Oops! All Meteor Games!: Elite Eight, Sunday March 29

About Last Night:

Illinois 71, Iowa 59

BoilerUp89: Congrats Illini. I'd sell you my Final Four tickets but I never bought them since the season went off the rails. Hope you guys enjoy it and even though you are our "rivals", I'm sorta rooting for you moving forward. Excellent roster Underwood put together and I really like the pieces.

Kind of...: All year, my line was that Iowa was a low-ceiling, high-floor team. You have to have some talent to beat Florida, but last night laid bare Iowa's limitations. Illinois out rebounded the Hawkeyes 38-21, including 16-8 on the offensive glass. There's not much else you need to know about the game. The Illini have better, and taller, athletes. When that's the case, you can survive going 3-17 from three, even against as well-coached of a team as Iowa. The Hawkeyes went further than anybody could have sanely imagined because McCollum's shit works, and because Stirtz is pretty damn good. But at the end of the day, the more talented team usually wins, and that's what happened yesterday.

Now we get to see how much Iowa cares about their basketball program. McCollum just had a year reminiscent of Iowa football in 2009 or 2015. One of those overachieving years where Iowa was in the thick of things until the very end. But McCollum isn't going to settle for receding back into the hoops equivalent of 8-4. He's from the state, and if he thinks he has the support to win big there, he may well stay for the rest of his career. But if the NIL budget is low and Carver continues to be a mausoleum, he'll probably pick up the phone the next time a better job comes open. Will be interesting to observe unfold.

HoustonBoiler: I also viewed Iowa as a high-floor, low-ceiling team, but with an up and coming coach. They definitely performed much better than I had expected in the NCAA tourney as I had them losing to Florida. However, they could not get past Illinois, whose more talented players outplayed Iowa.

AlmaOtter: I have more thoughts on this game and this run than I can properly express right now. It's been a long time coming. Let's keep dancing.

Arizona 79, Purdue 64

BoilerUp89: Was a good first half, but the Boilers offense dried up in the second half. A lot of that is due to Arizona's defense and some of it was due to TKR's foul trouble but Purdue needed to have a great shooting night to beat the Wildcats and in the end managed a pretty subpar one (38 from the field, 36% from three, and 62% from the charity stripe). Smith and Kaufman-Renn were fairly inefficient and Loyer didn't have his best shooting night either. Meanwhile, Arizona lowered their head and drove into Purdue defenders to get to the foul line. It's not a particularly pretty brand of basketball but it's effective and Purdue just didn't have the size or athleticism at the guard or wing position to slow it down.

Kind of...: Arizona's offense was definitely not aesthetically pleasing. Alas, Purdue was pretty much powerless to stop Arizona's wings/guards from getting into the lane. And the odds of both Cluff and TKR being "on" was always pretty low. I previously compared that tandem to the Edey/Williams pairing in '22, and '26 Purdue to that outfit (the one that lost to Saint Peter's). In both cases, you had two very effective bigs who really couldn't be effective...at the same time. I think this year's squad managed that situation better, and it's a pretty high-level weakness. Purdue DID win 30 games despite all the teeth-gnashing.

As for Braden Smith, I'm more convinced that my simple generalization about him really captured something. He's college Steve Nash. Great passer. Can score when he has too. Really fun to have running your offense. But Nash had no prayer of staying in front of the less heralded Tony Parker in key playoff series. And Purdue had to hide Smith on defense most of the night because there was no chance he could handle Jaden Bradley.

There's no shame in losing to Arizona, though. I'm 95% confident that if Purdue and Illinois switched spots in the bracket, the Boilers are headed to the Final Four and Illini fans wake up today muttering, "damn, Arizona is good."

HoustonBoiler: There's not really much more I can add, beyond Arizona is really good. Despite TKR's foul troubles early, Purdue played well in the first half, taking a 7 point lead into the locker room. Holding Arizona to 31 points in a half is pretty good. Unfortunately, Arizona got it rolling in the second half and Purdue just couldn't keep up. Too many turnovers, poor shooting overall (threes, twos, and free throws), and fouls did in the Boilers.

All that said, Purdue had a very good season, winning 30 games, the BTT, and played to their seed-level in the NCAA tourney. Overall, the senior class of Smith, Loyer, and Kaufman-Renn won two B1G regular season championships, two B1G tournament championships and advanced to a Final Four and played in the championship game, two Elite Eights, and three Sweet 16s. They were pretty good.

Today's Games:

#6 Tennessee Volunteers v #1 Michigan Wolverines

2:15 ET/1:15 GTZ. CBS.

BoilerUp89: Boo Tennessee, boo!

Kind of...: Yeah, even if one hates Michigan, realize that Arizona awaits. I really want to see Michigan/Arizona. It's basically King Kong vs. Godzilla. Give us this one, basketball gods. Still, Tennessee is big, too. If they win today, they'll probably have earned it. They were KenPom's preseason #9 team. This is not some Cinderella story. If Gillespie has a clearly better game than Cadeau, I think it becomes a 50/50 proposition. Estrella (6'11"), Okpara (6'11"), Carey (6'8") are more than capable of holding their own inside, and the very skinny Ament is 6'10" and skilled.

HoustonBoiler: Bring your hardhats Wolverines. You're going to need them when the Tennessee fans start throwing mustard bottles at you.

#2 UConn Huskies v #1 Duke Blue Devils

5:05 ET/4:05 GTZ. CBS.

BoilerUp89: vomits... I may have drunk too much.

MaximumSam: Dan Hurley takes on the Duke Whistle. Tune in to see if the arena spontaneously combusts.

Kind of...: In the 64 team era, these two have met four times in the NCAA tournament. They're tied 2-2, and three of those games were at least excellent and maybe classics. I don't know if I've ever seen Coach K as angry as he was when Emeka Okafor fouled out three Duke players and UConn erased an eight point deficit in the last three minutes. Our hatreds are fun, I understand. But, if you just want to watch a compelling basketball game, that might turn into something special "classic moment"-wish, this may deliver.

But, yes, meteor is certainly a reasonable option.

HoustonBoiler: This is a definite meteor game.