What happens when the Sweet 16 is comprised entirely of storied powers? You get 16 teams all feeling the pressure to succeed. Ray Holloman takes an in-depth look at the expectations being heaped upon every team left in the Big Dance.
There is no room here for the little guy.
Were the Sweet 16 a country club, Tiger Woods might have to pull some strings to get a tee-time. Meanwhile Goliath might find himself picking splinters out of his warm-up-clad rear on any one of these rosters.
It's shaping up to to be one of the best Sweet 16s of all time with top-three seeds alive by the dozen. So who's heading back home in time for the weekend and whose moment will continue to be oh so shining? Find out as we rank the last 16 teams and explain why your favorite team is going to lose. We're 15/16 certain of it.
You'd have no idea by watching CBS' coverage of the Xavier-Ohio State game, but the ending of it was soaked in controversy. After a wild sequence of two Ohio State missed shots, Xavier pulls down a rebound with ten seconds left and a two point lead. Greg Oden is the nearest Buckeye to the ball and violently shoves the Xavier player out of bounds:
No intentional foul or flagrant foul was called. Xavier would miss one of two at the line, OSU would hit a game-tying three, and the rest is history. If the refs had decided a flying shoulderblock that sent a Xavier player into the photographers was a two-shot-and-the-ball foul we have a 9 over a 1. Instead we just have further evidence that the state of NCAA basketball refereeing leaves something to be desired. Like competence.
UPDATE: CBS just addressed this on their studio show; they did have a better angle that showed Oden could plausibly be construed as going for the ball. So it's a closer decision and the "competence" rip above was unwarranted. For livid OSU fans in the comments: yes, I'm a Michigan fan; no, I'm not rooting against OSU after last year's 3-6, Bill Simmons ripping on the league, the dual Rose/Fiesta fiascoes, and the torrent of negative publicity after the "open letter" Jim Delaney sent out. Win all you want; I just thought that was a really bad call. Still think so.
