Who is elite eight

There was a point in mid-February when USC was overall and still had an outside shot at playing its way into a No. Then, out of nowhere, the three-point defense violently defied the Trojans.

Their first 20 opponents shot a combined But from Feb. That unsustainably bad luck was, well, unsustainable. Drake, Kansas and Oregon all struggled from distance against the Trojans, and USC had minimal difficulty with any of those teams because of it.

With that aspect of USC games back to normal, the brothers Evan and Isaiah Mobley have been too much for opponents to handle. USC's 7'0" freshman center impacts the game in such a ridiculous number of ways, and that was on full display in the Sweet 16 against Oregon. He only had six field-goal attempts, but he racked up 10 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two blocks. It was his seventh consecutive performance with at least 10 points, eight rebounds, multiple assists and multiple blocks.

Oklahoma State's Cade Cunningham is going to go No. X-Factor: Free-throw shooting and two-point defense. The latter is a positive X-factor. The Mobley brothers are large and in charge in the paint, and they're liable to give Gonzaga fits in the Elite Eight. The former is a negative X-factor, though. The Trojans were great from the stripe against the Ducks, but that type of Achilles' heel can take down any titan in this tournament.

Championship Blueprint: Continue to dominate with defense and size. NCAA tournament opponents have managed just However, the teams they've faced thus far pale in comparison to what lies ahead. Kansas was good but not at full strength. That said, the Trojans are the toughest defense Gonzaga has faced all season, so don't count this team out. What We've Learned: The Wolverines have offense, too. All season long, the focus has been on Michigan's lethal interior defense, and rightfully so.

Hunter Dickinson and Co. They do it with limited fouls and few second-chance opportunities. It's easily their biggest strength. But these guys can score in bunches, too. Michigan has put up at least 76 points in each tournament game, averaging Most of us assumed the Wolverines would slip a bit on that end without Isaiah Livers, who averaged In Livers' stead, though, Brandon Johns Jr.

Most Outstanding Player Candidate: Too soon to tell. With It's a tight race, though. Dickinson is at X-Factor: Turnovers. Michigan's defense excels at getting stops but not at forcing turnovers.

It wasn't a problem against an often-sloppy Florida State team in the Sweet However, in that second-round win over LSU, the Wolverines were minus-eight in turnover margin and struggled to pull away despite shooting much better than the Tigers. Championship Blueprint: Don't change anything. If we end up with Michigan vs. Gonzaga in the Final Four, it's going to be a battle for the ages between the best interior defense of the season and the best two-point offense in at least two decades.

Michigan might not win that showdown, but if any team is equipped to stifle Gonzaga's offensive onslaught, it's the Wolverines. I wrote as much back in early February. What We've Learned: Can survive a poor shooting night. That's always the big question with teams that do a lot of scoring from three-point range, because it is all but inevitable that there will be a night in the tournament when the deep ball betrays you.

Prior to Saturday, there had only been three games in which Baylor shot worse than But despite an awful 3-of It's hard to believe he only scored 14 points against the Wildcats, because it felt like every time Baylor needed a bucket, there was Mitchell either flipping up some wild driving layup or draining a mid-range jumper. Through three games, he's averaging X-Factor: Bench production. It's just unfair that Baylor brings not one but two guys off the bench who shoot better than 40 percent from three-point range Adam Flagler and Matthew Mayer , as well as a big man who puts in work on defense and on the offensive glass Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua.

That bench trio has combined for at least 24 points in each of Baylor's first three tournament games. Mayer was the team's leading scorer against Wisconsin. The best, worst and most likely finish for each AP Top 25 ranking A comprehensive breakdown of the AP preseason college basketball poll, including how many NCAA tournament titles each spot has won and how many March Madness games a team is likely to win based on where it's ranked. DI Men's Basketball News WATCH: UC Riverside stuns Arizona State on the road with last-second half-court shot Men's basketball is back, and this is why we're excited 7 programs with strong cases to be college basketball's next 1st-time champion Ohio State's Zed Key scores game-winner in season opener These are the best father-son, junior-senior duos in college basketball 15 player of the year candidates to watch in men's basketball The Atlanta Tipoff Club announces the men's basketball Naismith Trophy watch list Men's NCAA tournament predictions for the Sweet 16 to the national championship Men's March Madness bracket predictions ahead of opening night Facing unusually modest expectations for Michigan State, here's Tom Izzo's strategy for Presented By.

Listen: March Madness podcast. Creighton coach Greg McDermott called Gonzaga one of the best passing teams he has ever seen. One other thing. It has now been 26 victories and days since Gonzaga won a game by single digits. Baylor wants to be let in. The Bears have been lurking all season, considered by many to be the most likely team to stop Gonzaga, if anyone can.

Drew has done wonders with that program, but there are ghosts of tournaments past, too: Yale knocked out Baylor in , Georgia State in The Bears badly want to be recognized as the national power they have long sought to be. Here is what we should know about Baylor before its Monday game with Arkansas. The Bears can play defense on well as anyone, and when they flip on the intensity it can be ferocious.

The Wildcats were leading the nation in fewest turnovers and had only 12 their first two tournament games combined. Baylor turned them over nine times in the second half, and won the points-off-turnover category that half Michigan wants to be let in. The Wolverines carry the Big Ten torch and have for a while, and besides they have lost four national championship games in a row.

The only way to end that streak is to get back and win it. What would it say about Juwan Howard that in two years he went from having not a day of college coaching experience to the Final Four? Already, his success might have played a part in another Big Ten school calling a former player home to coach, despite no college experience; Indiana and Mike Woodson. Their offense has been rolling along, too.

In fact, they have a higher assist-to-field goal ratio than Gonzaga. They also have a lot of seniors who have thirsted for this chance. Consider point guard Mike Smith, who drives the offense. Think this ride might be a bit of a fantasy for him? Oregon State wants to be let in. Oh, how the Beavers have enjoyed doing things nobody expected them to do, starting with the moment they were picked to finish last in the Pac To go from there to the Final Four would be one of the great nose-thumbings of all time, but it may be that already.

The thing about fairy tales, the longer they go, the more the people living them hunger for a happy ending. One minute the Beavers might be playing man-to-man, the next a zone, and they are not making offense fun for the other team. Their three tournament opponents have shot And when a team can win six consecutive elimination games against NCAA tournament-level competition the way the Beavers have, they believe anything is possible.

Because so far, it has been. Houston wants be let in. The Cougars were a national power in the s with three consecutive Final Four trips and two title game appearances, and then entered the dark ages.