FCSS: Sweet Sixteen Roundup
It has been a crazy couple of weeks in sports. From the Cowboys signing Greg Hardy, to Stephen Gerrard making a 45 second appearance before getting a Red Card against Man U, to all of March Madness, to Kevin Durant being sidelined for the rest of the season.
The NBA season is coming to a close, and Charlotte (my local team) is only 1.5 games out of 8th place with approximately 10 games left for each team. However, they have gone 2-8 in there last ten. At least we will have a chance at the No. 1 pick thanks to the lottery.
But let’s get to what most people are excited about in March. The March Madness of the NCAA tournament. Except, outside of the first day, there hasn’t been a whole lot of madness.
6 of the 8 best teams in the nation are still in the tournament: Kentucky, Wisconsin, Arizona, Duke, Gonzaga, and Notre Dame. Yes, I include Notre Dame over Kansas and perhaps even Villanova.
The East region is the only region that does not have 1 of the top teams with Louisville defeating NC State and Michigan State beating Oklahoma last night. But more about that in a bit.
Let’s start with Thursday night’s games.
Of course I am upset about the UNC-Wisconsin game. Unc had a 4 or 5 point lead with about 6 minutes to go and blew it the rest of the way. I’m not sure what Roy Williams is/was trying to accomplish with any shooting guards, but it isn’t working. There are times when there would be 3 point guards on the court with 2 forwards, or 1 point guard on the court with 4 forwards. Justin Jackson could maybe be considered a shooting guard, but he was only a consistent shooter in a few games. UNC needs that “DO NOT LEAVE HIM OPEN” threat from 3, and the only one they had was Marcus Paige.
Wisconsin was the better team, so they deserve to move on. However, I am still picking Arizona to beat them in the elite 8.
Arizona got past Xavier, but I didn’t really get to see much of the game. It was tied at halftime, but I think Xavier had some tough players to play against, especially their Center. Arizona is now the favorite to beat Kentucky (if they make it past Wisconsin).
Notre Dame and Wichita State went back and forth, but the whole time you could see that Notre Dame was the better team. It just took a late 2nd half run to seperate themselves from Wichita State.
Now for the game everyone was talking about, Kentucky dismantling WVU. This is my honest opinion. Every game Kentucky plays from now on, people are going to talk about how the other team has a chance to beat them until they actually start to believe that it is possible. All I heard this week was that WVU was scrappy and going to turn Kentucky over and wasn’t going to back down. And then Kentucky took the court and it was game over.
Next it will be about how Notre Dame’s floor spacing and three point shooting are going to give Kentucky trouble. How Notre Dame will be the perfect team to beat Kentucky because of the 3-point threat from every player. Kentucky has held every good team they faced to shooting percentages in the 20-30% range or lower (with the exception of UNC). Notre Dame will be no different.
Friday’s recap. Didn’t get to see much of these games. I was out of town and didn’t get in until about 11, but nothing surprised me.
Gonzaga handled UCLA to reach the Elite Eight for the first time since 1999. I keep wanting to pick against the Zags, but now that they are playing Duke, I must cheer for them.
Duke had a surprisingly close game with Utah. I thought Duke would have won this game easily, but credit to Utah for hanging close. They held Okafor to only 6 points, but Winslow stepped up and scored 21 to put Duke over the top.
Tom Izzo continued his winning ways against Oklahoma. I was really pulling for the Sooners here. I just don’t like Michigan State. I’m not sure what it is. Perhaps it is that they are always making the Elite Eight and the Final Four. I don’t know. I just like to cheer against the Spartans.
And then finally Lousville made it past NC State. Everyone wanted to jump on the NC State bandwagon after beating Villanova and seeing how east the rest of the East region was going to be. But NC State did what NC State does; showed you that you can NEVER trust NC State to do what you expect them to do.
My picks for the Final Four.
Kentucky over Notre Dame. No brainer.
Arizona over Wisconsin. Arizona is the second best team in the nation in my opinion.
Michigan State over Louisville. Izzo does it again.
Gonzaga over Duke. Zags can guard the perimeter and can guard Okafor in the middle without needing to double too much.
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