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UCF rallied from a 13-point halftime deficit last time out to beat the Redbirds as B.J. Taylor sunk a pair of free throws with one second remaining. It was a dramatic win to keep the Knights’ season alive and paid off well for those who backed them on the moneyline.Illinois used a big second half to rout Boise State in its second round affair. The Fighting Illini have to play this game on the road because of a scheduling conflict but have the stronger body of work so they may be favored in this matchup.... 

It’s rare to get a rematch of an early season game in the Sweet 16, but college basketball fans will be treated to just that. And if this game is anything like the earlier meeting, it will have all fans on the edge of their seats. The UCLA Bruins travelled to Lexington back in December and upended the then-No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats in a game that foresaw UCLA’s future. The Bruins were efficient on offense producing 97 points in the win.... 

The North Carolina Tar Heels were one of the favorites to win the national title before the Tournament began and with half of the top six contenders gone in the first weekend, have their chances improved? Fans in Chapel Hill would like to think so, but they got just as much satisfaction over their hated rival Duke being ousted in the second round. None of those expelled contenders played in the South, which is the only region to have its top four seeds advance, and the Tar Heels still have to get by the Butler Bulldogs.... 

They needed a win against the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament to keep an impressive streak alive and the Wisconsin Badgers got it. Their upset of Villanova gave the Badgers their fourth straight Sweet 16 trip, something no other team has done. The Badgers would like to change the end result, however. They lost in the Final Four the first two years and were bounced in this round last season. The streak doesn’t faze the Florida Gators, who are in after embarrassing Virginia in the second round.... 

The South Carolina Gamecocks pulled off a big upset in the second round knocking off Duke, the favorite of many to get to Glendale. But was it really that big of an upset? South Carolina was one of the better teams in the SEC for most of the season until a late swoon knocked them down a few pegs and completely out of the national rankings. Maybe the Gamecocks just needed a bigger stage. If that’s the case, they are now on the biggest as they make their first Sweet 16 appearance and face the Baylor Bears.... 

Talk about your chalk bracket! Arkansas and Wichita State tried their damndest to shake the South Region up, but in the end, couldn’t administer the knockout punch to either North Carolina or Kentucky that would have blown just about everybody’s bracket up. So, we’re left with the top four seeds advancing which makes the Sweet 16 matchups in the region all the more enticing. UNC is the odds on favorite to go to the desert, but if it fails to close a game out like it did versus the Hogs, the Heels likely won’t be given a second chance this time around.... 

No Villanova. No Duke. So how’s your East Region bracket looking? If it’s anything like mine, there’s red slashes all over it, and honestly, you’re only a die-hard fan of the four teams that actually made it to the Sweet 16 out of this region if it remains intact. It’s nothing more than a coin flip now with the Florida Gators, Wisconsin Badgers, Baylor Bears and South Carolina Gamecocks each having as good a shot as any to advance to the Final Four. The odds to win the region reflect just that with only the Cocks offering up more than a 3-1 return. Whatever you do, don’t tell that to Frank Martin!... 

A surprising entrant made it to the Sweet 16 in the Midwest Region, but if you’ve been following the Michigan Wolverines the last couple weeks, many would say it was expected. Regardless, the No. 7 seed sits only behind the top seeded Kansas Jayhawks to reach the Final Four making this region one of the toughest to get a handle on with Oregon and Purdue each having just as good a shot as any to advance.... 

If you pegged the Xavier Musketeers to make a deep run in the 2017 NCAA Tournament, you’re likely in the money in all bracket contests entered and up some green after backing them as underdogs through the first two rounds. They enter the Sweet 16 with the longest odds of any team to win it all at +7000, and find themselves decided underdogs once again versus the No. 2 seed Arizona Wildcats for Thursday night’s tilt in Cali.... 

Two of college basketball’s blue bloods will meet up with a trip to the Elite Eight on the line when the Kentucky Wildcats square off with the UCLA Bruins late Friday night. Kentucky has been on fire lately, having won the SEC in the regular season, the SEC Conference Tournament, and getting to the Sweet 16, while UCLA has been on a slight downward trajectory after starting the season red hot as a covering machine.... 

At this point, the North Carolina Tar Heels are probably the presumptive favorites to win it all. The team that finished runner-up to Villanova last year brought back most of its rotation this season and played solid basketball throughout the season. The one hiccup was their inability to beat Duke, but now that the Blue Devils have been eliminated, that threat has vanished. It’s on Roy Williams and his boys to take care of business the rest of the way if they wish to avenge last year’s defeat and that path continues when they take on the Butler Bulldogs.... 

Last week I stated that the West Region looked to be the easiest for the top seeds to advance in. That train of thought proved to be correct with the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 seeds all punching their tickets to the Sweet 16. Only Florida State failed to hold up its end of the bargain with No. 11 Xavier taking its place in the region’s Final Four. Let’s break the remaining bracket down and see if we can’t come up with some viable options to win it on the futures odds.... 

