Shockers Can't Pull it off

The Wichita State Shockers had a double digit lead over the Louisville Cardinals at different parts of the game and in the second half they crumbled. They were outscored by only seven points, but with a half time score only one point apart they needed to be the team outscoring the Cardinals.

For once I can say truthfully that Russ Smith is not the leading scorer in this game. He met his match tonight, his name in Cleanthony Early who had 24 points and 10 rebounds, you should remember his name it might not be the last time you hear it.

Early's high scoring still wasn't enough because the Cards had two players with 20 or above, Luke Hancock with 20 and Russ Smith with 21. As for the Shockers, Ron Baker is a great kid and definitely a good basketball player. He had 11 points, 8 rebounds, and he is also one of the best freshman I've seen play this year.

Even though this team of up-setters is going home to Wichita, I think they are a great team, a threat, and a message seeds don't matter skill does. That is something this team has and so does Louisville, so congratulations Louisville for making it to the championship on Monday, and congratulations to the team that busted brackets around the nation!

By David B.

UPSET ALERT: BRACKET BUSTER

The Syracuse Orange have just busted almost every bracket in the country by beating the Indiana Hoosiers. The Hoosiers lost by 11 points with a final score of 61-50. I have to give a ton of credit to Micheal Carter-Williams, he had 24 points, 4 steals, and 5 rebounds. And as I predicted before if Brandon Triche is shooting the Orange will win, and he was shooting 50% from the field with 14 points. And to everyone's surprise James Southerland only took 3 shots in total, he had 5 points, 3 blocks, 3 steals, and 7 rebounds. Facilitating on all cylinders. Cody Zeller did have a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds, but that wasn't enough.

The Marquette Golden Eagles played to see who would play the Syracuse Orange and Marquette took it to the Miami Hurricanes. Especially Jamil Wilson, Davante Gardner, and Vander Blue. All of these players had 14 points, Vander Blue with 14, Gardner with 14, and Jamil Wilson with 16 and 8 rebounds. The Hurricanes' Shane Larkin and Durand Scott did their best to keep them in the game. Scott had 5 assists, 7 rebounds, and 10 points. As for Larkin, he had 14 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists. That would leave the final score to be 71-61 Golden Eagles on top and playing the Orange in the Elite Eight.

The real story of this game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Arizona Wildcats, was LaQuinton Ross, with 17 points and with time expiring he had a 1-1 three point day and decided to put one up and break the tie. He did, leaving 2 seconds on the clock he gave his team a lead of 73-70 over Mark Lyons' Arizona Wildcats. Lyon had 23 points, but it wasn't enough. The assist on that play went to none other than Aaron Craft who had 5 of them. They moved on to the Elite Eight to play either the La Salle Explorers or the Wichita State Shockers.

Carl Hall and his Shockers played the underdog La Salle Explorers and creamed them. Carl Hall had 16 points and 8 rebounds, Malcolm Armstead had 18 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists. The explorers best chance at winning was in Ramon Galloway and Jerrell Wright. Galloway had 11 points and 8 rebounds, Wright on the other hand, had 16 points and 5 rebounds. The Shockers will move on to play the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Elite Eight.

By David B.

Shocker Shock the Nation

The Butler Bulldogs had quite a wild ride against the Marquette Golden Eagle, it was a back and forth game. It would end with an inbound pass thrown out of bounds by the Golden Eagles with 2.9 seconds left. But, Butler couldn't get it to Rotnei Clarke who had 24 points, and with no time-outs they gave it to Andrew Smith who bricked a 3. That would end Butler's tournament and they would go home on a 74-72 loss. Vander Blue was the man who made the 3 to put the Golden Eagles up and gave them momentum at the end. He had 29 points that game and was 3-4 on the 3 ball.

The Syracuse Orange have been lead to another victory by James Souterland. This game against the California Golden Bears, Southerland had 9 rebounds and 14 points not taking as many shots. C.J Fair was though, the junior had 18 points and 6 rebounds at forward. But, when Richard Solomon got hot he started cutting Syracuse' leads from 10 to 5 and the Golden Bears were back in it. Solomon played amazing this game with 14 rebounds and 22 points. This added up to a 66-60 loss for the Golden Bears.

Overrated, Overrated, Overrated, that is what half the nation sees number 1 Gonzaga to be. They have just lost 70-76 to the ninth seeded Wichita State Shockers. The Shockers were winning nearly the whole game, but keeping it close, then Cleanthony Early helped the Shockers yet again run away with it as time expired. Early had 7 rebounds and 16 points. Not even Kelly Olynik could win it for the Bulldogs, he had 26 points and 9 rebounds, sadly for the Bulldog fans that wasn't enough. Not even Kevin Pangos's 19 points was enough, not even Mike Hart's 14 rebounds was enough. My point is Wichita State played to well as a team for any singular star to beat them alone.

As Marquette moves on who do you think they will play, Miami or Illinois? I believe that the Illinois will win because, they have already beaten Ohio State, Gonzaga, Indiana, and Butler. I think they can add Miami to that list. Post your opinion in the comments.