’s biggest games.
Buddy Hield magic
In case he didn’t already have it wrapped up, Buddy Hield is strengthening his case for National Player of the Year, particularly with Michigan State’s Denzel Valentine already out of the tournament.
With his team on the ropes against VCU, Hield took over, leading the Sooners to an 85-81 win. He scored a whopping 29 of his 36 points in the second half, dominating the Rams from beyond the three-point arc.
By comparison, only five other players have scored 29 points in an entire game during this year’s tournament.
Hield is undoubtedly the player of the year favorite now, and the best may be yet to come. The Sooners’ offense is clicking, and in a wide-open bracket, they’re one of the favorites to reach the Final Four.
A bad night for Cinderella
There won’t be any Cinderellas advancing deep into this year’s NCAA Tournament. A recap of how they did yesterday:
●No. 11-seed UNI lost on the aforementioned biggest choke in college basketball history.
●No. 14-seed Stephen F. Austin lost to Notre Dame on a last-second tip-in.
●No. 13-seed Hawaii lost to Maryland after leading for much of the first half.
●No. 15-seed Middle Tennessee lost to Syracuse by 25.
UNI, Stephen F. Austin, and Hawaii all very good teams—much better than their off-brand names would suggest. But to make a run in the March, you have to be both good and lucky. Unfortunately, these three teams only enjoyed the former.
It was that kind of Sunday for Hawaii and the NCAA Tournament’s other Cinderellas. Photo by James Snook-USA TODAY Sports
GIF of the day
Puddles the Duck is the best:
VICE Sports Tom Crean Memorial Coach Photo of the Day
Shoryuken! — Photo by James Snook-USA TODAY Sports
As always: you’re welcome, America. On to the Sweet Sixteen!
