Despite its slow start, the first weekend of this year's NCAA Tournament turned out to be one of the best in recent memory. With the Sweet Sixteen set to get underway tonight, here's a look at several intriguing matchups:
Opening-weekend upsets are particularly sweet when the victim is almost universally detested. Case in point: the Duke Blue Devils. Coming into the tournament as a No. 2 seed, Duke had relied on its strong three-point shooting and man-to-man defense all year. The Blue Devils' glaring weakness, however, was their lack of a true inside scoring threat. Big man Brian Zoubek has been a space eater all year, but that's about it.
After getting pushed to the brink against the No. 15-seeded Belmont Bruins, Duke found itself matched up against the highly motivated - and underrated - No. 7 West Virginia Mountaineers. Junior forward Joe Alexander, a lanky big man with a pure jumper, had his way inside against Duke, and he posted a double-double while leading his team to a 73-67 victory.
This result pushed Duke into irrelevance for the rest of the tourney and moved West Virginia into the spotlight. Next up for the streaking Mountaineers is the No. 3 seed in the West, the Xavier Musketeers. With star 5-foot-7 point guard Drew Lavender at the helm, Xavier struggled in its first two games. In the second round, the Musketeers couldn't shake the No. 6 Purdue Boilermakers until the final minutes.
Tonight, the two teams face off. West Virginia, while seeded lower, clearly has the momentum, as evidenced by the Mountaineers' post-Duke trash talking session. If Alexander plays like he has thus far in the tournament, look for West Virginia to continue its improbable run into the weekend.
Across the bracket in the Midwest region, a couple of teams have played spoiler against the big boys. The most notable Cinderella has been the Davidson Wildcats. Led by diminutive sharpshooter Stephen Curry, the Wildcats felled two historical tourney powers over the weekend: the Gonzaga Bulldogs and the Georgetown Hoyas.
Curry, who scored 70 points in the first two rounds, will lead Davidson against the No. 3 Wisconsin Badgers. Bo Ryan's Badgers, while a much bigger team than Davidson, play a Big 10 style of basketball and are not as comfortable with the up-tempo style of the Wildcats. Still, Wisconsin is excellent at controlling the speed of the game and may force the Wildcats to slow down to their level.
Friday's matchup will be a great clash of styles. If the Badgers can shut down Curry, then it's over. However, since No. 2 Georgetown was unable to accomplish this, who's to say he won't go off again?
If the Wildcats get past the Badgers, they will meet either the No. 1 seeded Kansas Jayhawks or fellow Cinderellas the Villanova Wildcats. Villanova was a bubble team for much of the regular season, and its first-round Big East Tournament win over the Syracuse Orangemen seemed to be the deciding factor in the team's NCAA bid. But once the tournament started, Jay Wright's team took down one of the hottest teams coming in to the tourney, the Clemson Tigers. Having dispatched the one-game wonder Siena Saints in the second round, the Wildcats find themselves pitted against Kansas, one of the most talent-heavy teams in the nation.
With five players averaging over nine points per game, the Jayhawks can beat anyone in any number of ways. The question is whether coach Bill Self can get over the hump and take a team to the Final Four for the first time. If Villanova gets past Kansas, it will most likely be less a reflection of the talent on the floor and more an indication that the Jayhawk coach is a choke artist in big games.
Back over in the West region, the No. 12 Western Kentucky Hilltoppers have become the other feel-good story of the tournament. Their buzzer-beating victory over the No. 5 Drake Bulldogs in the first round established them as a Cinderella-to-be. In the second round, the Hilltoppers took down the equally unlikely San Diego Toreros, who upset the Connecticut Huskies in the first round.
Now, like Villanova, WKU must face a No. 1 seed in the Sweet Sixteen, this time the UCLA Bruins. Freshman center Kevin Love has led the charge for the Bruins, who struggled mightily in their second round matchup with the Texas A&M Aggies. If UCLA continues to take lesser opponents lightly, then the Hilltoppers have a chance to become the biggest story of the tournament. If the Bruins play like they're capable, though, the fun will be over for WKU.
For basketball junkies, the tourney is ramping up into high gear. The Sweet Sixteen always promises some of the best games of the tournament, and with so many Cinderellas hanging around, the next two nights should be as good as it gets.
