NCAA Basketball 2008: The Big Dance

East Region:

Notre Dame is seeded fifth, and the Fighting Irish have excellent inside-outside balance with forward Luke Harangody, the Big East player of the year, and Kyle McAlarney, a marksman who can light it up from the outside.  If you want potential spoilers, the East appears loaded with them.

George Mason, a Cinderella in sneakers two years ago when memorably making the Final Four as a No. 11 seed, is slotted 12th this season and takes on the Fighting Irish in the first round.

Seventh-seeded Butler and No. 10 South Alabama will meet each other, with the winner likely taking on Tennessee.  Butler made the Sweet 16 a year ago, and the Bulldogs have lost only three of 32 games and are ranked 10th in the USA TODAY/ESPN Coaches' Poll.  South Alabama will be playing in nearby Birmingham, Ala., after securing an at-large bid.

No. 6 Oklahoma and No. 11 Saint Joseph's both made strong stretch drives.

Winthrop, the 13th seed and Washington State's first-round opponent, upset Notre Dame in last year's first round. Fourteenth-seeded Boise State will likely bring the same grittiness it displayed in securing a bid with a three-overtime victory in the Western Athletic Conference title game.

So the Tar Heels are the favorites, but it doesn't figure to be easy, even close to home.

LONGSHOT: NOTRE DAME

Midwest Region:

No. 10 Davidson has won 22 consecutive games, the longest current streak in the country. To make it 23 the Wildcats will have to knock off another mid-major conference power when they play No. 7 Gonzaga on Friday in Raleigh, N.C.  Davidson was hoping for a better seed, but it can't complain about its location since Raleigh is a 160-mile drive away. Gonzaga, of course, has a cross-country flight.

However, the winner of that game will probably have to face No. 2 Georgetown, which gets No. 15 Maryland-Baltimore County, the America East champion making its first trip to the NCAA tournament. Even though the Hoyas lost to Pittsburgh on Saturday night in the Big East tournament championship game, Georgetown is still a top national title contender.

Another compelling Midwest game, No. 6 Southern California vs. No. 11 Kansas State on Thursday in Omaha, features two of the top freshmen in the country, O.J. Mayo and Michael Beasley. NCAA selection committee chairman Tom O'Connor said the Wildcats weren't necessarily one of the last at-large teams in the field even though they lost to Texas A&M in the second round of the Big 12 tournament and ended the season 2-4.

LONGSHOT: WISCONSIN

South Region:

If not Memphis, then …

Texas can match the Tigers' athleticism, has perhaps the nation's best point guard in D.J. Augustin and is well-tested — beating a who's who of Tennessee, UCLA and Kansas during the regular season. Then there's the prospect of going from Houston to an even closer venue for the Final Four: San Antonio, little more than an hour down I-35 from Austin.

The NCAA's selection committee tucked some intrigue further down the South bracket. Oregon finished in tie for fifth in the Pac-10 and, at 18-13, owns the second-worst record for an at-large tournament entry (behind only league rival Arizona's 19-14). But the Ducks not only got into the field, they landed a No. 9 seed and first-round game vs. Mississippi State.

Eleventh seeds have made the most trouble in the tournament the past two years — George Mason reaching the Final Four in 2006 and both Winthrop and Virginia Commonwealth pulling upsets last March (vs. Notre Dame and Duke, respectively). Here we have a most unusual No. 11: blue-blood Kentucky, which rebounded from a 7-9 start and late injury to star freshman Patrick Patterson to earn its 17th consecutive tournament appearance.

LONGSHOT: PITTSBURGH

West Region:

Georgia, with its improbable run, snared an at-large berth away from somebody — maybe the Arizona State Sun Devils, who probably would like an explanation as to how they could beat Arizona twice, finish ahead of Arizona in the Pacific-10 standings (9-9 to 8-10) and see their in-state rival get in instead of them.  Despite that seeming injustice, Arizona might be a West Region sleeper. The Wildcats can play.

Two weeks ago, they took UCLA to the wire, losing 68-66. Two weeks before that, they lost to Stanford, the No. 3 seed in the South Region, by one. Arizona freshman guard Jerryd Bayless flew under the radar a little in the same conference as much-ballyhooed freshmen Kevin Love (UCLA) and O.J. Mayo (Southern California). But he's the real deal, and he can put a team on his back.

Then there's No. 4 Connecticut, No. 5 Drake and No. 6 Purdue, none of whom seem to have what it will take to pull off a Sweet 16 upset of UCLA.

Here's what it looks like: Duke opens its tourney by beating the No. 15 seed Bruins and ends its tourney by losing in the regional final to the No. 1 seed Bruins.

UCLA has a sweet inside-outside game with Love in the post and Darren Collison at the point, and an accommodating schedule: virtual home games in Anaheim, then a quick hop to Phoenix.

Then San Antonio.

LONGSHOT: PURDUE