its March Madness time!!

Nice to see South Carolina make it to the sweet 16 for the first time in school history. Sad to see Louisville go tho

3skulls said:

Nice to see South Carolina make it to the sweet 16 for the first time in school history. Sad to see Louisville go tho

Click to expand...

good for them, i recall they had i think a 2 seed one year and got upset in the first round...

well, a few more upsets finally ,and plenty of excitement as the Sweet Sixteen teams have been whittled down to the Elite Eight...

it's mostly chalk in the Midwest region, as 1 seed Kansas blew out Purdue and 3 seed Oregon survived Michigan to set up their 1 v. 3 game tomorrow for a berth in the Final Four...

out West there was some craziness, as 11 seed Xavier continued their surprising run, upending the 2 seed Arizona (shame, as Final Four is in Phoenix this year...), the Musketeers will play top seed Gonzaga tomorrow, a narrow winner over West Virginia (who inexplicably failed to even attempt a game tying shot at the end of their contest)...

in the South, top seed north carolina crushed 4 seed Butler, and 2 seed Kentucky won their rematch with UCLA, so Sunday will have a 1 v. 2 game between two of the sport's alltime greatest programs (and another rematch from the regular season, a game UK won)...

in the East, South Carolina continued its best ever tournament run, destroying the 3 seed Baylor, and my Florida Gators survived Wisconsin's game-tying buzzer beater in regulation by winning on our own buzzer-beater in the tourney's only overtime game so far. Now South Carolina and Florida, conference brethren, will play Sunday for the third time this season, but with the last berth in the Final Four on the line...

- - - Post Merge - - -

of the 8 teams left, 5 have previously won the National Championship, while 3 of them have never so much as reached the Final Four (gonzaga, xavier, south carolina)...

as is often the case, the regional ofinalos this weekend were sloppy affairs that didnt see any huge upsets given the teams' seedings.

1 seed Gonzaga played well in dispatching Cindarella 11-seed Xavier to advance to their first Final Four in school history, an expected breakthrough for the Zags as they have received high tourney seeds frequently for a while now. Xavier seemed to have just run out of steam after their big upset win over Arizona.

Gonzaga will face South Carolina, which advances to its first Final Four appearance as well, having outlasted 4 seed Florida to win the East region. Florida had a halftime lead, but seemed gassed for the second half, perhaps playing Friday night until 1 am and then having the early game today was too much for them (and certainly not the kind of scheduling that should have been arranged in fairness by the tv network). South Carolina has played very well, having knocked off now the 2, 3, and 4 seeds in their region, they have a real shot at getting to the national title game.

In Kansas City, it was expected that the team that had been totally dominant in this tournament, and playing essentially a home venue, 1 seed Kansas, would roll; but, that was not the case as the Jayhawks could not hit the side of a barn and lost to 2 seed Oregon. i believe this is Oregon's first trip to the Final Four since the very first tournament in 1939 (which they won).

Oregon will face north carolina, who won a sloppy game at the final tick over kentucky. north carolina will be the prohibitive favorite now to win the championship next weekend. hopefully not, but i will be surprised if they falter going against teams who have never before been on the big stage of the Final Four. so, two 1 seeds, a 2 seed, and a 7 seed comprise this year's Final Four, and at least we are guaranteed to have a first-time finalist in the title game in a week.

I don't think North Carolina is a heavy favorite. They had a scare against Arkansas and just barely beat Kentucky, so they are vulnerable. I don't think the "been there before" thing really matters. It didn't really help Villanova this year. All college teams are young and inexperienced, so UNC doesn't really have that much of an advantage. Gonzaga, South Carolina, and Oregon have all played better during the tournament and against better teams. I think this Final Four is really a toss-up. Gonzaga has been dominant, South Carolina has a very good defense, Oregon just beat Kansas by double digits, and North Carolina made it out of a very tough region.

Red Cat said:

I don't think North Carolina is a heavy favorite. They had a scare against Arkansas and just barely beat Kentucky, so they are vulnerable. I don't think the "been there before" thing really matters. It didn't really help Villanova this year. All college teams are young and inexperienced, so UNC doesn't really have that much of an advantage. Gonzaga, South Carolina, and Oregon have all played better during the tournament and against better teams. I think this Final Four is really a toss-up. Gonzaga has been dominant, South Carolina has a very good defense, Oregon just beat Kansas by double digits, and North Carolina made it out of a very tough region.

Click to expand...

I would like to see Gonzaga win it, theyve been a top program for a decade plus now. Also, it has been a long time since a school outside of a power conference won the tournament. (i think the last one was UNLV in 1990).

i have a feeling that the referees will be the 6th man on the court for the tarheels, as they have been throughout this tournament...

Well, where I'm from everyone supports UK so all my family and friends are in mourning. My school was in it for the first time this year (and lost to UK in the first round) but I was super proud of them. I didn't expect them to win. I don't know much about sports but I had Kansas going all the way in my bracket. RIP Kansas.

I'm not big with sports...

you lost me on the first post. Good luck to whichever team needs it the most though