March Madness Mulligan: redoing picks for Sweet Sixteen
By Ryan Darcy
EAST REGION
Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
Who I Picked: 1-seed Virginia Cavaliers, 4-seed Michigan State Spartans, 3-seed Iowa State Cyclones, 7-seed Connecticut Huskies. The Cavs don’t get the respect they deserve and are playing with a chip on their shoulder, Sparty’s Tom Izzo is a genius in March, Fred Hoiberg has the Cyclones playing extremely well, and you can never count out Shabazz Napier.
Who Is Actually Left: The top half has the Cavaliers facing off with the Spartans. Tony Bennett‘s squad has overachieved all season despite a weaker ACC schedule. In the second round, they eventually put away a pesky 16-seed Coastal Carolina squad but in the third round had no trouble disposing of billion dollar dashing 8-seed Memphis, 78-60. Sparty crushed 13-seed Delaware in the second round before staving off a furious 12-seed Harvard to reach their 12th Sweet Sixteen in the last 17 years. It’s hard to bet against Tom Izzo in March.
The bottom half has Hoiberg’s Cyclones taking on the Huskies. Iowa State used their momentum from a run to the Big 12 title into the tourney and has looked as good as anyone offensively, averaging 89 points per game through their first two. A season-ending foot injury to star forward Georges Niang hurts but even without him they still have two extremely talented players in guard DeAndre Kane and Big 12 Player of the Year Melvin Ejim. UConn has some talent of their own as Napier is trying to pull off his best Kemba Walker impersonation as the Huskies vie for a fourth national title. In its wake they’ve left two Philadelphia schools, St. Joseph’s and Villanova.
Who I picked to reach Elite Eight: Michigan State, Iowa State
Mulligan pick to reach Elite Eight: Michigan State, Iowa State