The West Regionals in San Jose proved that the matchups were as advertised, at least for the first games. The SAP Center was the site of a doubleheader that featured Texas-Purdue and Arizona-Arkansas.
Texas and Purdue’s first matchup was the game that had the stadium on its feet. It was a back-and-forth affair for both squads. For the Longhorns, their offense had three players in double digits. Senior Tramon Mark was the leader in points with 29 as this Texas squad tried to pull off the upset.
Purdue’s offense has it in them to stay with the Longhorns. This game was made up of multiple runs between both squads. The Boilermaker’s offense was much more balanced and not dependent on just a couple of players. That’s what gave them the edge as multiple players for Purdue had double-digits.
In the final minute, Purdue was up, and it got to the point where Texas had to begin fouling. A big three-point shot lowered the lead to 1, which opens up the door with free throws for a tie. Dailyn Swain took a trip to the rack and converted an and-one, and the whole stadium thought overtime was near. This is where Purdue’s big man, Trey Kauffman-Ren, put up a missed layup by Braden Smith with 2.2 seconds.
Trey Kaufman-Renn stated, “Coach always says that it’s not — a lot of times it’s not the first shot that goes. They’re the tip-in at the end of games. He said that my four years here, so it’s kind of cool to actually experience that.”
Purdue survives the upset scare, but both squads deserve applause for such an amazing game.
30 minutes later, began the start of the Arkansas-Arizona game. The stir about this matchup was the coaching for both teams. This quickly proved to be the case at least for one team.
Arizona came out of the gates red hot, shooting the ball. Even though Arkansas tried to keep it close in the first, the game was quickly out of hand. Arizona shot 63.8 percent from the field, and when a team shoots like that, they usually win. Koa Peat and Brayden Burries both had combined for 44 points.
For Arkansas, they shot 47.7 percent from the floor, which typically isn’t bad, but it wasn’t enough against Arizona. They were outmatched by the physicality and size of Arizona. Freshman star Darius Acuff Jr. led the Hogs with 28 points.
Arkansas head coach John Calipari said, “Arizona is really good. If they shoot the ball that way and do the things they did today, wow…that was a hard one, and they got us from right at the beginning. We kind of kept it a little close, but they’re good. Really good team.”
This now sets up the Elite Eight matchup that’s going to be played Saturday, March 28. It’s going to be between the Purdue Boilermakers and the Arizona Wildcats. It’s the matchup between the 1 and 2 seeds of the West bracket. The two best in the West region battle it out for a trip to the Final Four in Indianapolis.
