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-The ratings for the NCAA Tournament are through the roof this year.  They are always high, but they are DAMN high this year!  I don’t know if it’s because we didn’t get one last year.  I don’t know if it’s because we had fewer games that were staggered.  I don’t know if it’s because more people typically watch TV on Monday than on any other night of the week, and this year we’ve had games on Mondays.  But whatever the reason, we are seeing some of the highest ratings in close to thirty years.

-Oregon State fell behind early to Houston, but battled back and actually tied it late in the second half, but just couldn’t hold on.  Houston is back in the Final Four since the days of Phi Slamma Jamma.  While it’s disappointing for the Beavers, their run was still historic.  I believe it is only the second time that a team who was seeded outside the bubble advanced to the Elite Eight (the other being Loyola Chicago the year they made the Final Four).  I know Missouri also got to the Elite Eight as a #12 seed in 2002, but they were actually selected as an at-large that year.  So was VCU in 2011 when made the Final Four.

Another bit of trivia is that even though Loyola was a #11 seed in 2018 and Oregon State was a #12 this year, they were both #46 on the committee’s seedlist and both were seeded behind the last at-large team.  So, what Oregon State did this year is not something that is commonly done.  And…ROCCO MILLER CALLED IT!!!!!

-Arkansas battled Baylor for pretty much the entire game, but were doing all of their battling from behind.  While they were never out of the game, Baylor was seemingly always in control of it.  This is a damn good Bears team, and they’ll face another former Southwest Conference foe in the Final Four.

As for tonight’s games…

-It is worth noting that earlier in the year Gonzaga blew out Kansas, and that was really the first time we realized that there seemed to be a big canyon separating the Zags from everyone else.  But, just last week, USC also blew out Kansas!  By even more!  So, is it so crazy to think that USC might be able to play with Gonzaga tonight??  I don’t think so.  I think the Zags win, but watch out for USC because they are smoking hot right now.

-Michigan has looked like one of the more dominant teams in the tournament, and UCLA has played in the most exciting games of the tournament.  Logic tells me that Michigan should totally run away with this, but UCLA is a good defensive team and I don’t think Michigan is just going to walk all over them.

-The only Sweet Sixteen game that featured two protected seeds ended up being one of the biggest clunkers of the whole day, and perhaps even the whole tournament.  Neither Florida State or Michigan looked all that much like protected seeds, or for that matter even NCAA Tournament teams, for a good portion of that game, but Michigan finally pulled it together and ended up waxing the Seminoles.  The Noles picked perhaps the worst day possible to have one of their worst days of the season.

-USC opened it up against Oregon and has earned the right to take on Gonzaga.  Everyone has been impressed with the Zags, and rightfully so, but USC has blown through some really good teams in this tournament as well, so there is perhaps reason to think they can step up on the Zags and give them a game.  Speaking of the Zags…

-It’s crazy to say this, but I thought Creighton played really well for a lot of that game.  They hung tough in the first half, they kept playing hard when Gonzaga opened it up, and did a lot of things right.  They still got blown out, but Creighton looked pretty good.  That is the level of Good that Gonzaga is on.  They can play a really good opponent, that team can play really well, and Gonzaga still wins huge.

-UCLA took down Alabama in the only game of the day that was exciting, but DAMN was it exciting!!  Just about ten days ago, UCLA was down to Michigan State by double digits and no one thought they’d make it this far.  Shortly before that, there was debate over whether or not UCLA belonged in at all.  Funny how quickly things can change…

As for tonight’s games…

-IT’S AN OLD FASHION SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE SHOWCASE!!  We’ve got Baylor and Arkansas in one game, and Houston taking on outsider Oregon State in the other.  Both games have fascinating story lines…

-Baylor was bad at basketball for the longest time, and really exploded onto the scene under Scott Drew.  They are now a blue blood and while they’ve been this far before, they’ve not been to the Final Four since he arrived.

-Arkansas has a rich basketball history, but this is their first time getting past the second weekend since 1996 and they are on the cusp of making it to the Final Four.

-Oregon State is a team that three weeks ago no one thought would be in the NCAA Tournament, and they wouldn’t have been had they not won the Pac 12 Tourney, but are now just one game away from the Final Four.  This is a team that throughout its history almost never makes the NIT, but that now has a chance of going to the Final Four.

-Houston was a basketball wasteland prior to the arrival of Kelvin Sampson.  That program is now back on the national stage and has a chance catapult its brand over the moon if they can win tonight.

It should be fun!  Enjoy the games!!

-Oregon State marches on!!  That is five top 25 wins in a row for a team that almost no one gave any thought to on the Thursday of the Pac 12 Tournament.  They are now in the Elite Eight after knocking off a very good defensive Loyola Chicago team, and are perhaps the most improbable team to ever advance to an Elite Eight.  I don’t know that any team who was in virtually no bracketology projections at any point of the season and who needed the automatic bid just to get in has ever gone all the way to the Elite Eight.  The Loyola program is still in the midst of a great run.  It was their second Sweet Sixteen appearance in the last four years, and given how things are going the run may not be over.  We may see more NCAA Tournaments and top 25 rankings in their future.  Yesterday’s game was a bit of a rock fight, but it was one of those that guaranteed a good and historic story regardless of how it came out.

