After the Michigan Wolverines take down the Louisville Cardinals, a look at the updated 2017 NCAA Tournament bracket
So much for that boring NCAA Tournament. After a number of upsets rocked the bracket on Saturday — most notably with the No. 1 overall seed Villanova Wildcats falling to the Wisconsin Badgers — we’ve got even more coming on Sunday. In the first game on the day, the 7th-seeded Michigan Wolverines took down the Louisville Cardinals, the 2-seed in their region, in a closely contested game.
After already giving us one of the most exciting games of the weekend, when they took down Oklahoma State 92-91 in an all-offense contest, the Wolverines continued their run by taking down the Cardinals. Louisville, a sleeper contender for the national title thanks to its seed and team strength, failed to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time in its last six tournament appearances.
Though a late first-half run let Louisville run out to an 8-point lead, Michigan stormed back in the second half. Louisville simply couldn’t handle the high pick and roll combination of Derrick Walton and Moritz Wagner in the latter frame. With both players threats to shoot from deep, Louisville was unable to find the right defensive scheme to take away their shots. Michigan negated Louisville’s size advantage by forcing their bigs to cover the perimeter, where they’re not quite as comfortable. Wagner scored 26 points in one of the best games of his young career, while Walton played more the role of distributor, adding 6 assists to his 10 points.
RELATED: Updated 2017 NCAA Tournament Bracket
Michigan also stepped it up on the defensive end to pull off the upset. After getting dominated on the offensive boards in the first half, they clamped down on dribble penetration and diligently boxed out in the second half. They did just enough on that end to pull off the victory, and ride into the Sweet 16 slated to play the winner of the Oregon-Rhode Island game.
Following another big upset in the Second Round, here’s a look at the updated 2017 NCAA Tournament bracket:
After an upset-laden Saturday, Michigan handed us another one in the first game of Sunday. The Madness is here, and there’s sure to be more shakeups as Sunday continues. Stay tuned for updates as we all follow the rest of Sunday’s action.