UConn, Michigan State, North Carolina, Vilanova Advance to Final Four

The first two rounds of the 2009 NCAA Tournament are over. The 65-team NCAA Tournament field has been whittled down to four remaining contestants. Connecticut, Michigan State, North Carolina and Villanova have survived and advanced, and, thus, constitute the field for the 2009 Final Four.

On Saturday, April 4, Connecticut will play Michigan State and North Carolina will play Villanova in Detroit's Ford Field.

As 1-seeds, North Carolina and Connecticut were expected to reach the Final Four. Michigan State and Villanova, while both seeded highly (2 and 3-seeds, respectively) upset 1-seeds in the Elite Eight in order to advance to the Final Four.

Michigan State's presence in the Final Four is particularly noteworthy. As members of the much-maligned Big Ten conference, most college basketball "experts" expressed the opinion that the Spartans did not have what it takes to reach the Final Four. Most experts expected Louisville to defeat MSU handily in the Elite Eight, and thus, become the third 2009 Final Four participant from the Big East conference. In fact, it was widely believed that Louisville would run Michigan State off the floor.

But Tom Izzo and the Spartans had different ideas. Izzo's superior game plan put his team in position to take advantage of its strengths (superior guard play, strong play in the paint), and neutralize Louisville's strengths (full court pressure defense, athleticism, three point shooting, switching zone defenses, depth). Most analysts expected Michigan State to wilt under Louisville's famed full court pressure. But the backcourt duo of Kalin Lucas and Travis Walton (along with occasional help from big man Goran Suton) broke the Cardinals' pressure with ease. And the Spartans' torrid three point shooting relegated the zone defense ineffective.

Also of note, since his promotion to the position of men's head basketball coach prior the 1995/96 season, Tom Izzo has taken Michigan State to five Final Fours. Even more impressively, since becoming head coach, every one of Tom Izzo's who has completed his four years of eligibility has participated in a Final Four.

Although he's regularly overlooked by the Big East & Atlantic Coast Conference-obsessed national sports media, Tom Izzo is clearly one of the top coaches in college basketball. What's more, he's widely regarded as one of the true good guys in a notoriously shady sport (college basketball) that is filled with smooth-talking, but often unscrupulous coaches.

Drive and Dish expects Connecticut to beat North Carolina to win the 2009 National Championship (as we've said all year), but we tip our hats to Tom Izzo and Michigan State. We thought MSU would probably make it to the Elite Eight, but fall short of making the Final Four (even though we picked Kansas in our final official bracket). But we're thrilled to see Izzo and the ever-tough Spartans back in the familiar territory of the Final Four.

Davidson Whips Wisconsin, Elite 8 Field Set

Last night, Davidson punched its ticket to the Elite 8 by embarrassing Wisconsin 73-56 in Detroit's Ford Field. Wisconsin had been the 3 seed in the Midwest Regional. Davidson (undergraduate enrollment 1,600) is the 10 seed.

Davidson's amazing Tournament run has been led by guard Stephen Curry. As Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel writes:

"Curry, whose star has risen so high in the span of eight days that LeBron James came just to see him play (mouthing a visible "Wow" on an acrobatic reverse layup by Curry late in the game), put on another dazzling shooting display, hitting 6-of-11 three-pointers, but his most important stat may have been this one: Four steals."

And Davidson isn't the only team that advanced to the Elite 8 by blowing out thier opponent. All of Friday's Sweet Sixteen games were blowouts.

Texas blew out Stanford 82-62 in Houston, Kansas ripped Villanova 72-57 in Detroit, and Memphis humiliated Michigan State 92-74 in Houston.

On Easter Sunday, Villanova Rises to Sweet 16

It's Easter Sunday, it's still March, the weather is bad in many parts of the country and there were NCAA Tournament games being played today (hey, what else is there to do but watch basketball on the most holy day for the world's largest religion?).

One of today's participants was Villanova.

Just one week removed from nearly having been left out of the NCAA Tournament, Villanova has had a remarkable rebirth: on Friday, the Wildcats upset heavily favored Clemson, and today they beat Siena 84-72, en route to a berth in next week's Sweet Sixteen.

Fittingly, the culmination of Villanova's remarkable rise from near Tournament bubble casualty to Sweet 16 participant came on Easter Sunday, the day on which most Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus (yeah, I realize that it's a ridiculously over dramatic analogy, but c'mon!, every story's got to have an "angle," and besides, I've seen ESPN be even more preposterously over dramatic many times).

If that analogy is too over the top, then maybe it would be better to compare Villanova's recent rebirth to the life of the patron of the Augustinian order, St. Augustine (Villanova is an Augustinian university). St. Augustine led a hedonistic life as a pagan intellectual before converting to Christianity later in life. He famously once prayed, " (Lord), grant me chastity and continence, but not yet" (da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo).

After St. Augustine's conversion, he went on to become the Bishop of Hippo and, essentially, the intellectual and philosophical father of the Roman Catholic Church. He rescued the church following the fall of the Roman Empire and his writings/philosophy were instrumental in laying the foundation for the medieval period of Western Society.

O.K., maybe that analogy is a little over the top too. I'll grant you: Jay Wright's Villanova Wildcats probably aren't going to influence any religious currents, and they probably won't do anything to change the world. Nevertheless, their run in the NCAA Tournament is a heck of a story.

Villanova barely made it into the Tournament, but now they're headed to the Sweet 16 for the third time in the last four years. They'll take on Kansas in the regional semifinal Friday night in Detroit.

Villanova is led by high scoring combo guard, Scottie Reynolds.

Reynolds was the catalyst in today's win.

As the Philadelphia Inquirer notes:

"Scottie Reynolds sparked the Wildcats with 15 points in the first 10 minutes and played one of his finest all-around games of the season. He finished with 25 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two turnovers in 37 minutes."

While it's unlikely that Villanova can get by Kansas, the Wildcats have been one of the pleasant surprises of this year's NCAA Tournament. And, they've been one of the only teams from the much hyped Big East to advance past the second round of the Tournament (Louisville and West Virginia are the others).

What's more, with most of it's key players being underclassmen who are set to return next year, Villanova should develop into one of the the best teams in college basketball next year.

Syracuse's Bubble Burst

By Trashtalk Superstar

Syracuse, which for the third straight year is squarely on the NCAA Tournament "bubble," got embarrassed by Villanova 82-63 in the Big East Tournament yesterday. It has practically become an annual early March right of passage for the national sports media to devote seemingly unlimited airtime and print space to obsessing over the merits of "the 'Cuse's" Tournament prospects. That's, no doubt, because so many of the people who work in the national sports media -- particularly on the East Coast (and especially at ESPN) -- are Syracuse alumni who bleed Syracuse Orange.

But, whether they realize it or not, the folks in the national media who eat, sleep and breathe Syracuse basketball are little more than Syracuse homers/cheerleaders. And when they whined ad nauseam because "the 'Cuse" was left out of the Tournament field last year (despite the fact that Syracuse's case for being invited to the Tournament was thinner than the Olsen twins), they served as nothing more than Syracuse apologists.

Expect more of the same this year when the Tournament Selection Committee leaves "the 'Cuse" out of the Tournament ... again.

And expect Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim to make the rounds on all the national sports shows in order to whine about being left out of the Tournament ... again.

By the way, to further exemplify my point about the national media's (especially ESPN's) Syracuse-centric disposition, consider the fact that the above linked article about Syracuse's plummeting Tournament prospects was the top story on ESPN.com early this morning.