March Madness 2013: Wichita State Destroys Pittsburgh 73-55

It’s hard to call a 9-seed beating an 8-seed an upset in March Madness but the Pittsburgh Panthers didn’t appear to be pushovers. In that same breath, the Wichita State Shockers to be — well, this shockingly good at basketball. They earned the 9-seed in the tournament, but rarely do either of these seeds sho this kind of power in the second round.

After hanging close for a large portion of the game, the Panthers just broke down and allowed the Shockers to run away with the game. During the second half, Wichita State pulled away to a double digit lead and kept their foot on the Panthers throat from there on out.

Entering the game, the Panthers were hoping their stingy defense was going to be able to carry them deep into the tournament, but it appears as though that shoe is on the other foot. Pittsburgh’s supposedly stingy defense did hold the Shockers under 70 points, but the undoing was on offense which was a unit that barely scratched out 50 points in the game.

To their credit, the Panthers played good defense, but they didn’t play complete defense and they got beat to death in the paint by Wichita State’s rebounders. The Shockers finished the game in double digits in the rebounding margin, something that proved fatal for the Panthers hopes of making a run. So now all the attention shifts to Wichita State, who are now the team with an opportunity to knock off Gonzaga in the third round.

Despite being the No. 1 seed in the region, Gonzaga is widely believed to be the wild card among 1-seeds and could face an early exit. Wichita State is showing very early signs of the kind of intense swagger that wins titles in March, and while it’s still too soon to say they’re a championship caliber team, it’s not a far reach to say they could do damage in the wild, wild West region.