Two games down, two more to go. We're halfway through the Elite Eight.
The first three rounds of the tournament were marked by chaos. But if Saturday's matchups are any indication, the cream might finally be rising to the top.
Though Villanova vs. Houston and Duke vs. Arkansas were markedly different games in terms of style and tempo, the victors of both matchups deserve their spots in the Final Four based on their performances Saturday night, moving on through a combination of top-tier execution, toughness and coaching.
Here we've got a quick analysis and recap of Saturday's games and the winners and losers of the Elite Eight.
Winner: Defense
The first game of the evening featured Villanova and Houston, two teams with top-10 offenses and top-25 defenses, per KenPom. On paper, you might expect these efficient, well-coached clubs to play a crisp, telegenic affair, but the Wildcats' slow-paced offense (65.8 possessions per game, 342nd nationwide) and the Cougars' excellence at point prevention (59.0 opponent PPG, third nationwide) suggested something different.
And, well, something different is what we got.
Defense reigned supreme in San Antonio, to a perhaps unwatchable degree. Neither school made even 30 percent of its shots from the field (29.8 percent for Houston, 28.8 percent for Villanova), and they committed a combined 26 fouls. Neither team was even particularly prolific from a defensive playmaking standpoint either; it was just an intense and physical fight to the end, with Jay Wright's club surviving and advancing.
On the other side, Duke vs. Arkansas wasn't nearly the same brick party as its earlier counterpart, but the Blue Devils rose to the occasion, limiting a Razorbacks team that averaged 76.1 points per game to just 69 points and out-rebounding them by a 34-25 margin.
Neither of those differences may seem major, but considering this Duke squad is much more vaunted for its offense than its defense, clear victories in such major facets of the game are a good sign for this group's title chances.
Loser: Houston's Late-Game Scoring
As just mentioned, Houston entered Saturday with the eighth-ranked offense nationwide, per KenPom. The Cougars shot 54.9 percent inside the arc and had recorded seven of their 15 most efficient shooting performances in the last two months. Suffice it to say that Kelvin Sampson's crew was hitting its stride at the right time.