This weekend the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Tournament finally whittled the field down from the initial 68 teams to the Final Four. The four games from Saturday and Sunday varied widely in their results, with #1 seed North Carolina pulling away from their fellow ACC opponent (at least in basketball) Notre Dame and #10 seed Syracuse coming back late in their game from way behind to defeat Virginia, also seeded #1 in their respective region. Some in the sports media had criticized the NCAA tournament selection committee for snubbing other schools in favor of including Syracuse, but it turns out that the Orangemen were a good pick in spite of their relatively mediocre regular season. In the other regional finals, it was #2 beating #1 in both games: Oklahoma over Oregon and Villanova over Kansas. So the setup for the Final Four, the semifinals for which will be on Saturday, April 2 and broadcast on TBS, pairs Oklahoma against Villanova (6 pm start) and North Carolina against Syracuse (40 minutes after the conclusion of the first game). Game site for the Final Four, which will conclude the following Monday with the championship game, is Houston, Texas...
As for the teams I'm rooting for (or against), here is the order of my preference:
1 North Carolina
2 Villanova
3 Syracuse
4 Oklahoma
I traditionally support the Tarheels, so it's been a treat to see them advance this far...and by all accounts, with Kansas and Virginia eliminated, they should be the strong favorite to win it all...