March Madness Mulligan: redoing picks for Sweet Sixteen
By Ryan Darcy
MIDWEST REGION
David Manning-USA TODAY Sports
Who I Picked: 1-seed Wichita State Shockers, 4-seed Louisville Cardinals, 3-seed Duke Blue Devils, 7-seed Texas Longhorns. The Shockers are physical and play angry not to mention they were undefeated, it’s tough to count out a defending national champ, especially when you factor in Russ Smith, Parker was good enough to carry the Blue Devils, and I’m still trying to figure out why I picked the Longhorns.
Who Is Actually Left: The top half will be the Battle of the Bluegrass as the Cardinals take on the 8-seed Kentucky Wildcats in a game everyone in the state of Kentucky was hoping for. The Cards got by a gutty performance by 13-seed Manhattan, 71-64, before throttling the 5-seed Saint Louis Billikens in the third round, 66-51. Their offense has shown weakness but their defensive energy is second to none. The Cats took care of 9-seed Kansas State behind Julius Randle‘s 19-point, 15-rebound performance in the second round before ending the Shockers’ dreams of an undefeated season with a 78-76 thriller.
The bottom half will feature the upstart 11-seed Tennessee Volunteers and 2-seed Michigan Wolverines. The Vols are 3-0 already in the tournament and have won by an average of 17.3 points per game. In a First Four game, they beat Iowa to earn a trip to the round of 64, where they beat 6-seed UMass 86-67. In the third round they took down everyone’s favorite Cinderella, the 14-seed Mercer Bears, who were coming off a win over Duke. The Wolverines trudged through a 57-40 win over 15-seed Wofford before hitting their stride offensively, draining 14 three-pointers in a 79-65 win over the Longhorns.
Who I picked to reach Elite Eight: Louisville, Duke
Mulligan pick to reach Elite Eight: Louisville, Tennessee