NCAA Basketball Sweet 16 2008

East Region:

The Tar Heels, who obliterated Mount St. Mary's 113-74, now must repack their travel totes for next weekend's game in Charlotte, where they'll face Washington State, which has to travel about 3,000 miles.  Can it get any easier to make it to the Final Four?

Kansas - the No. 1 seed in the Midwest which beat Portland, 85-61, in its first-round game and UNLV, 75-56, to advance to the Sweet 16 - is the only other of the top eight seeds to have advanced without a challenge.

But North Carolina, which improved to 34-2 and won its 13th straight game, faced tougher competition in the Las Vegas Invitational than it has in the NCAA Tournament. Arkansas finished 23-12.

The Tar Heels became the first team to score more than 100 points in its two opening round games since Loyola Marymount in 1990. Loyola Marymount got knocked out by eventual champ UNLV in the regional semifinals.

Midwest Region:

For the fourth time in nine years, Wisconsin finds itself in the Sweet 16. But this is the first time when the Badgers simply took care of the business as the higher seed.

But to say they simply "took care of business" sells short their powerful performances against 13th-seeded Cal State-Fullerton and 11th-seeded Kansas State.

Third-seeded Wisconsin rolls into Ford Field in Detroit as one of just a handful of teams that won both of their NCAA games by at least 15 points. The Badgers join Kansas, Washington State, North Carolina and Louisville in that elite group.

While that's a nice list of hot teams, Wisconsin might be the hottest in the country. Bo Ryan's bunch, which set a school record for wins (31) with its 72-55 dismantling of Kansas State, has won 12 games in a row. Only two of them (at Indiana on Feb. 16 and vs. Michigan State in the Big Ten semifinals) could be considered games that went to the wire.

Of course, the Badgers' Midwest Regional semifinal opponent happens to be the team with the nation's longest winning streak. Tenth-seeded Davidson earned its 24th consecutive win when it rallied to shock Georgetown March 23 -- and that presents a tantalizing contrast in styles.

During Wisconsin's opening-round games, you could count on one hand the number of possessions where the Badgers took a shot out of rhythm or didn't defend according to their strict principles. They ran on occasion, but mostly tried to keep it a half-court affair.

Not that Davidson, which features superb guards Stephen Curry and Jason Richards, didn't play with discipline, but the Wildcats are much more interested in an uptempo game. The more possessions, the better.

In Curry, the son of former NBA sharpshooter Dell Curry, the Badgers face their second consecutive game where their defense will be tested by one of the nation's top five scorers.

Wisconsin's bigger guys did excellent work against Kansas State's Michael Beasley. He finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds -- essentially hitting his averages -- but he shot poorly and took tougher shots than he's accustomed to.

South Region:

Michigan State lives and dies by its outside shooters, as F Raymont Morgan, G Drew Neitzel and G Kalin Lucas can fill up the basket. The Spartans are also an outstanding offensive rebounding team thanks to F Goran Suton and C Drew Naymick and are especially adept at kicking the ball back outside.

West Region:

It will be like old times for Bob Huggins when his West Virginia team returns to the floor for the Sweet 16 in Phoenix. The opponent will be Xavier, who was Huggins' crosstown rival in Cincinnati during his 16 years with the Bearcats.

Xavier has always been a problem for Huggins. He was 8-8 against the Musketeers while in Cincinnati and is 8-9 for his career against them, having lost to them while at Kansas State.

The Mountaineers have played only one game against Xavier, winning in 1980.

Xavier, coached by Sean Miller, who had his own run-ins with West Virginia as a point guard at Pitt, is a balanced team that has six players who scored in double figures this year, all between 10.0 and 11.7 points a game.

The Musketeers are led by Josh Duncan, who averages 11.7 points a game, and on the boards by Derrick Brown, who averages 6.6 rebounds a game.

Like WVU, Xavier is not very big, its tallest players being Duncan, Jason Love and Charles Bronson, all listed at 6-9.