The East
The #1 overall seed took care of business in dominating fashion, as Ohio State looked pretty damn good in their first 2 games of the tournament. Jared Sullinger was busy clogging up the paint and not getting called for 3 seconds in the key, Jon Diebler was chucking 3's, and Aaron Craft was busy being white. After barely surviving a close call with Princeton, Kentucky handled West Virginia in the 2nd round with ease, as Brandon Knight went for 30. The Ohio St. v. Kentucky matchup is one of, if not the best Sweet 16 game. Marquette dominated Barry Badrinath's Xavier Muskies, and then took care of business in defeating Syracuse, moving on to face a North Carolina team who cheated to beat a Washington team that did everything in it's power to lose the game. What was all of that nonsense about the Big East being the best conference in the nation? If my eyes aren't mistaking me, I see only 2 of the 11 Big East teams that were in the tournament. I also see 3 teams from the ACC who apparently had a "down" year this year. Right.
The West
In the west, Duke moved on to the Sweet 16 once again, also giving Coach K his 900th career win, in a game that was way too close for comfort with Michigan. Michigan sodomized Tennessee in the first round, and pretty much sealed the deal on Bruce Pearl being back next year. I'll hand it to Michigan. They played a nearly perfect game, but came up a little short. That's what happens when you go against the GOAT(Greatest Of All Time). With the return of Kyrie Irving, and a week of practice, look for Duke to be very good on Thursday Night. Arizona and Texas both survived tough first round matchups, and then played a nailbiter themselves, as Texas, a historically uber-talented squad with no coaching whatsoever, somehow managed to give the game away to Arizona, creating a rematch of the 2001 National Championship between themselves and Duke. Uconn rolled over both of their opponents, and have yet to face anyone remotely tough. Speaking of their matchup with Cincy in the 2nd round, why does the committee put these Big East teams in positions to play eachother in the NCAA tournament, if they have already played eachother twice, and maybe even 3x in the regular season. Enough already. Temple beat Penn St. in a battle for Pennsylvania, and then lost a heart-breaker to a tough San Diego St. team in Double OT, creating a Uconn v. San Diego St matchup.
The Southwest
Kansas marched on with relative ease, as they eliminated my sleeper Final 4 pick in Illinois last night. #12 seed Richmond took care of Vanderbilt in the 1st round, and dominated Morehead St. in the 2nd, as they advanced to the Sweet 16 for the 1st time since 1985. VCU advanced to the Sweet 16, as they have now won 3 games in the tournament. They have looked pretty dominant thus far, absolutely spanking both Georgetown and Purdue. In the bottom half of the bracket, Notre Dame took on Florida St. last night and got demolished in all aspects of the game. Florida St. posed matchup problems for ND all night, and advanced to the Sweet 16, creating an unorthodox looking matchup between the #10 seed Fl St. Seminoles and the #11 seed VCU Rams.
The Southeast
In the Southeast, we saw the 1st #1 seed to go down. And to who else but Butler? These guys are straight up giant killers. Brad Stevens is undoubtedly one of the best coaches in the nation, and its only a matter of time before he gets a ridiculous offer from a top notch school. Back to their game with Pittsburgh though. This was probably the most controversial game of the tournament yet, as there were 2 fouls committed in the last 1.8 seconds. As I was watching this game with a few buddies, we couldn't believe the sequence of events that occured. Nevertheless, Butler advances to the Sweet 16 again, and will face a tough Bo Ryan coached Wisconsin team who had a phenomenal win against Kansas St. This Sweet 16 matchup may account for the most white players on the court at 1 time in Sweet 16 history, so look out for that. As I have been saying all season long, St. Johns stayed true to their color, being a fluke, as they could not hang with Gonzaga. The Zags moved on to face the one of the 2 players known on only a first-name basis in the NCAA tournament, as Jimmer Fredette put on a show, dropping a lite 34 on Mark Few's Gonzaga Bulldogs. Michigan St. flopped....to no surprise, and Florida took care of UCLA, setting up a very good game with BYU in the Sweet 16.
Sweet 16 predictions:
Ohio St. vs. Kentucky-----Ohio St.
Marquette vs. UNC---------UNC
Duke vs. Arizona----------Duke
Uconn vs. San Diego St.---San Diego St.
Kansas vs. Richmond-------Richmond
VCU vs. Fl. St.-----------VCU
Butler vs. Wisconsin------Butler
Florida vs. BYU-----------BYU
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