Traditional Power North Carolina Wins in Nontraditional Manner

No one could have thought that University of North Carolina's men's basketball team would have so many injuries in one season. The latest of which was point guard Kendall Marshall's broken wrist. This was especially significant because Marshall is the man that gets the offense to run the way it should. Without him, the Tar Heels lacked some of their identity and direction. Both were evident in the game.

In their Sweet Sixteen game, UNC drew the #13 seed Ohio. The game looked like a pushover on paper, but the Bobcats came into the matchup confident. Without Marshall and with preseason All-American Harrison Barnes struggling, the Tar Heels struggled to put away the upstart Bobcats. If UNC was going to win, someone was going to need to step up. One of those unlikely players who did was sophomore Reggie Bullock. With around 12 minutes to go in regulation, Bullock overheard an Ohio assistant coach state that Carolina couldn't win without Marshall. This infuriated Bullock, who went on to score 12 of his 17 points after the incident. Other Tar Heel players stepped up as well to fill the void Marshall left. Rarely used freshman point guard Stilman White earned his first start of the season and finished with 0 turnovers in the game. Carolina big man Tyler Zeller came up huge as well. He finished with 20 points and 22 rebounds. He is the first player to have a 20-20 performance in a tournament game since Tim Duncan in 1997.

The game ended up going to overtime, but North Carolina did enough to survive. They now play a more traditional powerhouse team, Kansas, in the Elite Eight on Sunday. The Tar Heels will certainly have to play better to beat the Jayhawks. They certainly can, especially since Barnes didn't play well. They may also get Marshall back from injury. Either way, head coach Roy Williams will have his boys ready. UNC showed they can win without Marshall and win even when they play poorly. The Tar Heels are definitely still a team to be reckoned with here in March.

Breaking Down the Sweet Sixteen From a Geographical Standpoint

No Teams From the Western Half of the U.S.

Everyone knows the Pac-12 was down this year in basketball, but apparently the whole western half of the country was as well. WAC favorite Nevada bowed out in their conference tournament. The conference that looked the most dominant was the Mountain West. They received four bids (three of which were #6 or higher), but the conference finished with a combined record of only 1-4 in the tournament. No teams from this vast geographic region made it to the Sweet Sixteen.

Midwest Central

Since the West produced nothing, someone had to step up, and the Midwest happily filled the void. The two best conferences by far this season, the Big 12 and Big Ten, are both centered in the heart of Midwestern farm land. But it is more than just these conferences. The Midwest took commanding control of the tournament. 12 of the remaining Sweet Sixteen teams are from the geographic region. Making the odds of a champion coming from the Midwest increasingly likely.

Ohio Domination

The Midwest conquered as a region, but one of its state dominated like no other. That state was Ohio. The state got only four teams into the tournament, but all of them are Sweet Sixteen teams. That means that one-quarter of the teams left in the NCAA tournament are from Ohio. What makes it even more impressive is that these teams aren't even a highly ranked group as a whole. The teams consist of a #2 seed (Ohio State), a #6 seed (Cincinnati), a #10 seed (Xavier), and a #13 seed (Ohio University). Ohioans should be proud of their basketball. One doesn't see a feat like this everyday.

Are Your Brackets Busted?

It would come as no surprise to me if they were after a day like today. After all entering today, #2 seeds were 105-4 all time again #15 seeds. That all changed when #15 Norfolk State upset #2 Missouri and #15 Lehigh upset #2 Duke. Out of 6.5 million brackets on ESPN.com, only 31,183 correctly picked these games. Additionally, only 24,492 brackets correctly chose #15 Norfolk State, #15 Lehigh, and #13 Ohio. #12 seed South Florida and #11 seed N.C. State both pulled significant upsets as well.

Wow. I mean what else can you say after a day like today. Your bracket is probably destroyed, but you probably loved the basketball you watched. Picking a perfect bracket is next to impossible. So don't feel bad. In fact, the odds of picking a perfect bracket are 1-in-100 million trillion (Weimerskirch). One teenage fan correctly picked every game of the first two rounds last year. The odds of that happening was estimated at 13.46 million to one (bookofodds.com).

So don't feel bad if your bracket is busted. I know that mine is. But that is okay. Now, you can root for all the underdogs and enjoy the madness of March basketball.