Sweet 16: West Region Preview

This years West Region has been filled with upsets and almost upsets. The highest seed no longer alive is #2 Duke. The Blue Devils survived a one point win over 15 seed Belmont only to lose to West Virginia in the 2nd round. Even top seed UCLA had to stop (or foul) a driving Donald Sloan in the last seconds to move on to the round of 16. But Western Kentucky and San Diego pulled off the biggest upsets of the bracket as the 12 & 13 seed both advanced to face each other in the 2nd round. In a bracket full of upsets, UCLA could get down to the Final Four without facing any higher than a #7 seed. That must be nice.

#1 UCLA v. #12 Western Kentucky

While this may not be as big a marquee matchup as if UCLA were facing UCONN, but Western Kentucky certainly comes into this matchup having already provided some huge drama in their first round game against the Drake Bulldogs. Ty Rogers hit a 30 foot jumper as the clock expired to lift the Hilltoppers to a 1 point win over the higher seeded Bulldogs.
UCLA comes in with an obvious talent advantage, but W. Kentucky's Courtney Lee is a bonafide NBA draft pick and Tyrone Brazelton dropped 33 points against Drake. This guard combo might give UCLA some troubles on the perimeter. But in this game, UCLA's superior talent is going to win out in the end. Even though A&M brought them down to the wire, the Bruin's defense was still present as they held the Aggies to 49 points. UCLA has big time scorers in Kevin Love, Darren Collison and Russell Westbrook. With UCLA's strong defense it just doesn't seem as if the Hilltoppers are going to be able to score enough points to beat the Bruins. Add the fact that the game is being played to a "home" crowd in Phoenix, AZ and you have all the makings of a UCLA trip to the Elite 8.

Predicition: UCLA 78, Western Kentucky 68



#3 Xavier v. #7 West Virginia

The West Virginia Mountaineers were able to beat a Duke team that had little perimeter defense and struggled to shoot the ball from the outside. Quite honestly, most would not even call that win much of an upset, as many thought Duke came into the Tourney with a lot of weaknesses. Xavier on the other hand was able to hold of strong pushes by both Georgia and Purdue to advance to face the Mountaineers.
Xavier is a pretty balanced team as they get great perimeter play from Drew Lavender, Stanley Burrell and C.J. Anderson. Josh Duncan and Derrick Brown provide a strong inside presence. But the Musketeers make their living on the defensive end as they are one of the strongest and most athletic teams on the defensive end. They are led by Burrell who is one of the best all around defenders in the nation. They are going to need all of their defensive efforts as Joe Alexander and Alex Ruoff are big time scorers for the Mountaineers. Alexander has come out of almost no where this year to become a top scoring threat in the nation. But since Bob Huggins has taken over, there has been more focus on the defensive end to complement West Virginia's potent offensive threats. Look for Xavier to be just a little too athletic on the perimeter and too strong on the defensive end for West Virginia to handle. This will be a close game, but in the end the Musketeers will make the plays to get them into the Elite 8.

Predicition: Xavier 82, West Virginia 74

Previewing the Weekend: WVU at. CIN

With Texas enjoying its first bye week of the season, we turn our attention to other matchups of note this Saturday that can have an effect on the Longhorns outside chance at a BCS bid.

#6 West Virginia at #22 Cincinnati

West Virginia comes in having won 4 straight games, back in the hunt for the Big East title and an outside chance at the BCS National Championship game. It has been a crazy season in the Big East as most expected, West Virginia's last two games against Louisville and Rutgers to be the ones that decided the conference title, as oppose to their next two against Cincinnati and Connecticut.

West Virginia has one of the top offenses in the country behind the running of QB Pat White (863 yds/10 TDs) and RB Steve Slaton (885 yds/14 TDs). They are fast and athletic and have a great offensive line with an effective blocking scheme. They also spread the field well, making it difficult for defenses to crowd the box to stop the run. The West Virginia defense is also a great unit, ranking 4th in the country in total defense and 11th in pass defense. They will need to play well and pressure QB Ben Mauk (2033 yds/21 TDs/6 INTs) and force him into making mistakes.

Cincinnati comes into this game hot, after defeating South Florida and then destroying UConn 27-3 last week. If Cincinnati hopes to keep the magic alive against the Mountaineers they are going to have to disrupt the West Virginia game and force turnovers. While Cincinnati boasts the 13th ranked run defense in the country, they haven't faced a running attack like this. In WVU's only loss this season, South Florida was able to jump out to a 21-3 lead and forced West Virginia to throw the ball to get back into the game. The Bulls also forced 6 turnovers. This is going to have to be how Cincinnati gets it done if they hope to defeat West Virginia. Slaton is prone to fumbles, and Pat White has been in and out of games with injuries all season long. Cincinnati will need to hit hard and not give up the big chunks of yardage that West Virginia thrives on.

TEXAS' TAKE:
The Longhorns at this point are hoping for an at large BCS birth. To do so they need to be among the top teams that didn't win their conference and hope that Boise State or Hawaii doesn't get an automatic birth by finishing in the top 12, or finishing in the top 16 ahead of a major conference champion. How does this relate to the Big East? Anyone winning the conference other than West Virginia (Connecticut leads the conference by a half game) would cause all sorts of problems as UConn and Cincy are behind Boise State and Hawaii in the BCS rankings, and West Virginia would probably stay ahead of Texas as a two loss team. Texas needs West Virginia to win out which would lock up the Big East automatic birth and effectively knock Cincinnati and UConn out of BCS at large contention.

PREDICTION:
West Virginia is too much on the ground for Cincinnati and Ben Mauk struggles with West Virginia's aggressive defense as the Mountaineers roll 34-21.