FanNation - The Republic of Sport

   After tonight, I may have to rename the Petey Sessoms Award.

   The skinny kid from Davidson didn't save his best stuff for the second half tonight. His gunfire from outside kept the Wildcats even at halftime, and come the second half...

    It was as if Wisconsin expected this game to be over by halftime. Who could've expected them to get blown out after intermission? Sure, the Badgers have been a great power team all season, but they're not built to come from behind.

    The second half could best be compared to the sixth round of the first Ali-Liston fight. The Badgers played the role of Sonny Liston, stumbling around with a WTF gaze while blocking everything Davidson's Muhammad Ali threw with their faces. Thank you, Badgers, for blowing my Final Four.

    Given the loaded nonleague schedule Davidson played, the Cats certainly weren't going to be intimidated. But tonight, they looked even more dominant than George Mason did on its Final Four run two years ago.

    The upset lent some spice to an otherwise frustrating Friday which failed to produce a fantastic finish. When Texas fired up the jets in the sceond half, Stanford's failure to bring much else to the party on offense besides Brook Lopez was exposed. Villanova just looked tired and had no answer for Kansas' early spurt. And Memphis made sure its free throw shooting problems didn't matter in the best way possible: grabbing a 30-point halftime lead on a stunned Michigan State.

    What a horrible night for the Big 10. Its only solace can be found in Colorado Springs, where defending NCAA D-1 hockey champ Michigan State is up 3-0 on host Colorado College in the third period as I hunt and peck (oops, make that 3-1).

     Let's move on, then, to the Elite 8 picks:

     EAST: NORTH CAROLINA 95, LOUISVILLE 82. The Cardinals can run, have the requisite depth, and will scare the Tar Heels. But UNC needs something better than a glorified scrimmage before the Final Four.

     WEST: UCLA 73, XAVIER 59. For a top seed, the Bruins have looked pretty vulnerable. But I wonder what the Musketeers have left after last night's OT war with West Virginia.

     MIDWEST: KANSAS 83, DAVIDSON 73. I want so badly to pick the upset, and I think about that great George Mason-UConn clash two years ago. But the Jayhawks are too explosive, and had the advantage of putting it on cruise control the final 20 minutes tonight.

     SOUTH: TEXAS 79, MEMPHIS 77. Yes, the Tigers hit Sparty with shock and awe. But the combination of home cooking in Houston and the Memphis foul shooting blues hook up the Horns with the last Final Four spot.