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NCAA Tournament Notebook, Day 7: Arkansas’s comeback streak ends and Houston sends red-hot Oregon State home
By Adam Spencer
Published:
The first 2 tickets have been punched to the Final Four, and so far, chalk has held strong. Baylor, a 1-seed, and Houston, a 2-seed, won Monday night’s Elite 8 matchups to advance to the national semifinals.
That, of course, means Arkansas’s run has come to an end, but what a run it was! The Elite 8 in Eric Musselman’s second year? The future is bright in Fayetteville!
For now, though, the tournament marches on and there are no SEC teams left in competition. Let’s take a look back at what happened on Monday night:
Houston 67, Oregon State 61
Just when I finally hop on the Oregon State bandwagon, the Beavers go and lose. I picked against Oregon State when it played Tennessee in Round 1. I picked against the Beavers when they played Oklahoma State in Round 2. And again when they played Loyola-Chicago in the Sweet 16.
In a way, I probably owe Oregon State fans an apology. I picked the Beavers to win this game and they came up short.
It was the same recipe for success that has helped Houston all year. The Cougars were dominant on the offensive glass, especially in crunch time.
Both teams had 22 defensive rebounds on Monday night. But, Houston had 19 (that’s not a typo) offensive boards, compared to 7 for Oregon State. There’s your difference. In the second half, the Beavers battled back to tie the game at 55.
But, then, off an offensive rebound, Quentin Grimes hit this dagger 3:
TRADING BUCKETS ?@BeaverMBB–@UHCougarMBK coming down to the wire. #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/wjek4zlirm
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 30, 2021
Grimes finished the game with 18 points. Marcus Sasser led the Cougars with 20. And, like the Alabama-UCLA game on Sunday night, the team that struggled with free throws ended up losing. The Beavers went only 11-for-20 from the charity stripe.
Now, Houston is off to the Final Four. Kelvin Sampson might not have left Indiana under the best circumstances, but it’s hard not to get emotional seeing this reaction from Sampson and his players:
? "TALK TO ME, #FINALFOUR BABY!"@UHCougarMBK @qdotgrimes pic.twitter.com/OSHlf9xXd5
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 30, 2021
That’s what March is all about. Just like I’ve doubted the Beavers all tournament long, I’ve also doubted the Cougars. Now they’re in the Final Four. Shows what I know.
Baylor 81, Arkansas 72
Arkansas has been flirting with danger all tournament long. The Hogs have faced double-digit deficits in each of their 4 games during March Madness. It finally came back to bite them on Monday night.
It was 7-0 before the Hogs could even blink. It was 15-3 at the first TV timeout. The Hogs couldn’t recover.
At no point in this game did the Hogs have the lead. They were overmatched by a better team. It’s as simple as that. But, that doesn’t mean Arkansas played poorly by any means. Baylor is just elite. Jared Butler was hitting deep 3s:
Jared Butler from DEEP ?@BaylorMBB #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/vBmlR8a2zZ
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 30, 2021
Davion Mitchell was dishing out no-look assists:
Davion Mitchell dropping no-look dimes ?@BaylorMBB #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/hUbih10QOQ
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 30, 2021
The Bears looked like who we thought they’d be all year — the only team with a chance of stopping Gonzaga.
The dagger for Arkansas came with just under 14 minutes left in the second half. That’s when leading scorer JD Notae fouled out of the game on a charge. Let’s just say it was yet another questionable call:
This charge call on JD Notae was his 5th foul.
This type of charge call has to 100% be addressed by the NCAA once the season is over imo. pic.twitter.com/sFOy0bDRUM
— Aram Cannuscio (@AC__Hoops) March 30, 2021
Notae had a team-high 14 points when he fouled out. Missing his energy offensively hurt the Hogs down the stretch.
I won’t question many of the decisions Musselman made this season, but you have to wonder if he made a mistake keeping Notae in the game there. Although, the way Baylor played, it might not have mattered either way.
The important thing is that this team isn’t going anywhere under Muss. Moses Moody will probably be off to the NBA Draft, where he’s a likely lottery pick. Justin Smith, Notae and others could go pro, too. But, Muss knows how to play the transfer portal game, so this team will be reloaded in no time. The future is bright and it wouldn’t be crazy to see the Hogs right back in the Elite 8 next season.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.