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March Madness in Full Swing
A, so far, unpredictable NCAA tournament is underway as the teams fight there way to the Elite 8.
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March 24, 2008 (FPRC) -- For the first time in 30 years of the NCAA college basketball tournaments, the alignment of all Number 1 teams going to the Final Four is possible. In the first 4 days of the national showcase, 8 former champions were eliminated, including Georgetown , Duke and Connecticut who have previously won tournaments over the course of the past 9 years. Marquette, Arkansas, Kentucky and Arizona haven't lived up to their reputations either. Stanford and Tennessee are barely hanging on by a thread. Memphis and UCLA were defeated by the likes of Mississippi State and Texas A&M.
There is still a big possibility for changes at the top going into the 2nd week of the tournament. Only the Number 1 seed, North Carolina, has won a championship out of the sixteen teams. Maryland, Syracuse and Florida were not invited. Duke and UConn were eliminated. Michigan State won in 2000. They will play Memphis in the South Regional. UCLA won in 1995 and North Carolina earned its 3rd of 4 titles in 1993 which was 5 years after Kansas. Eight former champions remain, but only half have achieved the summit in the past 20 years.
Analyzing the March Madness brackets, the East region is the strongest and the West is the weakest. Number 1 through 4 seeds in the East will play in Charlotte, North Carolina. Even though North Carolina may have an advantage in terms of talented players, Washington State, Louisville and Tennessee have their set of challenges. In the West Texas A&M lost to UCLA on 2 goals by Kevin Love. Phoenix would have been Number 3 Xavier, which has never reached a Final Four. West Virginia and Western Kentucky also qualified.
The Midwest also lost 2 of its top 4 teams. Georgetown and Vanderbilt left Kansas to play against Wisconsin, Davidson and Villanova. The game against Villanova was tied for 8th in the Big East. Davidson is a seemingly unlikely team in the Sweet 16. However, thanks to Stephen Curry, they've been wracking in the points. Curry achieved a 35 point average against Georgetown and Gonzaga. He scored 55 points after halftime in both of those games.
Memphis is king in the South region. Pittsburgh was eliminated from the top 4 lines. Michigan State remains instead of the Panthers. Stanford and Texas will clash in the other bracket in Houston. The Tigers have displayed a disturbing tendency at the free throw line.
The Big East and Pac 10 each is represented by 3 teams and the Big Ten and Big 12 each claims 2 teams. The ACC, which is the top league in the RPI, is down to 1 team, equaling the SEC, Atlantic 10, Conference USA, Sun Belt and Southern. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the season plays out.
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Keywords:
NCAA, basketball, sports
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