Sweet 16

After being glued to the NCAA Tournament last year, I couldn't have been more disappointed with the number of close games and/or upsets that are so fun to watch. The first 4 days of this year's tournament clearly made up for that. Just consider what we have seen over the last 4 days:

• 12 seed Western Kentucky hitting a 3 pointer at the buzzer to knock off an outstanding Drake team in an overtime shootout.
• 13 seed San Diego hitting a last second shot to knock out an over-rated UConn team.
• 15 seed Belmont taking Duke to the wire.
• 2 seed Tennessee getting all it can handle from a good Butler team.
• 13 seed Siena trouncing 4 Vanderbilt.
• 2 #2 seeds biting the dust before the Sweet 16 (Duke, Georgetown)
• UCLA storming back to squeak past a sneaky good Texas A&M team.
• Stanford taking down Marquette in an OT thriller.
• Xavier down 9 at halftime to #14 Georgia...and then blowing them away in the 2nd half.
• Davidson, down 17 in the 2nd half, came back and beat Georgetown.

These are the kind of things that make the first weekend of March Madness so special. And now, what are we left with? We still have all 4 #1 seeds and very good spoilers like #2 Texas, #3 Xavier, #2 Tennessee, #3 Louisville, #3 Wisconsin. To top it off, we have 3 double digit seeds that are going to try and make a "George Mason" run. Can the tournament get any more exciting?

Sweet 16 picks:

• Wazzzu +7.5 North Carolina-This will be an extremely interesting game. If Wazzzu can shut down Notre Dame to 41 points in a game, I think they can do similarly as well against the most talented team in the country. If this game gets to be a shootout, Carolina will run away. I'm betting the Cougars control the game tempo and at minimum keep this one close.
• Louisville -2 Tennessee-The Vols looked "relieved" just to be survivors. Funny thing, ever since the win over Memphis, this Vols team has not looked the same. Did that one game take too much out of them? It was certainly their "Super Bowl" for the year. The Cardinals are peaking and the Vols seem to be floundering...taking the hot team in this one.
• Xavier +1 W. Virginia-For the life of me, I can't figure out why a 7 seed would be favored over a solid 3 seed. I realize the Las Vegas Sports Consultants are very high on this West Virginia team, but where's the respect for an outstanding Xavier team? I affirm my Xavier pick to the Elite 8.
• W. Kentucky +12.5 UCLA-On paper, the Bruins should handle their business relatively easily. Unfortunately, I don't like the defensive coaching style they use. As a result, this game could be a lot closer than expected.
• Kansas -12 Villanova-My #12 pick to reach the Sweet 16 had a nice ride....it's way over now. The Jayhawks are a very legit threat to cut down the nets when this thing is all said and done.
• Wisconsin -4.5 Davidson-A popular team to get "upset" in the first couple of rounds, the Badgers are playing solid right now. Although the Wildcats had a huge comeback against the Hoyas, they simply cannot and will not be able to dig themselves out of such a hole to the Badgers. Davidson may be the "funnest" Cinderella left, but I have a feeling their magical carpet ride has come to an end.
• Memphis -5 Michigan St.-I'm still not in love with the Spartans. I've seen way too many shotty road efforts from the team over the regular season. Memphis rolls.
• Texas -2 Stanford-This game should be outstanding. If this game were not in Houston, I'd take the Cardinal. In the end, the Longhorns get some hometown invigoration and squeak by a good Standford team.