Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski comforts senior Chris Carrawell in the closing seconds of Duke's 87-78 loss to Florida.
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Player to watch
Brett Nelson, Florida. A gunner for much of the season, Nelson's toned his shot selection down and saw his production go up. His 15 points against Duke led a devastating bench attack, one game after he scored 16 points in 19 minutes against Illinois.
Random thought
Is America prepared for an All-Midwest Final Four: Oklahoma State, Tulsa, Wisconsin and Iowa State?
Stock Rising
Ed Cota. Knocked for his inability to take over a game when it mattered, Cota silenced some critics with his late-game heroics against Tennessee.
Bracket buster
The highest possible seeds to make it to the Final Four are a No. 1 (Michigan State), No. 3 (Oklahoma State), No. 6 (Purdue) and a No. 7 (Tulsa). The last time only one No. 1 seed made it to the Elite Eight was 1980.
User Message of the Day
This is more to the people at ESPN and Sports Illustrated than anyone else. To all those people who said that the selection committee was biased over Virginia and Notre Dame and all the other teams that did not make the NCAA tourney that were "more deserving", I have only this to say: UNC has beaten Missouri...Stanford and Tennessee. ... So this goes out to all the naysayers...where are all the other ACC teams now?
-- oreskovic
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Daily Word: Selfless play rules the day in Sweet 16
Unselfish, ego-free play ruled Friday's Sweet 16 -- and if the trend continues, next week's Final Four will include fewer traditional powers than the NCAA Tournament has seen this decade.
Tulsa, Florida, Oklahoma State, Wisconsin and Purdue are five of the eight teams that will be playing for the right to go to the Final Four.
Florida was the only team in this fivesome that received plenty of preseason publicity, but the Gators still lack a demonstrative player to shoulder the burden. Once thought of as a potential weakness, Florida has turned this quality into a strength.
Tulsa, Florida and Oklahoma State epitomized the team concept -- none of the three rely on a superstar to carry the load. Tulsa might not have a player you'd even identify as a star.
For more of Andy Katz's Daily Word, click here.
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QUESTION OF THE DAY
Which program helped itself the most by making the Elite Eight? |
ESPN.com's Andy Katz
Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane have a bad television contract, are in an underexposed
and underappreciated league and have players who don't get their due.
Tulsa's appearance in the Elite Eight should lock in some marquee
non-conference games (like Gonzaga did after its run last season) as well as give the
Hurricane a chance to keep coach Bill Self. Signing players may become easier for
Tulsa, and getting deep in the tournament never hurts when it's time to get a
bid in the future (see Gonzaga again). Tulsa's appearance means players who
deserve some attention will finally get the necessary ink nationally.
ESPN.com's Greg Collins
North Carolina. For a program so long on tradition, the folks down Tobacco Road sure turned on Bill Guthridge and Ed Cota quickly. Now who's getting the last laugh? Certainly not Duke, which was shown the door earlier than expected. North Carolina isn't so much living up to potential as it is growing together. This run will do wonders for the post-Cota Tar Heels, who will need a floor leader to step forward next year. An early exit would have meant the bulk of this team had never experienced tournament success. Now they have.
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TOURNAMENT CHALLENGE
The Madness is under way. This year's pool is larger than ever, with 590,000 brackets submitted. Click here to check your brackets. Some interesting tidbits:
Only 868 of over 590,000 brackets correctly picked Wisconsin and Purdue to meet in the West Region final.
On the other hand, 309,862 brackets slotted Michigan State to face Iowa State in the Midwest final.
Florida's defeat of Duke robbed 29.12 percent of all entries of their national champion pick.
Duke was projected to make the East Region final in 88.5 percent of all brackets, compared to 5.6 percent for Florida.
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ESPN BRACKETS
Bracket fever has hit ESPN! We have our own Tournament Challenge group, and you can check it out. First, you'll need to log on to the Challenge main page with your entry, and then check out the Featured Group Great Minds of Bristol U. to see our predictions for the NCAA Tournament. Duke alum Jay Bilas extended his lead by picking Florida over his alma mater, moving 50 points ahead of second-place Andy Katz. |
Cinderella Watch
Call Tulsa the anti-Gonzaga -- not for the Golden Hurricane's play on the court, but for their acceptance of the Cinderella label.
Last year, the Zags bristled under the attachment of the Cinderella name. This year, Tulsa doesn't care what you call it.
But don't look for us to try slipping the glass slipper on the Hurricane. Vastly underseeded as a No. 7 (this team lost four -- four! -- games all season), now Tulsa is making people take notice. The lunch-pail mentality and the lack of a star player works against Tulsa's hopes of getting national recognition, so instead Bill Self and his players are doing what they can to pull the spotlight onto them.
Namely, they're beating all comers. Soundly. With better athletes and a better system.
Any time a team outside the major conferences makes a run into the Elite Eight, it'll garner serious Cinderella attention. The WAC was supposed to be depleted this season, after losing eight programs to the newly formed Mountain West Conference. Instead, Tulsa is proving the only major thing the WAC is missing is major exposure.
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