The Sweet 16 Day One Preview And Best Bets

A lot of people are calling this “chalk madness” and the “death of the Cinderella,” but I think this tournament has ROCKED, and the best is yet to come. Here’s my Sweet 16 preview.

Texas, despite being full of talent, has been inconsistent for pretty much the majority of the regular season and found themselves in the First Four play-in in Dayton. They’ve now finally put three good games together in a row, but now find themselves running into one of, if not the hottest, teams in the country: the Boilermakers, who finally got a good game out of Fletcher Loyer to squeak past the Hurricanes in the Round of 32.

Braden Smith, however, was underwhelming, and I’m expecting a much better effort from him in this one. If he and Loyer are both going at the same time, Purdue will be tough to stop. I’ll take Purdue by double digits in this one.

Iowa pulled off the biggest upset of the tourney by beating No. 1 seed and defending champion Florida. Iowa finds itself in the Sweet 16 with its best player, Bennett Stirtz, not shooting the ball that well at all.

Nebraska, on the other hand, absolutely dominated Troy and won a rock fight against Vanderbilt in OKC, in an environment that felt like a home game for Nebraska, where Vandy guard Tyler Tanner just missed a half-court game-winner that was in the hoop before it was out.

To me, Nebraska is a team of destiny, and their road doesn’t end here. Give me Nebraska over the Hawkeyes.

Darius Acuff is must-see TV, no doubt one of the most fun guys to watch ball in this tourney, and the Razorbacks are RED HOT. But they’ve played Hawaii and High Point, and to say this is a step up in competition is the understatement of the century.

I’m sure Acuff will be great offensively and get his 30 points, but he isn’t exactly known for his defense and got lit up by High Point PG Rob Martin, which leaves me no reason not to believe Big 12 Player of the Year Jaden Bradley should have his way as well. Arkansas will need 100 points to win this one.

This is the game of the day between two really solid teams that could both win the national championship this year. You could argue that neither team has really been tested in this tournament so far. Both first-round matchups were blowouts, and both second-round matchups were against underwhelming lower seeds, VCU and Texas A&M.

I have been telling myself all year that this Houston team could be better than the Houston team last year that finished national runner-up. Illinois, on the other hand, is full of talent, but I can’t back Brad Underwood in a big game.

Give me Houston.