I don’t believe in round-by-round brackets, but if I did, my Sweet 16 would be looking pretty good after I nailed all my predictions yesterday (though that Syracuse-Wisconsin game was a little too close for comfort). Tonite, I don’t even need a reset, as three of my Elite Eight teams are still alive in competition–and I’ve got a hunch they’ll all be advancing, too.
7:15 pm: Baylor over Xavier - Cincinnati was the first of four Ohio schools to exit the Sweet 16, losing to the Buckeyes of Columbus. I think their cross-town rivals will be the next to go. Let’s face it, after that big brawl back in December, nobody outside of Dirty Cincy wants to see either squad in the Elite Eight. You know who I want to see more of, though? Baylor sharpshooter Brady Heslip–and not just in a Team Canada jersey! The sophomore from the suburbs (Burlington, to be exact) has lit up the tourney with 44 points on nearly 66 per cent 3-point shooting. Here’s hoping he drops he drops 40 tonite on Tu Holloway’s gangsta ass!
7:47 pm: North Carolina over Ohio – Four teams enter, one team leaves. Thus is the story of the state of Ohio in the Sweet 16. Nobody expected the 13th-seeded Bobcats to go this far, but two tight, low-scoring wins have brought them to the second weekend of the dance. That said, there’s no chance in hell they hold UNC to 60 points. This is, after all, the second-highest scoring team in the nation, with a whopping 82 points per game on their stat sheet. If they hit their average, the Heels win by 20.
9:45 pm: Kentucky over Indiana - The marquee matchup of the entire round sees the Cats seeking revenge on an Indiana squad that handed them one of their only two losses on the season. Of course, that game was at Assembly Hall, and the home side needed a buzzer beater to squeak out a one-point win. At an not-so-neutral SEC site (the conference’s football title is contested at the Georgia Dome), I gotta favour Kentucky. Indiana would hafta dig up the bones of Jimmy Chitwood to convince me otherwise…
10:17 pm: Kansas over NC State - Though a couple 15-seeds made it outta the first round, I think the true Cinderella story of this year’s tourney is the Wolfpack. The last team to have their name read out on Selection Sunday, the Pack tore apart ranked foes Georgetown and San Diego State en route to an unlikely appearance in the regional semis. In Kansas, they have an opponent who’s no stranger to the other end of an upset, yet I think the way that the Jayhawks clawed back to beat Purdue and keep their season alive shows a certain grit and determination that those Bucknell-losing teams did not display. Y’know, the kind of stuff that champions–not Cinderella teams–are made of. Whether they get past that other Carolina school might be a different story, mind you…
