Selection Sunday has come and gone, and now it's time to get down to business...
Here's our breakdown of the 2008 NCAA Tournament, region by region.
East Region:
The East bracket features the tournament's overall top seed -- the Carolina Tar Heels -- and the lowest -- a 20-loss Coppin State team. My prediction: Carolina is sorely tested by the outside shooting of Notre Dame in the round of sixteen... but I like the favorites to advance.
Midwest Region:
The Midwest features the tournament's most-hyped first round pairing, between super-freshmen Michael Beasley of Kansas State and O.J. Mayo of USC. What I don't expect it to feature is a number one seed that advances to the Final Four... Who can stop the Jayhawks?
South Region:
The Pittsburgh Panthers are on a tremendous roll, winning four games in four days to capture the Big East title. Can they keep up that momentum for six more games and win this thing? That's a tall order... and they'll need to get past Memphis and Texas in the South Region to do it.
West Region:
Lots of big names from big conferences in this bracket -- UCLA, Duke, Connecticut -- but high seeds from smaller conferences like the A-10's Xavier (3) and Missouri Valley champion Drake (5) are threatening to crash the party. Watch out for seventh-seeded West Virginia to make things interesting.
Final Four:
Here are my picks for the teams that will be left standing when the best of the best gather in San Antonio on April 5th -- and the squad that will win it all
Planting Seeds:
Which seeds tend to fare best in the NCAA Tournament? Here are the numbers, going back to 1979 -- the first year teams were "seeded."
Size Matters:
You'll hear a lot about mid-majors this week, but for the last 20 years, the big guys have dominated the Final Four.
