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Saturday lookahead: Four storylines to watch
Thursday was one of the most chaotic and fun days in NCAA tournament history. The only suprise Friday was that there were no surprises. What does Saturday have in store for us? Here's a primer to get you ready for the opening day of the round of 32
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1. Does Cincinnati have any chance of upsetting Kentucky? Scroll down the list of attributes a team needs to challenge Kentucky, and you'll soon discover that Cincinnati doesn't have nearly enough. Three-point shooting is a must against a long, athletic Kentucky team rife with shot blockers to protect the paint, but the Bearcats are 290th nationally in 3-pointers made and do most of their scoring at the rim. Cincinnati is also a below average defensive rebounding team, which should mean lots of second-chance opportunities for a Kentucky team that excels on the offensive glass. Stout defense could enable the Bearcats to keep the game competitive for a while, but this is not an offense built to solve Kentucky's formidable defense. They play at too slow a tempo to score before the Wildcats are set, they don't have a single scorer averaging more than 9.9 points per game and only Troy Caupain is shooting better than 34.2 percent from behind the arc.
2. Will either No. 14 seed make the Sweet 16? Midnight may strike for both remaining NCAA tournament Cinderellas on Saturday, but UAB probably has a better chance of making the Sweet 16 than Georgia State does. The Blazers are a totally different team than the one round of 32 opponent UCLA beat by 12 on Thanksgiving weekend at the Battle 4 Atlantis. Coach Jerod Haase needed time to get one of the nation's youngest rosters to jell after losing five of his six leading scorers from last year's 18-win team. UAB finished fourth in Conference USA, but the Blazers stormed through the league tournament and toppled third-seeded Iowa State on Thursday because they're peaking at the right time. They're a menace on the offensive glass, they have improved defensively and Virginia Tech transfer Robert Brown and freshman William Lee have matured into dangerous scoring threats.
3. Which lower-seeded team has the best chance of winning Saturday? If contrasting styles make for good fights, then Saturday's duel between in-state foes Butler and Notre Dame should be especially compelling. The sixth-seeded Bulldogs win by slowing down the tempo and defending and rebounding. The third-seeded Irish win by spreading the floor, attacking off the dribble and bombing 3-pointers. Whichever team does a better job imposing its will on the other will likely walk away with a round of 32 victory and a Sweet 16 bid. Butler has a pretty good chance of winning that battle as long as standout forward Roosevelt Jones is healthy enough to not only play but make an impact. Jones hurt his knee against Texas, but returned to play the final five minutes with a slight limp.
4. Who will win the duel between D'Angelo Russell and Arizona's defense? There's no secret what must happen for Ohio State to have a chance to upset second-seeded Arizona on Saturday. The Buckeyes either need D'Angelo Russell to have a huge scoring night or they need the standout freshman to take advantage of the defensive attention paid to him and create opportunities for his teammates. The challenge for Russell is that he will likely face one of the nation's elite perimeter defenders in Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, a long, athletic 6-foot-7 wing versatile enough to guard four positions. Ohio State used all sorts of tactics to free Russell against VCU, from backdoor cuts, to running him off a series of screens for catch-and-shoot shots, to letting him attack with the ball in his hands. He had 27 points against the Rams and will probably need a similarly brilliant night to keep the Buckeyes competitive Saturday.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
