CBS Flips Bracket for Prime Time in Oregon, Yale-BYU and Utah State-Michigan State play early and Wow!

Television decided to separate the McArthur Court action into a Mountain time zone package and a Pacific package, separating the brackets in Mythical March Madness second round action.

USA Today Sports Images - Orlando Ramirez

Publisher's Note: This is our go at Mythical March Madness and now it enters the second round. The tournament and results are determined using all-time odds for each seed in NCAA Division I Men's Tournament history for advancement in each round. The roll of dice with rolls of six or below representing the higher-seeded team and rolls of seven or greater representing the lower-seeded team determine the results. If the game is written up as close then the roll of the dice went to the eighth, ninth, or tenth roll. If it is written up as a blowout then it was decided with few rolls needed.

Oklahoma State played Oregon and that story can be found here.  

The winner of Yale and BYU has the likely chore of facing top seed Gonzaga, but the winner would have to wait a while to find out if the Zags were advancing. CBS chose to play the two games involving mountain time zone teams early and have Gonzaga and Iowa and Oregon and Oklahoma State play later to the Pacific time zone audience.

#12-Yale 68  #4-BYU 61

BYU would just as soon have waited because the Cougars took a trip to the wood shed on Saturday's second round. Not sure exactly what has got into the Ivy Leaguers, but Yale looks like a team that plans to hang around for awhile. 

The first half was almost toe-to-toe with the two teams tied at halftime 37-37. BYU used the tandem of the inside game with star Yoeli Childs as the 6-8, senior forward played well with 11 points and six rebounds and big guard Jake Toolson, who hit a pair of three-pointers. The only problem was Childs had two fouls and picked up his third early in the second half. 

Yale had a balanced offense with Paul Atkinson, Azar Swain, and Eric Monroe all scoring eight points a piece. 

When Childs had to go to the bench that opened the door for the Bulldogs as Yale's 6-10 freshman Atkinson took over and scored 12 second half points and finished with 11 rebounds. Yale led by three late with 26 seconds and BYU with the ball, but the Cougars T.J. Hawks threw a pass out of bounds and that put Yale at the line with several intentional fouls late to balloon their lead. 

The 68-61 win propels Yale to 25-6 on the season, while BYU bows out at 25-9.

#10-Utah State 73  #2-Michigan State 72

You think the television audience was shocked at Yale beating BYU. The next one was even more amazing. We told you in our preview that Utah State looked like an attractive Cinderella, and I promise we had no idea. 

Neither did Tom Izzo. Hey, we know Coach Izzo as a guy that takes nothing for granted, but did he know that the Aggies star guard Sam Merrill is from Bountiful, Utah? Would it have made a difference if he did? 

I can't answer those, but I can tell you that inside an empty McArthur Court on Saturday afternoon that Merrill single handed kept Utah State alive. The halftime score was 36-35 in favor of the Spartans, but 28 of the 35 points for Utah State came from Merrill. He assisted on six of the other seven points!

In the second half, more of the Aggies chipped in offensive, but Merrill was still the guy. The guy that Utah State's hopes revolved around and the guy that Michigan State could not stop. 

With Michigan State taking a 72-68 lead with 41 seconds left on a drive to the basket by Aaron Henry, it looked like Merrill's afternoon was going to go down as a gallant effort in vain. On the other end of the floor, Merrill got a pass from Diogo Brito and shot faked a three and drove around Gabe Brown to lay the ball in and make it 72-70. 

Michigan State came down on the other end and Utah State played defense instead of committing a foul. An awkward shot missed and the Aggies rebounded with four seconds left and Craig Smith called time out. Everyone watching could predict what Smith was going to set up, something involving Merrill taking the last shot. The smart move was Smith had Merrill throw the ball in and instead of staying on the wing, he went straight down to the baseline where Justin Bean threw him the ball and Merrill fired it up as the clock went to all zeros. The shot came down as the red lights came on and the horn sounded. 

Utah State, now 28-8 was moving on 73-72 over No. 2 seed Michigan State, who ends the season 23-10.