1. Davidson can beat Kansas, and it wouldn’t even be a massive upset. Heck, if I had to rank the eight teams in order of likelihood to win based on the way they are playing Davidson wouldn’t be at the bottom despite their seed.
2. Anyone who calls Davidson a Cinderella team deserves to be slapped. A Cinderella team plays beyond themselves. That’s not Davidson.
3. Take that, Memphis doubters. That first half against Michigan State was the best half of basketball played by any team this tournament. Probably this year. They have to be the favorite to make the final from their side of the bracket now.
4. I never would have thought it possible two weeks ago, but UCLA is arguably the least inspiring of the eight remaining teams based on the way they have played so far.
5. It is amazing to me how often a team can succeed so well up to a point and then look so totally out of place in their next game. Villanova didn’t at any time look like they belonged on the court with Kansas.
6. I get shivers when I think of Louisville – North Carolina tonight. This one could and should be a classic.
7. I’m disappointed by Stanford. I thought that they had more fight in them than that. Unlike that song, they got knocked down but they didn’t get back up again.
8. The Pac-10 isn’t looking nearly as strong as they did coming in. USC went home with a whimper. Oregon and Arizona failed to exceed their seeding. Stanford and Washington State both looked good for a while, but were both wildly outclassed in the Sweet Sixteen. UCLA is alive and favored tonight but has been, by a large margin, the least dominating of the number one seeds.
9. I think that David Padgett is the most important guy on the court tonight. If he can offset Tyler Hansbrough to a significant degree then Louisville can win.
10. In the second half on Friday, Wisconsin looked like a bunch of midwestern farm boys who took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in Detroit. It was not a flattering day for the Big Ten.
11. Eight teams, seven conferences. Two from the Big 12, none from the SEC or Big Ten. Does this mean that the Southern and the A-10 had better years in the end than those two power conferences?
12. I’m making no predictions, but I do think that underestimating Xavier is a big mistake.
