Okay folks-after a dizzying 4 days of hoop madness the field of 64 has been reduced to 16 with several outstanding individual performances highlighting some huge upsets.  Most noteworthy, that of diminutive guard Stephan Curry of Davidson.  Curry displayed huge talent, especially at crunch time, in upsets over Gonzaga and Georgetown.  Western Kentucky in an exciting overtime buzzer-beater in round 1 over Drake, was the benefit of a 2nd round matchup with San Diego and has cruised into the sweet 16 without having to match up with a team from a power conference.  West Virginia exposed Duke as the team that barely beat a gritty Belmont team in round 1 and their combination of outside shooting and inside play from Joe Alexander makes them a darkhorse team.  The #1 seeds all moved on with North Carolina and Kansas dominating their first 2 opponents.  Memphis and UCLA struggled to win in round 2, but used their superior talent and experience to edge some tough defensive opponents.   Kansas and UCLA clearly have the easiest paths to the final 4 with many of the higher seeds falling in their regions.  It was good to see some of the mid-majors step up in round 1 with victories over good teams from power conferences, and showed that these teams can often compete at a high level.  It also showed that some of the bubble teams from power conferences probably did not belong in the tourney by poor performances in round 1.

     Two other teams that played well in both games are Wisconsin and Louisville.  Both teams played well at both ends and controlled the tempo.  Washington State showed that defense is their trademark by shutting down Winthrop in the second half and then limiting high-scoring Notre Dame to 41 points.  The Badgers and Cardinals are kind of slipping under the radar so far, but both of these teams have the talent and the coaching to make it into the final four if they continue to play their brand of basketball.  Both of these teams, along with the Cougars play a team-oriented game and could pose a problem for teams that have more talent.

     As we get ready for Thursday  and Friday there are many marquee matchups in the making.  I will breakdown these matchups tomorrow.  Looking back to my analysis and predictions for rounds 1 and 2, other than a few upsets and surprises, I was fairly accurate.  As for my brackets-what a mess!