The dust has settled on the madness. In this year's NCAA Tournament, everything has gone according to plan, in the East and South regions at least. There are no fairy-tale teams in the Sweet Sixteen, as the top four seeds in both regions are playing into the second weekend.
On the right side of the bracket, that includes three Big East teams -- the Pittsburgh Panthers, Villanova Wildcats and Syracuse Orange -- as well as two ACC rivals in the North Carolina Tar Heels and Duke Blue Devils. The Atlantic 10 regular-season champion Xavier Musketeers, West Coast Conference champion Gonzaga Bulldogs and the former No. 2 team in the country, the Oklahoma Sooners, will be joining the festivities as well.
The No. 1-seeded Panthers will be facing the Musketeers in Boston, and Pittsburgh appears to be the most vulnerable of the top seeds. Pitt was the only No. 1 to be truly tested by a 16-seed in the opening round, as it was given all it could handle by the scrappy East Tennessee State Buccaneers. It took a superhuman effort from Big East Co-Player of the Year sophomore DeJuan Blair, with 27 points and 16 rebounds, to make up for 18 Panther turnovers and save them the ignominy of becoming the first No. 1 team to lose to a 16. And in round two, Blair's late heroics and senior forward Sam Young's 32 points helped stave off an upset at the hands of the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
Xavier, then, has to like its chances of pulling off the upset after seeing Pitt squeak into the round of 16. The Musketeers had little trouble in their first two matchups and are a strong defensive team that is balanced on the offensive end. Still, matching up with the inside power of Blair and Young will be a tough task for coach Sean Miller's team.
Another team that almost did not make it past the first weekend was Gonzaga, which needed a dramatic coast-to-coast layup from freshman Demetri Goodson to get past the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. The Bulldogs now meet a UNC team that has demolished the opposition thus far and is arguably the most talented team in the nation. The Tar Heels have five players that average double figures in scoring, led by last year's National Player of the Year senior Tyler Hansbrough's 21.2 points a game. With jet-quick junior point guard Ty Lawson finally looking healthy and junior guard Wayne Ellington heating up with an average of 24 points in the last three games, the Tar Heels will leave the Bulldogs hard-pressed to find a way to shut down the third-best scoring team in the nation.
The more competitive matchups will feature the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds in both regions.
Duke is back in the Sweet Sixteen after a two-year absence, in large part thanks to the hot play of junior guard Gerald Henderson and sophomore forward Kyle Singler. The Wildcats, however, are coming off of a steamrolling of the UCLA Bruins and are getting hot at the right time. Villanova also often plays with multiple guards, meaning that Duke's man-to-man defense might have trouble containing penetration.
The one intangible in this game might be the court at the TD Banknorth Garden. Villanova played its first two games as the virtual home team at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, but it will now be on a truly neutral floor.
Syracuse, the third seed in the South region, might be the hottest team in the tournament. The Orange have won nine of their last 10, with the only loss coming to the No. 1 overall seed Louisville Cardinals in the Big East tournament finals after playing in a six-overtime win against the UConn Huskies and another overtime win two days prior. It seems that all of Syracuse's talent is finally starting to take shape on the court, and junior Eric Devendorf and sophomore Jonny Flynn have saved their best play for the stretch run.
Still, it won't be easy to beat a Sooners team that features the best player in the country, sophomore Blake Griffin. The big man has been sensational in the first two tournament games, averaging over 30 points to go along with 15 rebounds a game. This game will boil down to whether Syracuse can find a way to contain Griffin both in the paint and, more importantly, on the glass. If the Orange do shut Griffin down, Oklahoma will need big games from freshman guard Willie Warren and senior guard Austin Johnson to have a chance to advance.
The NCAA Tournament usually boils down to the top teams in the country, but this year it happened quicker than most imagined. The cream of the crop will now try to separate itself as 16 are whittled down to four.
