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Sweet Sweet Sixteen

© Chad Plunk

As a kid, I always referred to the Sweet Sixteen as "the real tournament." The pretenders have been sent packing and the potential champions can get down to the business of settling who is King of the hill. More than three-hundred schools started the quest for the championship at the start of the year, and now only sixteen remain. Today and tomorrow that number will be reduced to eight. After the weekend, we'll be left with four.

Sweet Sixteen Thursday and Friday are a difficult time for basketball fans. We are torn between our heads, which tell us that we require a steady paycheck to live, and our hearts, which tell us to ditch work, spend the afternoon playing pick-up games in the warm spring sunshine, and then call some friends over to watch the games. Each fan must make that decision for himself, but please bear in mind that no excuse for ditching work is more effective than "the voices in my head told me not to come in today."

Before we take a look at the Sweet Sixteen games, a little eating of crow is in order. Since the Big East had taken a whipping in the first two rounds of every tournament for the last ten years, I naturally thought that it would be safe to pick against virtually all of the Big East teams in the early rounds. I further proceeded to make light of the Big East, figuring that doing so was a little like slandering the town prostitute- does it really make any difference in her reputation? Well, it turns out that the prostitute had a heart of gold, and I'm left looking the fool. Four of the Sweet Sixteen teams are from the Big East, a whopping 25%. I hereby certify that I was very, very wrong about the strength of the Big East this year. Many thanks to those fans who were kind enough to email me the results of each game involving a Big East team, just in case I had missed them.

MIDWEST

Coach Tubby Smith's Wildcats have to deal with the patience and discipline of Wisconsin, which has won back-to-back Big Ten regular-season titles. Kentucky is playing great ball and should advance. How can you pick against fan Ashley Judd's team? Always root with the pretty lady- that's the big tip for today.

Coach Ben Howland's Pittsburgh Panthers face Marquette, coached by Tom Crean. Marquette is that tough team that arises every year and just will not quit. Point guard Travis Diener has been simply awesome. Dwayne Wade is a threat to explode at any moment. That being true, Pittsburgh has been a strong, physical, defensive team all year. Pittsburgh has the edge here, but Marquette's hard-nosed attitude should make this game a classic.