Predictions For Friday's Sweet Sixteen Games

(Who will prove to be "the man" in the UNC/Gonzaga game?)

I went 3 of 4 in my predictions for last night's sweet sixteen games...not to shabby. Let's crank out the rest of these things so people can post their predictions (and rants) by game time.

Louisville over Arizona

Reasons:

• I'll be taking Rick Pitino (and the occasional white suit) over Arizona interim head coach, Russ Pennell, any day of the week. Pitino knows this is one of the best teams he'll ever have. He's not going to screw it up by losing to a No. 12 seed.
• Staying with the Coach Pitino theme...he has an all-time record of 8-0 in Sweet Sixteen games.
• Much has been made about Arizona's "big three" of Nic Wise, Chase Budinger, and Jordan Hill...who could all end up being NBA draft picks this year. But this group of talent couldn't help them roll through Pac 10 conference play? A league where no other teams but Arizona reached the Sweet Sixteen? Please.
• Louisville has Terrence Williams, arguably the player that should have been co-Big East Player of the Year along with Dejuan Blair (and not Hasheem Thabeet). He does everything for the Cardinals (24 points and 15 rebounds in the Siena game).
• The Big East is proving it's dominance...already 3 teams in the Great Eight. If you think I'm picking a Pac 10 team over a Big East team, you haven't been reading this blog.
• Confidence in this pick: 9.5

Syracuse over Oklahoma

Reasons:

• At this point, I'm just choosing every Big East squad to reach the Great Eight. I'm not even settling for 4 Big East schools moving on to the next round. I want all 5!!!
• Jonny Flynn and Eric Devendorf should be able to manhandle the guards from Oklahoma. It then comes down to Paul Harris, Arinze Onuaku, and Rick Jackson slowing down Blake Griffin enough to throw him off his game.
• Oklahoma head coach Jeff Caple has done a good job this year, and he should be a good to great coach for years to come. But he's still relatively new to the scene, and I'm going with the savvy, experienced Jim Calhoun to out-coach and win in this match-up.
• I have visions of Syracuse's infamous 2-3 zone giving the Oklahoma guards and wing players fits. I don't really have any proof to back this up. But I can just picture it happening.
• Blake Griffin is an outstanding player. But Eric Devendorf and the Syracuse Orange need to stick around a little longer for the sake of this blog.
• Confidence in this pick: 6.4

Kansas over Michigan State

Reasons:

• How ironic is this? Bill Self and I were involved in an epic blood feud for most of last year's tournament (blog). Now I'm back picking the guy I don't trust at ALL to advance to the Great Eight? Peculiar.
• DON'T TRUST THE BIG TEN! DON'T TRUST THE BIG TEN! DON'T TRUST THE BIG TEN! DON'T TRUST THE BIG TEN!
  
• Tyler Hansbrough and Josh Heytvelt will be getting all of the big man attention in the UNC/Gonzaga game. But Cole Aldrich of Kansas might just be the best (white) big man in the country right now. He's coming off consecutive double-doubles in his first two NCAA tournament games, including 20 rebounds against Dayton.
• MSU head coach Tom Izzo has the track record to trust him in these kinds of situations. However, the Spartans SHOULD have lost to USC in the second round and were thoroughly outplayed for a half against a scrappy Robert Morris squad.
• Much like rock, paper scissors...when playing college basketball knockout: Big East > Big 12 > Horizon League > Big Ten.
• Confidence in this pick: 7.6

North Carolina over Gonzaga

Reasons:

• Ummm...I need North Carolina to keep winning (for at least two more rounds) to continue dominating my NCAA pools.
• Does anyone in America honestly (and I mean HONESTLY) think that Tyler Hansbrough's career is going to come to an end before the Final Four? Honestly? He's seemingly been around forever! It's not going to come to an end in a regional semi-final. My apologies to all of the UNC haters out there, but it's not going to happen.
• If Ty Lawson proved what he can do on a bad toe in the second half of that LSU game, Gonzaga should be terrified of what he can do with a few more days rest.
• I wish Gonzaga was in another region because it would be quite fun to root for this team to advance. They have a bunch of characters on this team including point guard Jeremy Pargo (who has also seemingly been around forever) and the man with the dreamy locks, Matt Bouldin.
• Coach Roy Williams against Coach Mark Few...a definite win...but also much closer than you'd originally think. But ACC vs. WCC...that's a blatant mismatch.
• Confidence in this pick: 9.9

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