Elite Eight

8 teams, 4 spots, 1 goal, 2 donuts, 1 coffee. Sorry I was trying to do my best announcer guy opening and then I started thinking about my breakfast (chocolate frosted and jelly in case you were wondering) and I got confused. Here are my picks for today's games:

3-Missouri vs 1-UConn
Missouri played their best game all year Thursday night against an overrated Memphis team. Conference USA is awful. If you switched Xavier and Memphis I think Memphis would have a little more trouble in the A-10 which is only marginally better than Conference USA. Missouri is going to try to run up and down the court and play at a fast tempo which makes sense but the thing is that UConn can also play uptempo basketball. That said, UConn can also slow things down and play a half court game while having Hasheem Thabeet do his thing down in the paint and that's where Missouri is going to have trouble. I think it will be close but UConn pulls away in the second half to go to their first Final Four since they won the title in '04.

3- Villanova vs 1- Pitt.
First one to 50 wins this game. It won't be pretty but I think Pitt. wins this one. I know they haven't looked great in the tourney but every game has had the same result and thats all that matters. They remind me of the 2003 New England Patiots - sure they weren't the most exciting team to watch but they always found ways to win and came up with the big play when they needed it. I think the Dejuan Blair vs Dante Cunningham matchup is going to be very important - whoever gets the other one into foul trouble early could swing the game in his team's direction, I lean towards Blair winning this battle and the game.