North Carolina State 66 - Georgetown 63
Georgetown coach John Thompson III doesn't read his Bill Simmons. Simmons has popularized the Ewing theory years ago. Basically, it defines a situation where a star player who's teams never win anything gets hurt, everyone assumes the team will crumble in his absence, and instead the team thrives. It's named for Patrick Ewing, especially the Knicks' run to the NBA Finals in 1999 while Ewing was sidelined with an injury.
What does this have to do with Georgetown? Well, for one, Ewing went there, and for two, Georgetown has a dead ringer for a young Ewing in Henry Sims on their current roster. Sims struggled all game long for Georgetown, with foul trouble a big factor. Coach Thompson clearly should have sent Sims out of the arena when the tide started turning against his team, as the Ewing theory would have had to take notice and ensure Georgetown's advancement to the Sweet 16. Instead, Thompson didn't learn from history, and Georgetown sputtered throughout the second half, allowing NC State to aggressively take that berth from them.
Michigan State 65 - Saint Louis 61
St. Louis did a tremendous job flustering Michigan State all game long. Slowing down the tempo, drawing fouls effectively, and St. Louis even held their own in the rebounding battle, a battle MSU usually dominates. St. Louis had effective height, MSU simply was too talented. St. Louis launched many runs, getting within one possession numerous times, but they couldn't quite scale the mountain. I feel a little less secure about my chosen winner, but I can talk myself into MSU winning ugly when they didn't have their best game. Yeah, that's all it was.
North Carolina 87 - Creighton 73
Florida 84 - Norfolk State 50
These games weren't any kind of interesting. UNC was too athletic for Creighton and Florida rediscovered their 3-point shooting after hitting just 4/23 such shots in their first game. I'd say more, but OH MY GOD THE SEAHAWKS SIGNED MATT FLYNN!!! We have a real quarterback on the roster now!!!
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