Butler, Kansas St, Kentucky, and West VA all punched their tickets for the Elite 8. Butler did it with out hustling and taking care of the ball which Syracuse did not (note:before the tourney started I said Syracuse would struggle due to a lack of a true PG). Kentucky swarmed Cornell, who didn't help themselves with an awful shooting night. West Virginia turned it over way too much, but Washington wasn't talented enough to take full advantage. Finally, Kansas St edged out Xavier in an epic 2OT Sweet 16 thriller. Thank God Gus Johnson was calling this game. As blog contributor B-Dubs said, Gus was having gusgasms throughout the 2nd half and OTs.
Jacob Pullen hit two killer threes in the 2nd OT to help Kansas St pull away. They might not get the same exposure as Farokhmanesh's 3 pointer got, but they were huge. Jordan Crawford and Holloway kept Xavier in it with huge shots and FT's. Crawford's 30 ft. 3 pointer at the end of the first OT was ginormous. Near the end of regulation Holloway calmly sank 3 free throws to tie the game after a bad foul on a 3pt shot.
Bill Simmons wrote a great article about how March Madness affects a player's NBA draft stock. Crawford and Pullen even before this epic game passed his test to be legit NBA players. Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100326
There are four more great games scheduled for tonight with Duke vs Purdue, Baylor vs St. Marys, N. Iowa vs MSU, and Tennessee vs Ohio St. Hopefully, there will be at least one more epic game, even if Gus Johnson isn't announcing it.
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