Quick Sweet 16 Thoughts

A few random thoughts following the Sweet 16...

-I'm sure that this isn't the first time that someone is complaining about James Brown's broadcasting performance in this tournament. James is great as a football pregame host, but play by play isn't really his thing. CBS should know that now is not the time to host an impromptu version of "Dream Job".

-A much better batch of games this time around than compared to the first two rounds. 6 of the 8 games decided by 5 points or less; the Pitt-UCLA game was close for the majority of the game, and even UNLV-Oregon managed to be at least interesting throughout.

-Florida isn't the Florida of last year. They've been too talented not to win the first few games in this tournament, against Jackson State, a hard-working Purdue team, and talented, but not physically imposing, Butler. The guards aren't giving any energy, and Joakim Noah is quickly becoming a candidate for Dancing With The Stars. The only reason Florida even survived Butler was because of the continued dominance of Al Horford, who simply physically embarassed the Bulldogs. Luckily enough for them, Oregon has the same weak inside that Horford and Chris Richard will exploit.

- When will Southern Illinois start to get the same type of credit that Gonzaga gets for being an excellent mid-major team every year? This year marks the sixth in a row that SIU will be dancing, as well as their second sweet 16 appearance since 2001. The Salukis were just one win away from bursting onto the national scene, much like the Zags did in 1999, and actually managed to stay with one of the most dominant teams in college basketball this year in Kansas.

-Tim Floyd's technical foul with about a minute left ruined any chance USC had of coming back. If you didn't get to see this (another flaw of tournament broadcasting-please add another channel of coverage next year, CBS), Floyd threw some small pieces of paper onto the court, in protest of a foul called on Taj Gibson. The result? 4 free throws resulting in a ten point lead for UNC. This was extremely unfair to his team, who actually had a chance to come back.

-Tennessee had the perfect game plan to shut down Ohio State, and in the first half it worked. Greg Oden was on the bench all game with foul trouble, which forced the Bucks to play a more up tempo game. What Tennessee forgot was that OSU was a two seed in the tourney last year without Oden, and Ron Lewis and Jamar Butler were used to running anyways. Add in Mike Conley and David Lighty, amongst others, and you get a team that is probably better suited to a faster-paced game. That's how Ohio State managed to come back, in spite of a great shooting day by Chris Lofton and Co. (51.6% from 3, to be exact)

Two more excellent matchups today in Ohio State V. Memphis and UCLA-Kansas. More analysis and predictions to come.