Down to 8, and what an Elite Group It Is

Four Big East teams are still alive. The four #1 seeds still exist. All four National Players of the Year candidates are still playing.

The Sweet 16 round gave us blowouts, surprises and clutch performances. Let’s review.

THE BLOWOUTS:
This was the name of the game on Friday where we saw three of the four games decided in the first half. Arizona looked completely overwhelmed by Louisville, and both Oklahoma and UNC wore down Syracuse and Gonzaga, respectively.

The OU win against Syracuse was a surprised to me; I thought that the zone defense by Syracuse would make it tough on the outside shooters for the Sooners, allowing the Cuse to focus on stopping Blake Griffin. Tony Crocker then decided to show up for OU and put on a shooting display. Crocker was 1 of 15 from three-point range in the month of March coming into the game, he knocked down six 3-pointers in the win.

Villanova was the lone blowout on Thursday, although you could make a case for Missouri and UCONN since they controlled their games throughout. Nova took it to the soft and less athletic Duke team just as I had expected, setting up an all-Big East East Regional Final vs Pitt.

THE SURPRISES:
Missouri absolutely dominated the Memphis Tigers and cruised to a victory. This is listed under surprises because so many people in the national media thought that a Memphis-UCONN show down was a forgone conclusion. I actually saw this coming and picked Missouri in this game. I expect Missouri to give UCONN problems too. They play a style that is very difficult to prepare for, especially when you do not see that type of play all season, until now.

CLUTCH PERFORMANCES:
LeeLee gets the nod for the most clutch player in the Sweet 16 round, followed by Kalin Lucas of Michigan State.

Levance Fields mad two clutch plays in the last 50.9 seconds of the games for Pitt vs Xavier, the first of those being the rainbow three pointer that he launched from well beyond NBA range. That was followed by picking up a loose ball that DeJuan Blair knocked free and taking it in for a layup that put the Panthers up by three with under 20 seconds to play.

Kalin Lucas scored the last seven points for the Spartans as Michigan State came back from being down five with 3 minutes to play. MSU outscored Kansas 12-2 from that point forward. Lucas led the Spartans on that run with an alley-oop pass to Raymar Morgan to tie the game at 60, then went 5-5 from the foul line in the last :48.

On to the Regional Finals, here is a quick look and predictions for the four games this weekend.

WEST REGION:
3-Missouri vs 1-UCONN
I think the Huskies are finally playing at the level they were before they lost Jerome Dyson for the season. The Mizzou defense though will really test the lack of depth the Huskies have at the guard spot with their aggressive style of full court press. This one should be a high scoring affair as UCONN is always willing to run with teams. I like the Huskies in a close on, but UCONN will move on to Detroit!

EAST REGION
3-Villanova vs 1-Pitt
Villanova has played fantastic defense throughout the tournament and has dominated both UCLA and Duke in their past two outings. Pitt on the other hand has played poorly in all three of their wins, and has done just enough to advance in all three games. These two teams played in January with Nova coming out a 10-point winner. Pitt got a huge monkey off their backs by getting to this point, now they are playing with house money. I think the Panthers play as they did to close out the regular season against Marquette and UCONN and win this game by double digits.

MIDWEST REGION:
2-Michigan State vs 1-Louisville
I truly did not expect Michigan State to get to this point. Louisville played a fantastic games last night and will have the fresher bodies in a game that will certainly be a physical game. I like Louisville to make it three for three for the Big east in the Final 4.

SOUTH REGION
2-Oklahoma vs 1-North Carolina
The Elder Statesman versus the Young Superstar. Tyler Hansbrough vs Blake Griffin. Unfortunately, this match-up is what everyone will talk about and focus on; those people will miss the show. I fully expect Blake Griffin to dominate this battle, but the Sooners to lose the war. The guards will decide this game for UNC, and the fact that the Sooners will not be able to slow them down.