March Madness 2016: Top 5 moments of the NCAA Tournament second round
4. Buddy Hield’s strong second half
If you watched Oklahoma first-round matchup against Cal-Baker, you could tell that there was a huge elephant in the room during the late stages of the second half. Everyone in the building was aware of Michigan State’s loss to a 15-seed in the first round, and the Sooners were trying to avoid the same fate.
Oklahoma was playing cautiously, trying to avoid the second No. 15 over No. 2 upset of the NCAA Tournament, but the Sooners finally pulled away after the it was cut to a two-possession game.
Lon Kruger was going to make sure his team came out ready against No. 10 VCU in round two, not taking anything for granted. Oklahoma raced out to a 13-point lead by halftime and the game looked as if it was over. All the Sooners had to do in the second half was protect a lead and milk the clock and the game was over.
Little did Oklahoma know that it would need a huge performance from star senior guard Buddy Hield in order to hold on as the Sooners ended up winning by just four.
Just how good did Hield do? Well, it was a performance that could single-handedly win him the national player of the year award as he scored 29 of his 36 points in the second half. He was a monster and hit just about everything.
Buddy Hield scored 29 of his points the 2nd half alone! #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/1EemnDdO9c
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 21, 2016
An entire half doesn’t exactly constitute a moment, but scoring 29 points in 20 minutes deserves some serious recognition. Buddy Hield might not be human.
Next: 3. Texas A&M's miraculous comeback