NCAA Tourney Sweet 16/Elite 8 Running Thread

and i have no idea how a grown-ass man can shoot 38 percent- 38 PERCENT!- from the line. i could go to the gym right now and do at least 60% cold.

 

Some interesting story lines:

Wisconsin, MSU's basketball rival in Detroit against the underdog Davidson. I bet they don't get home court advantage there.

Three teams from the '05 final four are still alive.

Michigan State could play Texas again. They split a pair deep into the tournament a few years back.

West Virginia, the 7-seed is actually favored over No.3 Xavier- so who does the crowd root for as the underdog?

Six of the remaining 16 teams are from Kentucky, California and Tennessee.

 

Eh. Purdue won with smoke and mirrors, mostly against a piss-poor bottom of the conference, and Indiana was decent when Sampson was there, God-awful afterwards.

 

Wazzu probably has a little more than they can handle in Carolina, but their offense will cause fits for the Heels. I expect UNC to win a very close game.

Louisville kind of seems to be the "now" team, and it's painfully obvious that Tennessee doesn't have a point guard. Probably the best matchup of the round goes to Louisville by a nostril hair.

Kansas stomps Villanova in a classic "happy-to-be here" Sweet 16 game, where the double-digit seed gets run off the court by the better ballclub.

Wisconsin stomps Davidson in much the same manner.

Memphis has more talent than Mich St. at pretty much every position. I'm not sure even Izzo can overcome that.

The gut call is to take Texas over Stanford with the crowd advantage, but teams that can't win without making lots of threes scare the shit out of me in these games, especially playing in a football stadium. Texas has to make lots of jumpers, but I think the Horns will eke it out.

UCLA doesn't seem like they can blow out anybody, but they'll beat Western Kentucky by 15 plus.

I'm loving West Virginia right now, and I wouldn't be shocked if Huggs can pull off a Final Four trip.

 

Not to look too far ahead in the bracket, but if previous seasons matter for anything, I don't think anyone on WVU's team will be intimidated by UCLA -- remember, WVU beat UCLA in each of the previous two regular seasons (under Beilein), once in Westwood, once in Morgantown.

Of course, they've still got to get past an Xavier team that's been playing pretty good ball for the past 60 minutes (tossing out the Muskies' woeful first half against UGA).

 

Purdue did not win with smoke and mirrors, that team was comprised primarily of freshmen. It was good this year, it will be very good for the next several years.

And you do realize that the after-Sampson period at Indiana was all of maybe four Big Ten games, right?

 

Yeah, a full quarter of the conference season, plus the postseason. That tenure included losses at Penn State, a 30-point loss at MSU and a loss to Minnesota in Indianapolis. Plus the first-round crapout against Arkansas. What else matters?
As for Purdue, yeah, they're young and they'll probably be good in the future, but that doesn't mean they were that good this year. Non-conference resume included losses to Wofford, Iowa State and Missouri.
And don't get me started on the rest of the conference. This isn't the year to defend it.

 

I think so. I never would have pegged them beyond the second round no matter where they were in the rankings. Admittedly though, I'd never seen WSU play.

The fact they did to Notre Dame what the Irish did to Mason tells America that Wazzu belongs.

 

Any idea who Wisconsin's two Big Ten losses came against?

 

Look, Purdue was a nice team that overachieved. Painter did a hell of a job. I'm not trying to argue otherwise. But when I say "The Big Ten sucked behind Wisconsin and Michigan State," it's pretty hard to argue otherwise when your best argument is Purdue. And, truth be told, Michigan State has been wildly inconsistent all year too. It wouldn't surprise if Sparty beat Memphis or lost by 40.