March Madness! The Sweet Sixteen - Part Two

Week 2 of the NCAA Tournament began yesterday, with Syracuse prevailing over Wisconsin in a tight but poorly coached game, with our sentimental favorites losing despite hitting 14 3-pointers (though they couldn't make one in the last 6 minutes). In an upset, Rick Pitino’s Louisville easily dispatched Izzo’s Michigan State team, which became the first 1 seed to drop. That has set up a showdown with his former protégé from the Adams family, Billy Donovan. His [UCLA-hated] Florida team beat Marquette, with excellent rebounding and too many mistakes by the Big East team (that, IMO, is consistently overrated every year…or maybe they just underachieve). Finally, Ohio State continued to cruise with an easy victory over Cincinnati’s MMA basketball team.

So, as Patroclus hinted yesterday, there were no epic upsets…but two lower-seeded teams did prevail (he was 1 for 2!). It’s hard to tell if there will be any upsets today. Kentucky gets a rematch against Indiana, who beat them at home on a last-second 3-pointer (that is constantly replayed on the ESPN commercial). I hope they lose again, because I don’t think Calipari’s mercenary system should be the model for College Basketball. For me the most compelling game will be NC State against Kansas, and I am rooting for the Wolfpack because of the UCLA connection (Mark Gottfried) and because I want to see how Bill Self will whine this time around. His Kansas team was lucky to get past Purdue. Last year, they lost to 11-seed VCU…

Today's schedule is below. All of the games are being televised, on either CBS or TBS, and streamed online via MMOD ($3.99 for the remainder of the tournament).

· 4:15pm PDT: Baylor (3) v. Xavier (10) - CBS

· 4:47pm PDT: North Carolina (1) v. Ohio (13) - TBS

· 6:45pm PDT: Kentucky (1) v. Indiana (4) - CBS

· 7:17pm PDT: Kansas (2) v. NC State (11) - TBS