USC, UNC to play in Sweet Sixteen

The USC Trojans defeated the No. 4 ranked Texas Longhorns in the second round on Sunday to make it to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament.  The Trojans are slated to face the North Carolina Tar Heels, who are coming off a score-doesn’t-tell-the-whole-story 81-67 win over Michigan State.  
 

The Heels struggled to separate themselves from the Michigan State Spartans, who were within two points with about five minutes left in the game.  Tyler Hansbrough, UNC’s star big man, shed his protective mask halfway through the second half, en route to 33 total points for the game.
 

When USC and UNC meet for their Round of 16 match up, a lot of pre game time will be spent focusing on whether or not Hansbrough will wear his mask, which he has been advised to wear ever since he was elbowed in the face a few weeks ago.  As for me, I think he won’t wear it. 
 

Now, if every sports analysis in the country could give their opinion on the matter until Friday night that would be just great great.
 

You can still get some great seats to see the action in Winston-Salem, but you’ll have to get to StubHub.com quickly to check out everything that remains in the NCAA Tournament Tickets section.


 

Permalink - Posted in General on March 19, 2007 - Post a comment

Sweet Sixteen not quite as Sweet this Tourney

The rounds with the catchy names have started, and Cinderella, sadly, will not be attending.  There were several upsets in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, but no team seeded worse than a No. 7 actually made it to the Sweet Sixteen.
 

Virginia Commonwealth beat Duke in the first round, and then took Pitt into overtime, but couldn’t nail down a spot in Cinderella history.  The worst seeded team right now is UNLV, who, by most calculations got a bad seed to begin with.
 

By RPI rankings, UNLV, Butler, USC, and Vanderbilt are the least likely teams to make it to the Elite Eight, but nobody would be too shocked.  Seven of the top eight seeds are still dancing, with the notable exception of Wisconsin.
 

So who do you root for if you’re a classic underdog fan?  I’ll be pulling for Butler.  You can get NCAA Tournament tickets to their game on Friday if you hurry up and get to StubHub.com.  They face the defending national champions and No. 1 seeded Florida Gators, who just put up 186 points in the first two rounds, and have that look in their eyes.  Butler might have the toughest task in the round of sixteen, and unlike pretty much any of the other teams still left, you can actually refer to the Bulldogs as a “mid-major.”     


 

Permalink - Posted in General on March 19, 2007 - Post a comment