NCAA Day #4

Another fun day, but not quite the excitement of yesterday.

First...

DUKE WINS!!!! DUKE WINS!!!!

The big news is actually that Cornell (#12) beat Wisconsin (#4) (sorry mom!) -- the first time an Ivy league school has gotten to the Sweet 16 in...well, a long, long time.

Duke (#1) easily beat Cal (#8), the regular season champion of the Pac-10.
Unfortunately, Maryland and Georgia Tech both lost. So Duke is the last of the ACC.

Duke will play Purdue (#4) who beat Texas A&M (#5) in overtime. Just a great game!

From the Big East -- Pittsburgh (#3) lost to Xavier (#6) in a close game. Syracuse (#1) and West Virginia (#2) won, so the Big East -- supposedly the toughest conference in the country (according to them, anyway) only gets two teams in the Sweet 16, the same amount as the Pac-10 which was supposed to be the worst of the big 6 conferences.

In all, there are four temas #9 seed to higher make the Sweet Sixteen. Of the four regions, only the South has 3 of 4 top seeds still in it. People were saying Duke had the easiest bracket (some went so far as to call it a walk to the final four). Instead Duke is the only team that could have to beat a #4 and #3 seed to make the Final Four. The next toughest is the West where all the remaining teams are $6 seed or higher. In the East, Kentucky will play a #12 (Cornell) and either a #2 or #11, and in the midwest the highest seed left is #2 seed Kansas State. The other seeds are all #5 through #9 -- upsets winners all.

So a couple days down time. Four games tip off Thrusday, but it's not the same. After the amazing overabundance of games of this first weekend, the Sweet Sixteen feels a little empty. Let's just hope the games are good! (Except for Duke's which will hopefully be a blow-out.)

--Paul