Sweet 16

Well, the field has continued to narrow as we are coming even closer to the National Championship. The tournament has finally reached the Sweet 16, and here are the match ups beginning Thursday.
>#9 Northern Iowa vs. #5 Michigan St.
>#6 Tennessee vs. #2 Ohio St.
>#1 Syracuse vs. #5 Butler
>#6 Xavier vs. #2 Kansas St.
>#1 Kentucky vs. #12 Cornell
>#11 Washington vs. #2 West Virginia
>#1 Duke vs. #4 Purdue
>#3 Baylor vs. #10 St. Mary's

For those who love cheering for the underdog, there is a smörgåsbord of double digit seeded teams still in the hunting including Cornell, Washington, and St. Mary's. All of these lower ranked teams have pulled of huge upsets on this journey, not to mention Northern Iowa who just came off a giant victory over #1 Kansas. There are really no sure deals this year, but #1 seeds UK, Syracuse, and Duke are still alive and coming off of dominating performances in the past two rounds. With Kalin Lucas out for the rest of the tourney, look for upset minded N. Iowa to beat Michigan St. and continue on to the Elite 8. Cornell has put on a very impressive performance thus far, so also look for them to give the Kentucky Wildcats a run for their money, but rest assured that John Wall will be doing all he can to make sure time runs out on Cornell's Cinderella story.

St. Mary's player Omar Samhan

Rounds 1 and 2

March Madness is finally upon us, and the NCAA tournament could not be any crazier than anyone would have dreamed. This year's tournament has been filled with upsets and buzzer beaters. Blowouts are hard to come by. In the first day alone, three games went into overtime. No game could be called a sure thing. Ten of the thirty-two first round games resulted in an upset. In fact, #14 seed Ohio, #13 seed Murray State, and #12 seed Cornell all had first round upsets over highly favorited powerhouses Georgetown, Vanderbilt, and Temple. Murray State stole it's victory over Vandy with a last second, fade away shot at the buzzer by Denero Thomas. Buzzer beaters were prevalent in the first round, as Wake Forest and Northern Iowa also clinched victory as the clock wound down to zero. With high seeded teams such as Villanova and New Mexico escaping with victories by the narrowest of margins, all could tell that this year would be wide open, and that no clear champ could be crowned prematurely. All number one seeds dominated their games, but this trend would quickly change as first round competition came to a close, and the sixty-five teams were trimmed down to thirty-two.

In the second round, the trend of cutting down the high seeded teams continued on the first day. #1 overall seed, Kansas, fought a tough onslaught delivered by #9 N. Iowa, and eventually the upset epidemic caught up with the highly touted Jayhawks, as they went down to the underdogs out of the Missouri Valley Conference. Sadly, the glass slipper didn't quite fit for Cinderella stories Murray St. and Ohio, as they both lost their respective games. #1 seeds Kentucky and Syracuse strengthened their championship hopes as they dominated their respective games. #10 St. Mary's kept their Cinderella story alive as they mounted a huge upset over Villanova. Led by their leader and star center, Omar Samhan, St. Mary's hopes to keep the fairytale alive, and eventually make it to the ball in Indianapolis.