March Madness 2009 Sweet 16 Preview
A Look Ahead at the Second Weekend of the NCAA Tournament 2009
Mar 25, 2009
Midwest Region
Kansas and Michigan State is one of the most highly-anticipated clashes of the weekend, Kansas progressed fairly comfortably against Dayton and North Dakota State while Michigan State stymied a red hot Southern California team in an exciting finish. Kansas is a highly skilled team with good all-round play but the #2 seed Michigan State could provide the first true test of this inexperienced Jayhawks squad, especially if the game is tight. Michigan State survived a tough test in the second round against and their continued excellent perimeter play possibly makes them the slight favourites in this one.
Arizona are quickly becoming the story of the tournament as the Wildcats only just qualified for March Madness but have now advanced to the Sweet 16 in confident fashion. Louisville on the other hand have looked far from confident and assured in their progress and with Wise, Budinger and Hill firing for Arizona, Louisville will very much need to pick up their play if they are to live up to pre-tournament expectations. A particular concern for Louisville must be their poor free throwing as they shot under 50% in the second round encounter against Siena, free throwing could yet be the undoing of the highly-fancied side, it would not be a huge surprise if the upset occurs against a tricky Arizona opposition.
West Region
Connecticut’s offense was impressive in the opening rounds particularly in their 92-66 destruction of Texas A & M, their Sweet 16 matchup looks set be an enthralling encounter against one of the tournament’s grittiest and top defensive sides in Purdue. Purdue has a reputation as a top defensive club but has already shown an ability to hit the big shots when they need to; something that was particularly evident when they defeated a powerful all-round team in the pac-10 champions Washington. People are already salivating over a possible Elite 8 matchup between Memphis and Connecticut but this tough Purdue team could easily usurp UConn’s place.
Memphis and Missouri could be one of the most exciting fast-paced games of the Sweet 16 round with both teams having high-octane offenses. They had very different second round experiences with Memphis blowing away Maryland 89-70, while Missouri battled past Marquette in an exciting contest. Missouri are a hard-working team that are unlikely to allow Memphis the sort of dominance they enjoyed Maryland but this is still arguably one of the easiest Sweet 16 matches to predict, Memphis has excellent size and basically everything that Missouri does well, Memphis does better, still it should be an entertaining match to watch.
East Region
Xavier finished the season poorly but has quickly made amends putting in two good performances, particularly in defeating a useful Wisconsin side. Pittsburgh did well to over-come a difficult Oklahoma State opposition but were still less than convincing and the competition will undoubtedly get stiffer and stiffer starting with a Xavier team that does everything well, particularly in the defensive end. In the end Pittsburgh’s superior talent particularly in the front court should be enough to see them through against a Xavier team that has yet to play against a tough seed however, the Panthers performance in this one will almost certainly be indicative as to how far they are capable of progressing in March Madness 2009.
Since finding themselves 41-31 down in the first half against American, Villanova has hardly put a foot wrong in this competition completely dismissing UCLA in the second round. Duke will be extremely pleased to have progressed past the first weekend for the first time since 2006 and did well to defeat a tough opposition in Texas. Duke has certainly made a good habit of simply finding ways to win basketball game, but in this case their lack of inside presence is likely to hurt them at both ends of the court against a good all-round Villanova team.
South Region
Many suggested that the South Region was the weakest quarter of this year’s bracket but if anything it has proven to be the opposite with the top four seeds all advancing with a degree of impressiveness. Gonzaga outlasted Western Kentucky to set up a Sweet 16 contest against one of the tournament’s big favourites in North Carolina. Gonzaga have shown the full range of their offensive ability in coming from behind against Akron and then in outshooting Western Kentucky, however North Carolina is a team of offensive stars and this is an extremely difficult matchup for Gonzaga whether or not Ty Lawson is at 100%.
Syracuse and Oklahoma were two teams that entered the competition with a lot of question marks hanging over their heads, both have more than answered those questions and now face one another in arguably the closest and most intriguing of the Sweet 16 matches. Far from looking fatigued Syracuse appear to have great momentum; meanwhile Blake Griffin’s return to form has lifted Oklahoma so far in this competition. Syracuse’s 2-3 defense and Blake Griffin will be the matchup that decides this contest and in this case the system might just edge it, either way it is an absolutely enticing prospect to watch.
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