Despite Lack of Lower Seeds, March Madness is Ready To Heat Up

Crank up the Victrola the dance is about to start again.

After a long week of wishing it was Thursday, the day has finally arrived and the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament is ready to resume. And tonight's games should provide a good wake up call that March Madness is back in full swing.

Even though Purdue as a five seed is the lowest seeded team left in tonight's field, the games are shaping up to just as exciting as the first round competition was.

The night starts off with both No. 1s in action. UConn will face Purdue in the opener and the Huskies will have more to contend with than the Boilermakers. Yesterday a string of stories emerged about possible recruiting violations in the Huskie program. Add that to all the recent happenings in coach Calhoun's life (questions about his salary and dehydration) and you wonder how much the Huskie players can handle. Add to it a Purdue team that seems to be hot right now coming off a Big Ten tournament title and this maybe the game UConn cracks. My pick is that off the court troubles will be too much for UConn and Purdue pulls the upset in a nail biter.

The second game in the early session also features a No. 1 seed as Pitt will take on Xavier. The East was tabbed as the toughest bracket by most and so far the top seeds have weathered the storm. Of the No. 1s I think most people believe Pitt is the weakest and will be the first to fall. But this team is battled tested in the Big East and with Blair in the middle they will have little trouble dispatching an over-matched Xavier team. Pitt in a cake walk.

While the early games will bring mixed results, the second half of the card tonight has two games that could be the best of the tournament. In the first tip off is scheduled to be Missouri and Memphis. Look for this game to be a score fest. Both of the squads can fill up the basket and Missouri loves to run and gun. In the first couple of rounds, teams have looked to take the air out of the ball and that has kept the Missouri point totals low but Memphis won't be afraid to run. I am already hoping this game goes into a couple of overtimes and both teams are in the 120s, it has that potential. But someone has to come out the winner and I think in this battle of Tigers, that Missouri will come out on top.

The capper will have Villanova facing Duke in a 3-2 matchup that should be just as good as the Missouri/Memphis game if not as high scoring. Villanova is probably the hottest team in the tournament right now and really have seem to hit their stride. Of course they were playing at home with a generous schedule for the first two rounds. The sexy pick here is to go with the Wildcats but Coach K has had four days to prepare for Nova and I think Duke squeaks out a close win.