And Then There were 4

The 2011 NCAA tournament has officially gone crazy. In what is being called "the most unlikely" Final 4 of all time, VCU, Butler, Uconn, and Kentucky have all marched unscathed onto Houston. Here's a rundown of the 2nd weekend of the tournament.

The East

In the Sweet 16, the perennial favorite, Ohio St. took on the Kentucky wildcats in a wild finish in Newark. Brandon Knight, who is proving himself to be one of the best, and most clutch players in the tournament came up with the game winning shot, upsetting The Ohio St. University, and sending Jared Sullinger on a Mcdonalds binge that still hasn't ended. The other game in Newark featured North Carolina and Marquette, who Carolina breezed past with little effort, setting up a matchup of the 2 winningest programs in college basketball history. In yesterday's action, Kentucky proved to be too much for UNC, as once again Brandon Knight stepped up and controlled the game, hitting clutch 3 after clutch 3. Kentucky took home the W 76-69, sending John Calipari to his 3rd final 4, with a different team each time. Let's try and not vacate this one Cal. UNC was sent home packing, and Roy Williams was trying to auction off his "timeouts" on Ebay, because he didn't use one the entire tournament. Kentucky advances out of the East Bracket.

The West

The West featured another favorite, Duke, taking on Arizona in the Sweet 16. Duke played a solid 1st half, but the Wildcats proved to be too much for the Blue Devils, in the 2nd, shooting 70% behind the 3 point line, and 100% on getting every call. Besides that, Arizona really played their butts off, out-rebounding the Blue Devils and sending Kyle Singler, Nolan Smith, and potential #1 draft pick Kyrie Irving home early. Not only was this a disappointing loss, but it means that Coach K will have to surpass Bob Knight on the all-time wins list next season, not in the Final 4 this year. I would like to thank all of my friends who harassed me for a full day after the Duke loss, as I can only wait until your teams lose now, for you will never hear the end of it. Arizona seemed to celebrate this win as if it was the national championship, which may have affected their intensity and motivation for their next game. Stay classy, Arizona. Uconn continued their torrid play as they got a fairly easy win against San Diego St, once again proving the weakness of the Mountain West. Kemba Walker was Kemba Walker, and they advanced to the Elite 8 to take on Arizona. In this matchup of 2 NCAA stars, Kemba Walker and Derrick Williams, Uconn barely survived, winning 65-63. Arizona had 2 chances as time expired to win the game, but came up slightly short, as Kemba Walker and Uconn won their 9th game in 19 days, and improved their undefeated record to 12-0 on neutral courts this year.

The Southwest

In the Southwest, Kansas treated Richmond as if it was the team of asian guys at open gym on Thursday nights, giving them a 20 point beatdown, 77-57. In the other game, VCU beat Florida St. on an in-bounds play with 7 seconds left, taking home a 72-71 win, advancing them to play Kansas in the Elite 8. Kansas, yet to have play a team higher than a 9 seed, got it taken to them by VCU and Coach Shaka Smart. VCU hit 9 first half 3's against Kansas, giving themselves a 14 pt halftime advantage. Kansas, led by Bill Self, one of the worst in-game coaches of our generation, made a few half-time adjustments, but could not capitalize on enough VCU mistakes, and fell to VCU 71-61. The 11th seeded VCU Rams won their 5th game in the tournament, and if they go on to win the entire thing, would set an NCAA record, winning 7 tournament games. VCU's head coach, Shaka Smart is going to see some pretty serious offers from big time schools coming his way after the tournament, and as a young 33 year old coach, he will for sure get a huge contract.

The Southeast

In the Southeast, we saw a matchup of Butler and Wisconsin, 2 of the whitest teams in the NCAA take eachother on in a thrilling game. Well, not really. It was definitely a grind it out type of game, as Butler built a huge 1st half lead, and weathered a Wisconsin run in the 2nd half to take home a 61-54 Win. They moved on to face the winner of BYU and Florida, where Jimmer Fredette came up just short, ending his phenomenal college basketball career in an overtime loss. At least he can get laid now, right? Florida beat BYU 83-74 in overtime, as Erving Walker and co. proved to be too much. Florida and Butler matched up in the Elite 8 in one of the most entertaining games of the tournament thus far, as Butler hit every single big shot it needed to in order to upset the Gators in overtime, 74-71. I don't know what it is about the Butler Bulldogs, but between Matt Howard, Shelvin Mack, their coach Brad Stevens, or the rest of the team that are perfect role players, they just get the job done.

Final 4 predictions

In of the most improbable Final 4 matchups in history, #8 seed Butler will be taking on #11 seed VCU on Saturday.

#8 Butler vs. #11 VCU, Saturday, 6:09 p.m.
WINNER=Butler

#3 Uconn vs. #4 Kentucky, Saturday, 8:49 p.m.
WINNER=Uconn

National Champions------BUTLER BULLDOGS (How can you pick against them?)