
image from espn.com
What was 16 has been cut down to 8. The Elite Eight is here and OHC is starting a new round of competition. You can go NOW to make your picks on who will win the Elite Eight. The games start today, two being played today and two tomorrow and the winners going onto the Final Four. OHC is bring more great prizes too, that you can check out here. For this round of only 4 games, OHC is giving away 30 credits or one month membership to OHC Vip or one of the solo sites.
So who is playing?
First up is Kansas State vs. Butler. Kansas State is the #2 seed in the West region against Butler with a #5 seed. KSU beat #15 North Texas 82 – 62, #7 Butler 84 – 72, and #6 Xavier 101 – 96 in double overtime. Butler started the tournament vs #12 University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) winning 77 – 59. Then they beat #13 Murry St 54 – 52, that had upset Vanderbilt. Beating teams with #12 and #13 seed does not say too much for a #5 seed, but they did just upset the #1 seed of their bracket Syracuse 63 – 59. Oh yea, Butler has also won 23 games in a row coming in, the longest in all of basketball. Butler is 31 – 4 from the Horizon league and the only remaining mid-major team. Kansas St is 29 – 7 and finished second to Kansas in the Big 12.
Next up may be the game of the day, #1 Kentucky vs #2 West Virginia of the East region. This will be the only #1 vs #2 match-up in the Elite Eight as only two #1 seeds remain and two #2 seeds, and only these two are in the same bracket. Both teams cruised through the bracket, with the closest margin of victory being 9 with West Virginia’s win over #10 Missouri, 68 – 59. Their other wins were 77 – 50 over #15 Morgan St., and 69 – 56 over #11 Washington. Kentucky has been on fire with none of their games really being that close. They beat #16 East Tenn St 100 – 71, #9 Wake Forest 90 – 60, and #12 Cornell 62 – 45. Kentucky is 35 – 2 on the season, West Virginia is 30 -6.
Up first on Sunday is #6 Tennessee vs #5 Michigan St of the Midwest region. Michigan St did not have that great of a trip to the Elite Eight, in that they only won the first two games by 3 and 2 points, barely squeaking by. In round one they beat #12 New Mexico St 70 – 67 and then #4 Maryland 85 – 83. Both could have been won or lost within the last minute. Finally they beat #9 Northern Iowa 59 – 52 after being down at the half. Tennessee had a close game against #2 Ohio St 76 – 73, winning on what was considered by many to be a controversial ending. Ohio St appeared to be fouled shooting a 3-pointer, which would have possibly tied the game and went into overtime. They also beat #14 Ohio 83 – 68 and #11 San Diego St. #5 vs #6 should make for another great game. Tennessee is 28 – 8 while Michigan St is 27 – 8.
Finally rounding out the Elite Eight match-ups is #1 Duke vs #3 Baylor of the South region. Both of these two teams cruised through the bracket with the closest margin of victory again being 8, Baylor’s win over #11 Old Dominion 76 – 68. Baylor had the easiest trip to the Elite Eight if you only look at the seeding match-ups. They faced a #14, #11 and #10 seed. But it was those teams that upset the #2, #7 and #6 teams. Baylor started the tournament defeating #14 Sam Houston St 68 – 59, then #11 Old Dom 76 – 68 and finally #10 St Mary 72 – 49, a game that was never close with Baylor having a 29 point lead at half time. #1 Duke started the tournament against the play-in team #16 App St. and winning 73 – 44. They then faced #8 California 68 – 53 and then last night beat #4 Purdue 70 – 57. Duke is 32 – 5 on the season while Baylor is 28 – 7 and finished third in the Big-12 behind Kansas St and Kansas.