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The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets have rolled through all four opponents they have seen in the NIT behind a suffocating defense. Now they have made it to the championship game, where they will face off against the TCU Horned Frogs for the title.... 

The North Carolina Tar Heels have punched their ticket to the Final Four for the 20^th time in program history. The Oregon Ducks last made it through the first two weeks of the NCAA Tournament way back in 1939 which just so happens to be the very first year the tournament took place. They actually went on to win it all. Dana Altman’s kids face a steep uphill climb in order to match that feat with the Tar Heels installed the odds on favorites to cut the nets down come Monday night.... 

The Gonzaga Bulldogs were expected to be here after being anointed the West region’s No. 1 seed. The South Carolina Gamecocks most definitely were not! In fact, many had the East region No. 7 seed exiting the Big Dance in the first round against Marquette. Be that as it may, each team now finds itself playing in a do-or-die tilt with a shot at marching on to partake in each program’s first ever championship game appearance.... 

The South Carolina Gamecocks have made a Cinderella run to the Final Four and hope the journey isn’t finished. The No. 7 seed has pulled off a bevy of upset in the NCAA Tournament and will aim for another one when it faces off against the No. 1 seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs in the Final Four. There will be a berth in the national championship on the line and both sides come in playing very well.... 

The Oregon Ducks knocked off a juggernaut in the Elite Eight when they dispatched No. 1 seed Kansas. If they can pull the trick again, they will find themselves in the national championship game. The third-seeded Ducks will face off against the No. 1 seed North Carolina Tar Heels in a marquee showdown.... 

The Final Four is set with North Carolina, Gonzaga, Oregon and South Carolina winning their respective regions. If you had these teams as the last ones standing through the first two weeks of the NCAA Tournament you best double up and buy yourself some lottery tickets! The Tar Heels are the only program familiar with this stage after falling in the title game at the gun last season. That said, each of the other three teams are currently playing some exceptional basketball. The desert will only get hotter once all four teams take to the hardwood on Saturday night!... 

Two of the most storied programs in college basketball will face off in the Elite Eight with only one Final Four spot available. The No. 1 seed North Carolina Tar Heels will aim to knock off the No. 2 seed Kentucky Wildcats.... 

The South Carolina Gamecocks have looked anything like a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament as they have rolled past three solid programs to make it to the Final Four. They have pulled upsets the past two games and will aim to make it three in a row with a win over the No. 4 seed Florida Gators.... 

Central Florida has used a strong defense to knock off No. 5 Colorado, No. 1 Illinois State and No. 2 Illinois. TCU has been just as impressive, also knocking off a No. 1 seed, Iowa, to make it here. This should be a competitive game as the teams had similar regular seasons and are both No. 4 seeds for this showdown.At 9 p.m. ET, tune into ESPN for live television coverage of this NCAA basketball game on Tuesday, March 28, 2017, at the Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York.... 

Cal State Bakersfield faces the No. 6 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in a semifinal matchup this Tuesday. The Yellow Jackets have outscored opponents 220-186 so far in the tournament and will aim for another victory.Georgia Tech will likely be a slight favorite based in its seeding but Cal State Bakersfield is playing so well that it could definitely win this contest.... 

As top seeds around them continue to fall, the Kansas Jayhawks are looking like a juggernaut. They are one win away from the Final Four and will aim to pick it up in a matchup against the No. 3 seed Oregon Ducks.... 

For all of their success, neither the No. 1 seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs nor the No. 11 seed Xavier Musketeers have ever made it to the Final Four. One of them will punch their ticket as they face off in the Elite Eight with that trip on the line.... 

UT Arlington has looked really impressive through the first two games, using a high-powered offense to knock off BYU and then Akron, and will aim to topple the CSU Bakersfield which has been equally as impressive.While the Roadrunners entered the NIT as one of the lowest-rated teams, they have knocked off top-seeded California and No. 4 Colorado State in back-to-back games to set up this matchup of small schools.... 

UCF rallied from a 13-point halftime deficit last time out to beat the Redbirds as B.J. Taylor sunk a pair of free throws with one second remaining. It was a dramatic win to keep the Knights’ season alive and paid off well for those who backed them on the moneyline.Illinois used a big second half to rout Boise State in its second round affair. The Fighting Illini have to play this game on the road because of a scheduling conflict but have the stronger body of work so they may be favored in this matchup.... 

