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SPORTS ZONE 2: March Madness Truly Begins

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament is underway, with only sixteen teams left. The Sweet Sixteen, as it is called, will begin on Thursday and the March Madness will continue.

The overall #1 team, Duke, will play Louisiana State University in the first game of the Sweet Sixteen on Thursday night. There are three other games on Thursday, which will narrow the pool of teams down before the remaining four games will be played on Friday.

Duke will take on LSU in what will most likely be a tough match up. The two teams have played hard all year long and one of them will go on to the Elite Eight. The next game on Thursday has the Bradley Braves going against the Memphis Tigers. Bradley, a relative underdog, beat such powerhouses as Kansas and Pittsburgh in order to reach the Sweet Sixteen. Memphis, seeded number one in their bracket, will definitely put up a good fight against Bradley.

Also on Thursday, West Virginia will play Texas and Gonzaga will play UCLA. On Friday there are some big games. Boston College will take on their former Big East rivals Villanova in a much anticipated game. They have played each other twice so far this year, each taking one win. George Mason University has had an amazing postseason. They beat Michigan State, who made it to last year's Final Four, and last year's national champions, UNC. They will take on Wichita State, who lost their conference tournament, but other than that have played pretty well.

The last two games in the Sweet Sixteen are Georgetown vs. Florida and Washington vs. UCONN. Georgetown, a team that beat the then undefeated and #1 Duke team during the regular season, had a rather poor showing in the Big East, but so far in this tournament has turned out some impressive wins. This young team--many of the starters are sophomores--will take on a somewhat older Florida in hopes of making it to the Elite Eight. UCONN, normally a powerhouse although they barely made it to the Sweet Sixteen, will take on the Huskies from the West in the last game of the Sweet Sixteen.

The winners from each of these games will go on to be the last eight teams left in the NCAA tournament. Then the winners from those games will be the last four teams left, also known as the Final Four. Then the teams will be narrowed down to two and finally one, which will be the national champion of men’s basketball.

--Written by Erica Rose

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