Thoughts On The Sweet 16

The NCAA tournament resumes tomorrow with the Sweet 16. As always, either Justin or myself will be live blogging every game in the tournament so expect to see a live blog tomorrow. Before that though, I have some scattered thoughts on this year's Sweet 16.

Is This The Weirdest Sweet 16 Field In a While?: This Sweet 16 has a weird vibe to it that I can't explain. I don't know if it's because a team like Florida State is still in the tournament and I honestly couldn't name one player on their team. The same can be said for VCU. Then you have just as many Mountain West teams left in the tournament as Big East teams. And one of those Big East teams (Marquette) I can't explain how they made it this far but teams like Louisville and Notre Dame didn't. Also one of the regions will have either Florida, Wisconsin, Butler, or BYU representing them in the Final Four. Just a weird field remaining.

BYU Could Reach The Final Four: When Brandon Davies was suspended, most people expected BYU would probably  make it to the Sweet 16 and then lose. BYU though got some of the luckiest breaks imaginable. First the guy who will be guarding Jimmer hurt his ankle. Second they're in one of the easiest region's in the tournament and could face either Butler or Wisconsin in the Elite 8. Somehow BYU has gotten all the lucky breaks. They could easily make the Final Four.


Bet Chalk: I would be chalk in all of these region's to reach the Final Four. I would bet on Ohio State, Duke, BYU, and Kansas. And yes BYU would be a chalk pick because they're a 3rd seed. I could possibly see San Diego State reaching the Final Four because their regional is being played in basically their backyard, but they'll have to get through both UConn and Duke. Not likely happening, especially since they needed two overtimes to get past Temple.

Kansas Has The Easiest Regional: While the BYU regional looks like a cake walk, the easiest regional is by far the Southwest. If Kansas can't make the Final Four playing against the likes of Richmond, Florida State, and VCU then Bill Self is truly a choke artist. We complain about Duke having an easy regional, but Christ sake a Final Four berth is on a platter for Kansas. And they barely have to travel! This regional is being played in San Antonio. While *Duke has to travel across country to Anaheim.

*I will now light myself on fire for defending Duke.