The 2017 NCAA Tournament is yet to have a game decided at the buzzer. The first round action was a snore, but things really started to heat up over the weekend when top seeds Villanova, Duke, and Louisville went down in defeat. North Carolina and Gonzaga got their wake up calls, while Kansas cruised past Michigan State and enters the second week of the tournament the odds on favorite to win it all. With the field now whittled down to 16, let’s go hunting for value on the national championship futures odds.... 

After rising to the first No. 1 ranking in school history, the Baylor Bears would have been disappointed if they didn’t make it to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Baylor started the season strong, sitting with a 20-1 record at one point, but things came apart after that with the team finishing up 5-6 down the stretch prior to the start of the Big Dance. Now they are likely the favorites to win an East bracket that has been decimated with the losses of Villanova and Duke, but need to beat the South Carolina Gamecocks if they want to realize Final Four aspirations.... 

Although all of the No. 1 seeds were tested in their showdowns to see who would get to the Sweet 16, only the Wisconsin Badgers could finish the job and actually send a No. 1 crashing out of the tournament. Wisconsin used a staunch defensive effort to stall the game against Villanova and limit the Wildcats’ possessions on its way to a 65-62 win on Saturday. The Badgers can’t celebrate the win for too long though as they have to knock off the Florida Gators for their dance to continue.... 

The Gonzaga Bulldogs hardly played the part of a No. 1 seed through their first two NCAA Tournament games failing to cover the closing pointspread against South Dakota State and Northwestern. Should they not be able to improve upon their overall play in the Sweet 16 back on the west coast, Huggy Bear’s West Virginia Mountaineers will be more than happy to send the Zags back home disappointed with their tails between their legs.... 

A pair of regular season champions that lost the first game in their respective conference tournaments will close the action out in the Midwest Region on Thursday night when the No. 4 Purdue Boilermakers and No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks meet up on the hardwood for the first time since 2012. Both squads are littered with top notch talent like Caleb Swanigan and Josh Jackson, so this region semifinal is certain to deliver!... 

The No. 7 Michigan Wolverines will look to keep their incredible march to a national championship intact on Thursday night when they cross paths with the No. 3 Oregon Ducks in the Sweet 16. Both of these teams battled back to win their round of 32 games in comeback fashion, and each of these teams loves to let loose from beyond the arc. With that the case, expect to see a ton of 3 balls raining down all game long.... 

History has not been kind to No. 11 seeds that advance to face a No. 2 seed in the Sweet 16, but the Xavier Musketeers are looking to change that. The lowest-seeded team remaining in the NCAA Tournament, Xavier sure didn’t look its seed in a second round thrashing of Florida State in perhaps the most dominant performance of the tournament. But that’s old news, and now it’s on to San Jose for a showdown with the No. 2 Arizona Wildcats.... 

Even the best teams in the NCAA Tournament need to catch a few breaks to become national champions. If the Gonzaga Bulldogs go on to win the title, we can look back on their second round victory over Northwestern as the game where they got a big break. Officials failed to call a goaltending on the Zags late in the second half in game where they let a 22-point lead dwindle to five. The Bulldogs had the lead and may have won the game, but they should feel grateful that they are playing West Virginia in the Sweet 16.... 

The Kansas Jayhawks may have been playing possum in the Big 12 Tournament. Their loss to TCU likely cost them the No. 1 overall seed and showed the little guys that Goliath could be tamed. I guess Kansas didn’t want the burden of the top overall team, and after watching what happened to Villanova, it isn’t surprising. But the Jayhawks are rolling after winning their first two NCAA Tournament games by a combined 58 points. Up next are the Purdue Boilermakers in the Sweet 16.... 

Running through the Big Ten Tournament after what they went through, the Michigan Wolverines were a great story entering the NCAA’s. After taking down No. 2 Louisville in the second round on Sunday, the Wolverines could now be considered a serious contender for the national title. The No. 3 seed Oregon Ducks avoided the upset with a second round comeback victory over spunky Rhode Island and now must deal with the darlings of the Tournament.... 

The Ole Miss Rebels knocked off the top seed in the NIT Tournament last time out and hopes to keep it rolling to a berth in the semifinals. After a victory over Syracuse, the No. 5 seeded Rebels will now face off against the No. 6 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the quarterfinals.... 

The TCU Horned Frogs came away with a thrilling upset of the top-seeded Iowa Hawkeyes last time out and are now a victory away from making it to the semifinals of the NIT. The fourth-seeded Horned Frogs will face off against the No. 6 seed Richmond Spiders to see who will emerge victorious out of their region.... 

The smoking hot No. 2 Duke Blue Devils continued upon their torrid path to a championship on Friday night by toying with the overmatched No. 15 Troy Trojans. Winners of six straight both straight up and against the spread, Coach K’s squad will be out to log their seventh in a row against the No. 7 South Carolina Gamecocks. Frank Martin’s squad has come up with some big wins this season, and could be in line for another one in this quasi-road tilt with the Dookies....