Movin' On to the Elite Eight [J. Mark English]

Three of my four teams that I picked to make it to the Final Four are still alive...but barely. Butler lost to Florida. Florida looks more and more like they will be the repeat champs. This Florida team though pales in comparison to the last team that won back to back championships...the '91 & '92 Duke squad would have schooled Florida.

Ohio State, the team I picked to win it all, are playing like they have nine lives. Greg Oden keeps getting into foul trouble. In their game against Xavier they were down by nine with just a few minutes to go, and came back to win in overtime. Against Tennessee, they were down by 20 points in the first half, and still came back to win despite Oden missing nearly half of the game.

Georgetown survived against Vanderbilt. Talk about a bookend season for Vandy. They start off the season with a loss to Georgetown, and then they finish the season with a loss to the Hoyas.

Georgetown makes it to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1996 (when A.I. was on the team). Georgetown vs. North Carolina should be a classic game.

As should most of the other games. Many times the games in the final eight round are the real classics. The Duke/Kentucky game in 1992 (with the Laettner buzzer beater) was an Elite Eight game. Remember last years George Mason/UConn game? That of course was in this same round.

You have to love the that all of the number one teams are alive. It will make for better basketball, and you know that the best talent available is on the court still.