Losers From the First Weekend of the 2019 NCAA Tournament

The first weekend of the 2019 NCAA Tournament is behind us. The Sweet 16 is set and we’ve been served one of the chalkiest brackets in years. With that in mind, here’s a look at the biggest losers from the tournament’s first action-packed weekend.

The Pac-12

The Pac-12 got three teams in the tournament, and wound up with one in the Sweet 16. It was an awful showing for the conference.

It saw Arizona State win a play-in game before getting hammered by Buffalo, 91-74. Washington won the conference regular season title going away, but was absolutely hammered by North Carolina, 81-59, in the second round. And that game was nowhere near as close as the score would indicate.

Oregon, the lone bright spot for the conference, is still dancing after a fantastic run as a 12-seed so far, but is a complete outlier in a conference of duds. The Ducks will face Virginia in the Sweet 16.

The Pac-12 went 0-3 in 2018 and has one team in the Sweet 16 this year. Given its pedigree in basketball and its complete lack of a power team in football in recent years, this has, once again, been a disappointment.

Eric Musselman

After back-to-back successful seasons, Nevada was supposed to take a big step forward this season. That didn’t happen.

In 2017, Nevada went 28-7 and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. In 2018, the Wolf Pack went 29-8 and reached the Sweet 16. Things were set up for Nevada and head coach Eric Musselman to do big things this season, but instead they were bounced by Florida in the first round.

Musselman’s side opened the season 14-0 and rose to the No. 6 spot in the rankings,sitting 24-1 by mid-February. Then the Wolf Pack lost four of their final games. Nevada wasted the final season of twins Cody Martin and Caleb Martin and now the team will likely be rebuilding.

Had he made a run this season, Musselman would have likely been mentioned as a top candidate for a number of jobs. Now? He’ll be seen as a guy who missed a huge opportunity.

Officials in the Duke-UCF game

Guys miss calls all the time, so the tournament is no different. But officials in the Duke-UCF game missed three or four obvious calls against the Blue Devils late that would have all but given the Knights a huge upset.

With 15 seconds left and UCF up by three, Zion Williamson drove the lane, lowered his shoulder, plowed over his defender, then spun and scored while getting fouled. It was a clear charge on Zion’s initial move and the officials refused to call it. Watch:

Williamson missed the ensuing free throw, but R.J. Barrett grabbed the rebound and put the ball back in the hoop to give Duke a one-point lead, 77-76. What the officials missed here was Barrett shoving the defender (Aubrey Dawkins) attempting to block him out in the back. Oh and Javin DeLaurier got away with a clear hook-and-hold on the left side of the lane in this shot:

On the final possession, B.J. Taylor drove to the basket and Tre Jones bodied him the entire way. Any other time of the game, that’s a foul on the drive for impeding Taylor’s freedom of movement.

Not calling a foul on the final drive is understandable, but those other three were clear misses, all of which favored Duke. Given Duke’s reputation for getting calls, it will cause more questions than answers.

Kansas

Kansas opened the season as the near-unanimous No. 1 team in the nation. On Saturday they were blown out of the NCAA tournament by Auburn after a masterful performance on the perimeter.

Bill Self’s team failed to win the Big 12 title for the first time in 14 years this season, then failed to get past the second round of the tournament.

With Silvio De Sousa being ruled ineligible, Lagerald Vick’s departure for personal reasons and Udoka Azubuike’s season-ending injury, Self and company had a lot to deal with. Given the mess the Jayhawks faced this season, a result like this wasn’t unexpected but it’s still disappointing.

Dropping from a sure title contender to not making it out of the tournament’s first weekend was a huge letdown.

Greg Gard and Ethan Happ

After going 15-18 and missing the NCAA tournament during the 2017-18 season, big things were expected from Wisconsin this year. Instead, with Khalil Iverson and Ethan Happ as seniors, the Badgers went 23-11 and were upset by 12th-seeded Oregon in the opening round of the tournament. The Ducks didn’t just beat Wisconsin, they smoked them, 72-54.

Greg Gard’s job as the Badgers’ head coach was in jeopardy without a really good showing this season. While the 23-11 record was decent, such an awful showing in the tournament will not inspire confidence in him long term.

Similarly, Happ put up some gaudy number during his career in Madison, but he was pretty bad against Oregon. He had just 12 points and eight rebounds in 33 minutes during his final collegiate game. He went out with a whimper.

Underdogs

The 2019 Sweet 16 consists of:

-Four No. 1 seeds

-Four No. 2 seeds

-Four No. 3 seeds

-Two No. 4 seeds

Auburn (five seed) and Oregon (12 seed) are the other two teams left. Their combined record in March is 18-0 and they’re arguably the two hottest teams in college basketball.

There was no room for underdogs in this tournament.