World Of Sports Info

This has been a wild year, but the 2009 NCAA Basketball Tournament is down to the Elite 8.  With all the upsets we had throughout the year, and in the first round of this tournament, I thought we might have a couple of the lower seeded teams still playing, but of the remaining teams there is no one that is lower than a No. 3 seed.  All four of the No. 1 seeds with two No. 2 seeds and 2 No. 3 seeds have survived three rounds of the tournament to make it into the round of the  Elite 8.

Louisville 103 - Arizona 64

After a hard fought 2nd round game against Siena, Louisville finally showed up and played the kind of game everyone knew they could defeating Arizona by 39 points.

Michigan State 67 - Kansas 62

At one point in the game Kansas held a 13 point lead, but turnovers at the wrong time helped Michigan State come back to win the game by 5 points.

Connecticut 72 - Purdue 60

Connecticut and Purdue had a good game with Connecticut pulling away to a 12 point victory.  Connecticut has been playing as well as any team in the tournament.

Missouri 102 - Memphis 91

For me, this was the surprise game of the round of Sweet 16.  I thought if Missouri played well they would have a chance to win the game, but I never thought they would be able to dominate the game the way they did.  Before Memphis mounted a valiant comeback, Missouri held a 24 point lead at 64-40 with 16 minutes left in the game.  Memphis was able to cut that lead to 6 points at 89-83 and again at 96-90, but Missouri was able to hit their free throws late in the game to hold on to an 11 point victory.

Pittsburg 60 - Xavier 55

Although Pittsburg is the No. 1 seed in the East Regional, they haven’t played like they deserved it, struggling in each of their first three games.  If they don’t play better in their next game, you will see Villanova in the Final Four, because they are playing some really good basketball right now.

Villanova 77 - Duke 54

This is another game that was a surprise to me.  I knew Villanova was a good team, but I was surprised at how they dominated the game.  It looked like they had Duke on their heels the whole game.

North Carolina 98 - Gonzaga 77

North Carolina is definitely playing like a No. 1 seed, but they will have their hands full with Oklahoma.

Oklahoma 84 - Syracuse 71

Blake Griffin led Oklahoma with 30 points in an impressive win against a Syracuse team that has played some great basketball in the last month.  I think if they hadn’t needed 6 overtimes against Connecticut in their conference tournament, they would have probably beaten Louisville in their conference championship game.

The schedule for the games in the Elite 8 are as follows:

Connecticut vs Missouri - Saturday, 3/28/09 at 4:40 PM ET

Pittsburg vs Villanova - Saturday, 3/28/09 at 7:05 PM ET

Louisville vs Michigan State - Sunday, 3/29/09 at 2:20 PM ET

North Carolina vs Oklahoma - Sunday, 3/29/09 at 5:05 PM ET

We’re winding down to what appears to be a great finish to a great basketball season.  I look for the remaining games to be hard fought and very exciting.