Predictions For Saturday's Elite Eight Games

I was a solid 3 of 4 with Friday's Sweet Sixteen picks...including the amazing Davidson pick. Now we're on to the Elite Eight. Let's bang these out so I can get to sleep.

UCLA over Xavier

Reasons:

• Ben Howland may lose sometime during this NCAA Tournament, but he's not going to be denied here.
• Both head coaches have very direct ties to Pitt. I'm going with the coach that helped transform Pitt basketball into the respected program that it is today.
• Kevin Love and that outstanding razor-thin line beard thingy of his.
• PAC 10 over A-10. Every single time. Unless it was something like Oregon State vs. La Salle...then nobody would care.
• Davidson rocked the college basketball universe and made it to the Elite Eight...why the hell couldn't this also be the year that four number 1 seeds reach the Final Four?
• Confidence in this pick: 7.8

What's that Mr. Robert Goulet? You like UCLA in this game too and want to spring past Matt G. in the race for more labels? Then go right ahead!

North Carolina over Louisville

• Have you seen North Carolina play a game in this NCAA Tournament? Seriously? Have you watched what they've done in systematically tearing teams apart? I don't care if Louisville has a "chance", I'd be a fool to go against UNC here.
• How awesome would a North Carolina vs. Davidson Final Four game be? Think about that for a few seconds...let that soak in. (Let it be known that I am NOT jinxing either team by saying this. I'm merely asking the reader to think about something theoretically)
• Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• What a coaching match-up!!! Dean Smith going against Denny Crum in what will surely be a battle for the ages!!! What's that you say? Crum isn't coaching them anymore and this entire two-post bit about Denny Crum isn't funny? Fair enough.
• HAVE YOU SEEN HOW NORTH CAROLINA HAS PLAYED THROUGHOUT THIS NCAA TOURNAMENT?!?!?
• Confidence in this pick: 9.5

1020 & 8101

Robert Goulet on Kansas

I'm going to let Mr. Robert Goulet provide some analysis on various teams in the NCAA Tournament. We're going to start with the Kansas Jayhawks (#1 seed in the Midwest). Mr. Goulet...what do you think of Bill Self's boys?

A Little Robert Goulet for Liz

Here is Mr. Robert Goulet crooning about beloved UNC coach Dean Smith for you Liz. I'm sorry that I haven't gotten around to covering the Tar Heels on any level. I know that Tyler Hansbrough is good and that Ty Lawson makes them a great team instead of a good team. I still have a hard time trusting Roy Williams in March. What is your opinion of him as a head coach? Am I right to be concerned? Maybe you could persuade me to trust him in crunch time. Sadly, I missed the UNC vs. Duke game this past weekend. Although if I'm reminded again that UNC and Duke are only 8 miles apart I swear I'm going to punch a hole in the wall. Hopefully they will meet for a third time this season in the ACC Championship game and I'll be able to catch that. Big props to everyone in tobacco country and big props to everyone from tobacco country.

Robert Goulet...R.I.P. & Thank You

Oddly enough, Robert Goulet was a big part of my college basketball experience growing up. He did a number of television spots for ESPN in the mid-to-early 90's where he sung about college basketball in his unique, show-tunesy kind of way. His parodies, voice, sense of humor, off-the-cuff and ridiculous comments made these so enjoyable. A very very fond memory of mine. I was so glad to find these clips again. I'll be posting different Goulet videos throughout this blog. Please enjoy. This one is all about Conference Tournament week. KI-bosh!!! Thank you Mr. Goulet.

• Conference Tournament Champs