March Madness - Sweet Sixteen

March Madness – Sweet Sixteen
By Tom Wilbur

Bracket busted? Welcome to the madness folks. March Happens. I told you in the beginning to be wary of Duke and Michigan, but did that stop me from putting both teams in my Sweet 16? Nope. The lesson as always: even when I’m right, I’m wrong.

Although we haven’t a buzzer beater or an overtime thriller yet, this year’s tournament has had plenty of juicy drama. Let’s take a look at the Sweet 16.

Teams no one thought would be here:

Ohio University: Representing the MAC, the Bobcats are one of four teams from Ohio still in the hunt for a national championship, marking the state of Ohio’s greatest collective achievement since Warren G. Harding was elected President.
North Carolina State: Upsetting San Diego State and Georgetown was no easy feat. The Wolfpack are peaking at the perfect time. Expect a shoot-out when they match up with #2 seed Kansas.
Xavier: After an ugly brawl marred the end of their game with Cincinnati earlier in the season, few expected Xavier to recover, much less make a tournament run like this. Fostered by big man Kenny Frease and guard Tu Holloway, Xavier might have the best chance of these teams of advancing to the Elite 8.

Teams who are who we thought they were:

Kentucky: A highly anticipated rematch against Indiana looms, but Kentucky is playing Final Four quality ball, like most people expected. If they can keep getting contributions from players like Marquis Teague and Doron Lamb, Kentucky remains the favorite to capture the ‘chip come April.
Michigan State: They don’t always win easily, the games can be kind of ugly, but Izzo’s squad just gets it done. Expect a horse race against Louisville in a match-up of two great Italian-American coaches.
North Carolina: Losing point guard Kendall Marshall would be a devastating blow to their title chances, but UNC has cruised through the tournament so far, and their road to the Final Four got easierthanks to Ohio.

March Madness has lived up to the hype so far, and now that we are in the Sweet 16, expect the games to be even better as the stakes get even higher. Survive and advance, by any means possible. Nothing is guaranteed this deep into March except that we are that much closer to anointing a new champion of college basketball. All we can do is hope the team we picked is still alive.

CC/FDC Bracket Challenge
Top 20 as of Monday, March 19

Rank	Team Name	Score
1	Jim Swift	51
1	Robert Cogan	51
3	Dan Ostermueller	48
4	Joseph Tvrdy	47
5	Daniel Ensign	46
5	Kris Kiefer	46
5	Matthew Bernstein	46
8	c j	45
8	Chris Baggett	45
8	David Almacy	45
8	Matt DeLuca	45
8	Michael Julian	45
13	Jared Nichols	44
13	Kristine E	44
13	Nika Nour	44
16	Brandon Ashley	43
16	Casey Ratlief	43
16	Catherine Gatewood	43
16	Juliana Heerschap	43