Andrew Wiggins and The Kansas Jayhawks are eliminated from the NCAA Tournament.
Quick question: who picked Stanford vs Dayton in the Sweet 16?
The #10 Stanford Cardinal picked up a huge upset victory against the #2 Kansas Jayhawks. The Jayhawks struggled with the size, depth and experience of this Stanford team. The Cardinals advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2008.
A trend has started as experience is trumping individual talent and youth in this year’s tournament. The two most highly touted freshman in the country, Jabari Parker of #3 Duke and Andrew Wiggins of Kansas, are done in the tournament and maybe with college basketball for good. Teams like Stanford, #14 Mercer and many others have had the upper hand in these NCAA Tournament match ups and this Kansas upset loss is another example.
To highlight Wiggins, he is the player that a handful of NBA teams have been tanking for in hopes of drafting him in the NBA Lottery this summer. Wiggins didn’t have much of an impact on the game as he finished the game with 4 points and shot 1-6 from the field. Credit must be given to Stanford for their zone defense, but a great player like Wiggins needs to find other ways to impact the game to lift his team to a victory. Tarik Black led the way for Kansas with 18 points in the loss.
For Stanford, this is another team that no one expected to make any noise in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Former Duke assistant coach Johnny Dawkins took the head coaching job at Stanford in 2008 and his teams over the last six years have shown much improvement. After losing to UCLA in the Pac-12 semi finals, no one expected this team to make it out of the first weekend. Their toughness, size and all-around play on both ends gave them the upset victory over Kansas. Dwight Powell led the way for Stanford with 15 points and Chasson Randle added 13 points.
Stanford will face off against #11 Dayton in a Sweet 16 match up on Thursday in Memphis.
-Patrick Hazel (@pattywack25)
