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Houston and Gonzaga met in a second-round NCAA Tournament matchup last weekend in Wichita, Kansas, that could as easily have been played in the Final Four, the way Kelvin Sampson's and Mark Few's teams had played throughout the season.
The Cougars were No. 1 in scoring defense, more than a half-point better than the next-best team. The Bulldogs were No. 2 in scoring offense, trailing only Alabama in putting up nearly 87 points per game.
Yet one of the biggest reasons that Houston was able to advance to the Sweet 16 with an 81-76 victory over the Bulldogs was its ability to play any style of basketball. Sure, the Cougars managed to hold Gonzaga nearly 10 points below its season average, but they also ramped up their own scoring, proving that they are more than just a bunch of defensive stoppers.
“Just win and advance,” Sampson said afterward. “Do what it takes. That's all that matters.”
Throughout the 68-team field, those that were able to survive the first weekend were often those that were willing to change things up if the moment dictated it. The defensive dynamo was able to get into transition and pile up points, or the team that loves to score buckled down at the other end of the floor, making life difficult for its unsuspecting opponent.
That has been the case with Mississippi so far in the tournament.
The Rebels rolled into the postseason in the top 50 nationally in scoring, but their defense was middling at best: 175th out of the 364 teams in men's Division I basketball. Yet the same bunch who scored 98 points against Kentucky and 100 against Oral Roberts in the regular season stifled North Carolina in a 71-64 first-round win, then held Iowa State below its season scoring average in a 91-78 victory that pushed Ole Miss into the regional semifinals.
“Their defensive versatility is terrific,” Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger marveled afterward. “Their switch ability — guards on bigs, bigs on guards. They do a great job. Their defense really tries to frustrate you by not allowing the ball to get in the paint, and trying to keep it on one side of the floor. And when they're at their best, they're doing that really well.”
It will take Ole Miss doing it at their best with Michigan State up next; the Spartans are among the most versatile of any team left. They are top 50 in both scoring and defense, and they showed it off last weekend, putting up 87 points against Bryant and holding New Mexico to 63 in a pair of wins.
“We're just a team that can play multiple ways,” the Spartans' Jaden Akins said.
So is Duke, which was fourth nationally in scoring and sixth in scoring defense. And when you have that combination, the results in the opening weekend were not surprising: 93-49 over Mount St. Mary's and 89-66 over Baylor.
Kentucky was sixth nationally in scoring this season, but coach Mark Pope's bunch — 315th in scoring defense — played a more patient game with plenty of success in a 76-57 first-round win over Wofford. It wasn't a surprise that Arizona averaged 90 points in wins over Akron and Oregon, but it may have been that the Wildcats held the Zips to just 65 in the first round.
Then there's Alabama, which looked every bit like the nation's highest-scoring team in a tougher-than-expected first-round win over Robert Morris and a second-round blitz of Saint Mary's. But the Crimson Tide also looked a lot like, say, Houston the way it defended the Gaels, holding them to just 66 points in advancing to the Sweet 16.
That's where the Crimson Tide will face BYU, a team that plays much more like itself.
“I don’t know that I want to say it’s refreshing to go against somebody that plays like us,” Tide coach Nate Oats said, "because I think we’re really tough to guard, and we’ve led the country in scoring the last two years. I don’t think anybody is saying it’s refreshing to play Alabama, whoever is running the defense for the other team. I mean, maybe it’s not such a smash-mouth game like playing football out there like some of these teams, but they’re not easy to cover.
“We’re going to have to really lock in and coaches are going to have to really do a good job getting our guys ready and then our guys are going to have to execute what the plan is, whatever we decide to put in.”
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