-Villanova was riddled by injuries, but still hung in with Baylor for pretty much the entire game.  While they didn’t get the win, they demonstrated as much valor as they ever have not just yesterday, but in winning their first two games.  Speaking of surprises…

-I don’t think anyone (aside from maybe Rocco Miller) picked Oral Roberts to go any further than the semifinals of the Summit League Tournament.  They took Arkansas all the way to the wall yesterday after leading for most of the game, staying in the game when Arkansas finally got the momentum to go back their way, and getting off what could have been a game winning shot after Arkansas went ahead with less than three seconds to go. It was an unbelievable and unforgettable run that almost saw a #15 seed who finished in 4th place of a 1-bid league go all the way to the Elite Eight.  This Oral Roberts team was a ton of fun to watch, and while it stings for them to end the way that it did (because it always does when you lose that last game) it was still amazing.  Arkansas, on the other hand, has a good story of their own.  They are back in the Elite Eight for the first time since 1995 and will face an old conference rival in Houston, who ran away from Syracuse in their Sweet Sixteen game last night.

-Houston is another good story.  They were once a powerhouse, then they became a wasteland, and then they started to improve but still weren’t nationally relevant, and now they are a top 25 regular, an NCAA Tournament regular, and are just one win away from a Final Four.

As for today’s games…

-Gonzaga is looking to make their 4th Elite Eight in the last six NCAA Tournaments, and while Creighton has looked good in their two wins to make the Sweet Sixteen, Gonzaga seems to be far superior.  The question for the Zags seems to be how much longer until a team is able to compete with them?  Creighton is in their first Sweet Sixteen of the 64 team era, so even if their ride does end today, it was still a historic season for a program and fanbase that is very passionate and given their history probably deserved to get this far.

-USC and Oregon are conference rivals and both come into this game with a huge head of steam.  USC obliterated Kansas in the round of 32, and Oregon ran away from an Iowa team that many thought was as good as a #1 seed.  USC won when these two met about a month ago, but you almost have to throw out that result given that it might as well have been a year ago.

-Michigan and Florida State is the only Sweet Sixteen game that features two protected seeds.  Both teams are on fire, both are on a roll, and both are capable of making the Final Four if they win this game.  It should be fun.

-UCLA, who was in the First Four, squares off against an Alabama team that has been on an absolute rampage all season long.  Alabama can score in a lot of ways, and UCLA is a very tough defensive team, so it should be a fun game of contrasting styles.

-And, like yesterday, I’ll probably DVR the games, start watching this evening, speed through all the timeouts, halftimes, and time between games, and catch up to live action in the second half of the last game.  So, if I’m not on Twitter sharing all of my valuable knowledge and insights, that is why!  I hated pretty much everything about COVID, but I do like not having any of the games staggered in the Sweet Sixteen and being able to watch all the games in their entirety on on TV set!!

-Another bit of a silver lining to a season that has had a lot of lead in it, we will get to see all eight Sweet Sixteen games this year with no overlap!  In other words, I won’t need two different TV screens anymore this tournament!

-Oregon State and Loyola Chicago face off in a game that almost no one would have had in their brackets two weeks ago, much less predicted prior to the start of the conference tournaments.  And, it should actually be a fun one!  Loyola Chicago has been a good team all year, but no one expected them to control Illinois from tip to buzzer the way they did in the Round of 32.  Oregon State was rather unspectacular for most of the season, but has been on a rampage since the conference tournaments started and now has a chance to get to the Elite Eight.

-I didn’t expect Nova to do much of anything in this tournament, and while some may argue that their bracket fell apart because their path to the sweet Sixteen went through a #12 and a #13 seed, I would respond by saying those was a damn good Winthrop team and a damn good North Texas team and I wasn’t really expecting them to beat either one.  I have nothing against Nova, but for the third time this tournament I’m picking against them.  Baylor is just too damn good and Nova still isn’t as good as they would be without the injuries.  But…I’ve been wrong twice already.

-Oral Roberts has been on a crazy fun ride since the semifinals of their conference tournament.  I’ve also picked against them twice (really four times if you go back to the Summit Tournament) and been wrong twice.  I’m picking against them again today against Arkansas.  This is a Razorbacks team that is on fire and that I think will win rather easily today.

-Syracuse is a double digit seed, and as has been pointed out that’s when they always seem to win big.  Houston has had a magical year, and really a magical few years when you consider just how irrelevant they were in the college basketball world shortly before Sampson got there.  They are now one step away from the Elite Eight and appear to have a rather wide path to going to the Final Four.  I remember really liking this team back in 2018 when Michigan knocked them out of the Round of 32 with a crazy half court shot.  Michigan went on to advance all the way to the National Championship game and while I don’t think Houston would have made it that far, I did think they had it in them to maybe win one more game and really get some limelight back on a program that hadn’t seen much in a long time.  Well, the Cougs have certainly bounced back!  Now all they have to do is get past a Syracuse team that, like a lot of previous Syracuse teams, looked mediocre for much of the season, but has looked amazing in the first two rounds of The Tournament.