It’s rare to get a rematch of an early season game in the Sweet 16, but college basketball fans will be treated to just that. And if this game is anything like the earlier meeting, it will have all fans on the edge of their seats. The UCLA Bruins travelled to Lexington back in December and upended the then-No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats in a game that foresaw UCLA’s future. The Bruins were efficient on offense producing 97 points in the win.... 

The North Carolina Tar Heels were one of the favorites to win the national title before the Tournament began and with half of the top six contenders gone in the first weekend, have their chances improved? Fans in Chapel Hill would like to think so, but they got just as much satisfaction over their hated rival Duke being ousted in the second round. None of those expelled contenders played in the South, which is the only region to have its top four seeds advance, and the Tar Heels still have to get by the Butler Bulldogs.... 

They needed a win against the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament to keep an impressive streak alive and the Wisconsin Badgers got it. Their upset of Villanova gave the Badgers their fourth straight Sweet 16 trip, something no other team has done. The Badgers would like to change the end result, however. They lost in the Final Four the first two years and were bounced in this round last season. The streak doesn’t faze the Florida Gators, who are in after embarrassing Virginia in the second round.... 

The South Carolina Gamecocks pulled off a big upset in the second round knocking off Duke, the favorite of many to get to Glendale. But was it really that big of an upset? South Carolina was one of the better teams in the SEC for most of the season until a late swoon knocked them down a few pegs and completely out of the national rankings. Maybe the Gamecocks just needed a bigger stage. If that’s the case, they are now on the biggest as they make their first Sweet 16 appearance and face the Baylor Bears.... 

Talk about your chalk bracket! Arkansas and Wichita State tried their damndest to shake the South Region up, but in the end, couldn’t administer the knockout punch to either North Carolina or Kentucky that would have blown just about everybody’s bracket up. So, we’re left with the top four seeds advancing which makes the Sweet 16 matchups in the region all the more enticing. UNC is the odds on favorite to go to the desert, but if it fails to close a game out like it did versus the Hogs, the Heels likely won’t be given a second chance this time around.... 

No Villanova. No Duke. So how’s your East Region bracket looking? If it’s anything like mine, there’s red slashes all over it, and honestly, you’re only a die-hard fan of the four teams that actually made it to the Sweet 16 out of this region if it remains intact. It’s nothing more than a coin flip now with the Florida Gators, Wisconsin Badgers, Baylor Bears and South Carolina Gamecocks each having as good a shot as any to advance to the Final Four. The odds to win the region reflect just that with only the Cocks offering up more than a 3-1 return. Whatever you do, don’t tell that to Frank Martin!... 

A surprising entrant made it to the Sweet 16 in the Midwest Region, but if you’ve been following the Michigan Wolverines the last couple weeks, many would say it was expected. Regardless, the No. 7 seed sits only behind the top seeded Kansas Jayhawks to reach the Final Four making this region one of the toughest to get a handle on with Oregon and Purdue each having just as good a shot as any to advance.... 

If you pegged the Xavier Musketeers to make a deep run in the 2017 NCAA Tournament, you’re likely in the money in all bracket contests entered and up some green after backing them as underdogs through the first two rounds. They enter the Sweet 16 with the longest odds of any team to win it all at +7000, and find themselves decided underdogs once again versus the No. 2 seed Arizona Wildcats for Thursday night’s tilt in Cali.... 

Two of college basketball’s blue bloods will meet up with a trip to the Elite Eight on the line when the Kentucky Wildcats square off with the UCLA Bruins late Friday night. Kentucky has been on fire lately, having won the SEC in the regular season, the SEC Conference Tournament, and getting to the Sweet 16, while UCLA has been on a slight downward trajectory after starting the season red hot as a covering machine.... 

At this point, the North Carolina Tar Heels are probably the presumptive favorites to win it all. The team that finished runner-up to Villanova last year brought back most of its rotation this season and played solid basketball throughout the season. The one hiccup was their inability to beat Duke, but now that the Blue Devils have been eliminated, that threat has vanished. It’s on Roy Williams and his boys to take care of business the rest of the way if they wish to avenge last year’s defeat and that path continues when they take on the Butler Bulldogs.... 

Last week I stated that the West Region looked to be the easiest for the top seeds to advance in. That train of thought proved to be correct with the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 seeds all punching their tickets to the Sweet 16. Only Florida State failed to hold up its end of the bargain with No. 11 Xavier taking its place in the region’s Final Four. Let’s break the remaining bracket down and see if we can’t come up with some viable options to win it on the futures odds....