Yes, it’s March Madness and all but when you look at how crazy and wild the regular season was, the big dance has been pretty calm for the most part.
Sure, Michigan State fell to Middle Tennessee, but beyond that, there hasn’t been any ground shaking upsets.
No too many people had Syracuse and Notre Dame in the Elite 8, however, these are two well respected programs with great coaches.
Speaking of respected programs, North Carolina and Virginia both took care of business tonight, which means all four number one seeds are just one win away from making it to Houston for the final four next week.
With that being said, which top seed is most likely to lose in the Elite 8?
North Carolina and Virginia have the easiest matchups for a couple of reasons.
The Heels will be playing a Notre Dame team they just beat by 31 points a couple weeks ago. Now, UNC did lose to the Fighting Irish earlier in the season 80-76, but considering the familiarity Roy’s boys will have against the Irish and the clear size advantage, don’t expect for them to have much problem.
How about Virginia?
Just like UNC, they’ll be playing a familiar foe in Syracuse, who had one of the easiest paths to the Elite 8 in recent memory. Yes, you can only play who’s in front of you but for them to be a 10 seed, you couldn’t have asked for a better draw. Dayton, Middle Tennessee and Gonzaga?
When these two met in ACC play, Virginia won 73-65.
The Kansas Jayhawks haven’t lost a game since January and don’t expect for that to change today against Villanova. Jay Wright’s ball club is a very good well rounded team, but they haven’t quite faced a juggernaut like Kansas thus far. The difference here will be the Jayhawks depth and overall balance.
Although the Oregon Ducks have proved to be worthy of their number one seed, as I wrote about last night, they’re still the most likely one seed to fall this weekend.
Oregon is set face Buddy Hield and Oklahoma.
Anytime you have to face a player capable of filling the scoreboard like Hield, it can be very stressful. While I believe Oregon could very well win this game, in that same breathe I wouldn’t be surprised to see them go down because both teams love to run up and down the floor.
Whichever teams makes more outside jumpers and gets the vital stops down the stretch will be marching on to H-town.