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Last Updated: 03/24/2005
The Rockbridge Report is produced
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NCAA tournament approaches
final stages By Brett Strohsacker Action resumes tonight in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, and before the weekend is over, the field will be reduced from sixteen teams to four. In tonight’s games, the top ranked Washington Huskies will take on a red hot Louisville team that knocked off Georgia Tech last week by an unprecedented twenty-two points. Despite being a number one seed, the Huskies have been overlooked, and are facing arguably the most impressive team thus far in Louisville. The other top seed, Illinois, will be taking on the Cinderella, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. After knocking off fifth seeded Alabama, and fourth seeded Boston College, the Panthers will face their toughest challenge in Illinois, who has only lost one game all season. In the later games tonight, Oklahoma State is matched up against Arizona and Texas Tech will take on West Virginia. Oklahoma State, who made it to the final four last year, is led by point guard John Lucas and will have a tough match-up against Arizona, who has won their first two games by a combined thirty five points. In the Texas Tech, West Virginia game, Bobby Knight’s Red Raiders will take on a Mountaineer’s team who knocked off heavily favored Wake Forest last week. The Red Raiders are coming off a big victory as well, after out-coaching and out-playing third ranked Gonzaga down the stretch. Tomorrow’s games feature the three remaining ACC teams, as Duke takes on Michigan State, and Wisconsin takes on NC State. Then later, top ranked North Carolina faces a tough defensive squad in Villanova, and Utah looks to upset second ranked Kentucky. Duke, who has looked shaky in the first two rounds, has already defeated Michigan State this season, and looks to advance to the final four for the fourth time since 1999. Julius Hodge and the NC State Wolfpack look for their third upset in a row, and are playing with incredible confidence, but go up against the Wisconsin Badgers, who have shown that good fundamentals and solid defense wins games. The top-seeded Tarheels have rolled so far, but face their toughest challenge in Villanova. The Wildcats, though playing without star forward, Curtis Sumpter, are one of the hottest teams in the league right now. They have played stingy defense, and already knocked off many of the top seeded teams this year. Finally, second seeded Kentucky, who looked shaky in their victories against Cincinnati and Eastern Kentucky, takes on Utah, who is led by player of the year candidate Andrew Bogut. The 7-footer is a great passer, and averages over 20 points-per game. We’ve seen some crazy upsets in the first two rounds, and there should be no reason to expect anything different this time around. Most of the regions are wide open for the taking. Don’t be surprised to see at least half of the top-seeded teams fall before the weekend is over. |