Written by Eamonn Brennan at ESPN.com
Two years ago, the first weekend of the NCAA tournament featured one of the low-key worst calls in recent March history.
SMU, a No. 6 seed experiencing its first tournament breakthrough of the Larry Brown restoration, led its first-round opponent — 13-loss, 11-seed UCLA — by two with 22 seconds remaining. The Bruins inbounded from the sideline. By design, guard Norman Powell circled right and drove to the baseline, while Bryce Alford used a backscreen on the opposite wing. By the time Powell’s pass hit Alford in the short corner, however, SMU’s rangy defenders had closed in. Alford retreated, circled back around another screen, and then — despite having 12 seconds left, despite Markus Kennedy’s towering contest — flung an inexplicable fadeaway prayer from 23 feet.
The shot was so far off that SMU forward Yanick Moreira, fearing a UCLA putback, jumped to meet its trajectory as the ball flew wide of the rim. An official, standing at the most deceptive possible angle (and at least 30 feet from the rim) called Moreira for goaltending. He was wrong. UCLA won by one.
Earlier that day, 14th-seeded UAB shocked a disastrously casual Iowa State. Two days later, the overmatched, undersized Blazers got rolled. Just like that — almost by accident — the 2015 UCLA Bruins found themselves in the Sweet 16.
Good news: The 2017 NCAA tournament didn’t make these mistakes.
If there is one thing each and every one of the 16 teams playing in New York, San Jose, Memphis and Kansas City next weekend have in common, it is that they did not arrive at this stage by accident.
We can thank the 2017 tourney’s unconventional methods for that. Thursday and Friday’s first-round action was almost disconertingly sleepy, equally free of overtimes, underdogs and buzzer-beaters — the good stuff, the stuff the first two days of the tournament usually serves in Cheesecake Factory-sized portions.
To continue reading this article, click here.
