NCAA Sweet Sixteen: Bracket Busters

Calm under pressure

No. 11 Marquette vs. No. 2 North Carolina

#5 Kendall Marshall - Guard
6-3 186 Freshman Dumfries, VA
6.2 ppg 6.1 apg

The Tar Heels were point-guard-by-committee for the first 21 games of the season until Marshall emerged.  His first game playing significant minutes came Feb. 6 against Florida State in Tallahasee. Marshall dimed 16 assists on the Seminoles; the all-time single game record for a UNC player in an ACC game.  The freshman point possesses poise beyond his years and has been unflappable so far in the tournament.  The Tar Heels will need Marshall to settle down the offense and not get into a shoot out with a Marquette team that likes to make you play in a hurry.

No. 12 Richmond vs. No. 1 Kansas

#21 Markieff Morris - Forward
6-10 245 Junior Philadelphia, PA
13.9 ppg 8.3 rpg

The more low-post oriented of the Morris twins.  Coming off a 24-point 12-rebound performance against Illinois in the round of 32, Kansas must continue to feed its hot hand.  The Jayhawks can kill the will of the upstart Spiders by pounding them inside where they don't really have much depth.  Dominant inside play by Markieff and his brother Marcus will lead to double-teams in the post and kickouts to the perimeter that will give Kansas shooters Brady Morningstar and Tyshawn Taylor plenty of open looks.

Buford can kill you from anywhere on the floor.

No. 4 Kentucky vs. No. 1 Ohio State

#44 William Buford - Guard
6-5 205 Junior Toledo, OH
14.6 ppg 4 rpg 3 apg

Buford is the jack-of-all-trades for the Buckeyes and the team's most athletic guard.  He can hurt you on offense from either guard position.  He creates a matchup problem with his size as he has the ability to rise and shoot over smaller defenders and is fast enough to penetrate past bigger ones.  Good at drawing help defense and finding David Lighty and Jon Diebler for open 3-pointers on the perimeter or dropping off passes to Jared Sullinger when driving the paint.  You can't play off of him either as he his hitting at 44-percent clip from beyond the arc.  Buford is also the team's best on ball defender and will likely be given the task of staying in front of Kentucky freshman guard Brandon Knight.

Singleton goes hard in the paint.

No. 11 Virginia Commonwealth vs. No. 10 Florida State

#31 Chris Singleton - Forward
6-9 225 Junior Canton, GA
13 ppg 6.7 rpg 2 spg 1.5 bpg, leads team in all categories

The Seminoles might not have snuck up on anyone by surprise if it wasn't for an injury to Singleton's foot that required him to have surgery after a Feb. 12 game against Virginia.  Many assumed Singleton would be out for the season and that Florida State could not perform well enough without him to make the NCAA tournament since Singleton was playing like an ACC Player of the Year candidate before he went down with the injury.  Despite going 3-3 without their best player, the 'Noles made the tournament, and Singleton returned for the team's opening round game victory against Texas A&M after missing just over a month.  He hasn't returned to full form yet (0 points in 10 minutes against Notre Dame last round) but will be critical in tonight's game against VCU as the Rams will look to forwards Jamie Skeen (15.2 ppg, 7.3 rpg) and Bradford Burgess (23 points and eight rebounds in last round win vs. Purdue) to carry them to the Elite Eight.

'The Big L-East'



They speak for us all.



I know how you feel right now.  Your previous excitement about Mach Madness and how unstoppable your brackets will be in your pay-to-play pools has by now likely dissipated into torment, frustration, and utter disbelief.  All year long you heard the experts saying that the Big East is the best conference ever and deserves 13 NCAA Tournament bids.  And then Morehead State happened.  O.K., there had to be an upset somewhere in the first round and Louisville was it.  Later on that day Gonzaga -- the vintage 1990s tourney Cinderella -- brutalized fan favorite-to-make-a-run-to-the-Final-Four St. John's and effectively dover the Red Storm and anyone (including me) riding their bandwagon off the steepest of cliffs.  Villanova and Georgetown limped into the tournament, but surely there is enough talent on those teams to handle the likes of George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth of the Colonial Athletic Assosication.  Nope.  If that wasn't enough, how about the most consistent Big East team for the entire season and No. 1 seed Pittsburgh getting their hearts ripped out by Butler, and No. 2 seed Notre Dame with Big East Player of the Year Ben Hansbrough getting waxed by Florida State (somewhere, Charlie Ward and Warrick Dunn are smiling)?  Should've saw it coming though.  Last year everyone was clamouring about the Big East too, and the only team to make the Final Four from that conference was West Virginia; which was probably the least lauded team of the pack ranked in the top of the Big East standings.  The same thing has almost happened this year.  Marquette and Connecticut are the only two teams left in the NCAA Tournament out of the 11 selections from the conference.  The Golden Eagles hovered around .500 in the Big East all season while the Huskies seemed destined for a first round tourney exit before Kemba Walker basically carried them to five wins in five days to win the conference tournament. 

Sights set on Final Four.

So what is the explanation for this?  Do they beat up on each other in the regular season and are too worn out to perform in March?  Are they overlooking teams that play outside of conference because of arrogance?  This time of year, it's hard to explain anything that happens in a basketball game using rational thought.   If that were the case, all four No. 1 seeds would make it to the Final Four every year.  Either way, don't slit your wrists if you had a bad weekend and your bracket is about as useful as nuclear wasteland, because most of America is probably with you.  Just sit back, enjoy this weekend's games, and root for your friends who still have hope in their brackets to fail miserably.