Elite Eight takeaways: Wagler shines, Arizona throws paint party

The race to the NCAA Tournament championship has hit the Elite Eight. Follow along as theScore highlights key takeaways from the regional finals and what the results mean moving for the Final Four.

Big bad Illinois owns 2nd half

For as complex as basketball can be, sometimes it just comes down to which team has giants on the court and which doesn't. Brad Underwood unleashed Illinois' giants Saturday, and it led the program to its first Final Four berth since 2005.

Five Illini players saw at least 12 minutes of action in the second half, with the shortest being 6-foot-6 Keaton Wagler. Underwood leaned heavily on his team's size advantage, opting to play Andrej Stojakovic at shooting guard for most of the frame. The result: an outrageous 24-2 edge in points in the paint during that 20-minute session.

Illinois made its last 10 2-point attempts, going the final 14:02 without missing a shot inside the arc. Iowa simply had no answer for the Illini's interior presence.

Wagler shows why he's lottery bound

Wagler might be the sixth or seventh most notable name among this year's elite freshman class, but the Illinois star may end up being the last one standing in the NCAA Tournament. The point guard unleashed his full bag of tricks versus the Hawkeyes as part of a 25-point effort.

Wagler's tight handle and elite outside shooting make for a vicious combo; just ask Iowa's Isaia Howard, who slid about 12 feet on this absurd step-back triple.

Although Wagler is right-handed and likes to predominantly drive on that side of the basket, he's got enough juice going left to keep the defense honest.

The game was a halfcourt battle throughout, as the teams combined for just six fast-break points in the entire contest. Wagler played nearly the whole game, only sitting for a brief two-minute stretch, and he had the ball in his hands virtually every possession. Despite the considerable usage, he turned the ball over just two times.

The win is certainly the most important thing to Wagler, but he surely made some NBA money with Saturday's performance.

Iowa almost did it again

We discussed Iowa's narrow path to victory earlier this week, and somehow Ben McCollum's team almost pulled it off once again. The Hawkeyes' glacial pace ranks 361st out of 365 Division I teams. That's no secret, and every opponent knows that going into the contest. Yet, McCollum consistently puts Iowa in position to dictate games on its own terms. That was the case once again in the opening half versus Illinois.

Yes, the dream may have died in the second half as a result of Illinois' incredibly efficient offense, but you have to applaud the Hawkeyes for making the heavily favored Illini play their way.

McCollum should undoubtedly be mentioned among the top coaches in the country following Iowa's unlikely tournament run in his first season with the team. Its wins over Florida and Nebraska showed that he can maximize his roster as well as anyone.

Expect McCollum to be a staple of March Madness going forward, regardless of who makes up his roster year over year.

Arizona joins paint party

Saturday's paint party wasn't exclusive to the South Region; Arizona joined Illinois in the club with a dominant interior performance of its own versus Purdue. But despite the Wildcats' 40-22 edge in points in the paint eventually resulting in a comfortable victory, it was far from a relaxing evening in the West Region.

An eight-point deficit at halftime of an NCAA Tournament game shouldn't be cause for concern for a program as talented as Arizona. Yet, the Wildcats had never won a tournament game when trailing by more than six at half. Armed with that knowledge, many would have panicked at the 38-31 deficit through 20 minutes Saturday.

Tommy Lloyd was not one of those people. At halftime, the Arizona coach told his players, "We're fine." That proved to be the understatement of the tournament thus far. Like a rocket ship leaving its launch pad, the Wildcats took off in the second half, outscoring Purdue by 22 points en route to their first Final Four since 2001.

Arizona's ability to deliver elite offensive performances without relying on 3-pointers makes it an incredibly tough team to beat in March. On Thursday, the Wildcats exploded for 109 points versus Arkansas despite making just five triples. To put up triple digits in a 40-minute game without more than a handful of 3-pointers is almost unfathomable in modern basketball. Only 20% of Arizona's points on the season have come from deep. That percentage ranks 360th among 365 teams.

Fouls doom Purdue

Fouls are almost always a hot topic around Purdue - especially with the added scrutiny of the NCAA Tournament - and Trey Kaufman-Renn usually plays a part in those conversations. The senior forward is one of the hardest frontcourt players to guard, largely because of his physicality and ability to get calls. He once again earned whistles Saturday, but they mostly went against him as he struggled with Arizona's size.

One of the major turning points in the contest was Kaufman-Renn's disastrous start to the second half. He was called for his third foul while battling for the ball 90 feet from the basket, forcing him to sit down for a four-minute break. An immediate 11-4 run for Arizona ensued.

Kaufman-Renn had to be careful the rest of the way, tiptoeing around potential fouls on the defensive end. While it's unlikely anybody could have stopped the Wildcats' paint attack, the Boilermakers being limited by one of their bigs avoiding contact certainly didn't help.

The senior star played just 23 minutes due to the foul issues, a significant drop from the previous two rounds when he saw 36 and 35 minutes of action, respectively.