The Tar Heels came back from a 16-point deficit behind some terrific offensive rebounding by Marcus Ginyard. Despite all of Billy Packer’s second-guessing, Roy Williams stuck with his gameplan and his team took advantage of a series of careless turnovers, bad shots and failed box outs by the Trojans to get back into the game. I’m not sure that I remember seeing a team look so good and so bad in the same game. (I’m talking about USC, but the statement could also apply to North Carolina.) Apparently, USC head coach Tim Floyd agrees with me, based on his own meltdown at the end of the game. He tossed some tickets onto the court, which drew a technical with under a minute to play. Packer berated him for the outburst, but the game was basically over.
Meanwhile, the Ducks dominated UNLV for most of the game, getting out to a 58-40 lead, but the Runnin’ Rebels rallied to a 76-72 loss.
For all the parity in college basketball, the Elite Eight are made up of four #1 seeds (Florida, Kansas, UNC, Ohio St.), three #2 seeds (Georgetown, Memphis, UCLA) and a #3 seed (Oregon). The SEC, the Big Ten, the Big Twelve, the ACC, the Big East and Conference USA all have one team remaining, while the Pac-10 has two teams.
Saturday and Sunday feature some great matchups. Expect all eight teams to lay it on the line with a trip to the Final Four hanging in the balance.
