NCAA Sweet 16: Big 10 teams lead the way in East and West regions

Thursday night, there are two games each in the East and West regions of the NCAA tournament. In the East: Miami vs. Marquette and Indiana vs. Syracuse. In the West: Ohio State vs. Arizona and Wichita State vs. La Salle.

By Pat Murphy,?Staff / March 28, 2013

Members of the Indiana men's basketball team are seen during practice for a regional semifinal game in the NCAA college basketball tournament, Wednesday, March 27, 2013, in Washington. Indiana plays Syracuse on Thursday.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Enlarge

Big 10 conference representatives Indiana and Ohio State, seeded No. 1 in the East?and?No. 2 in the?West respectively, look to continue their quest for another?collegiate?championship this week.?The NCAA men's basketball tournament is down to the final 16 schools that will play in four regional sites. We didn't forget that both Michigan and Michigan State, fellow Big 10 members, also remain very much alive in the tourney.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition

But for our purposes here, we'll take a look at the East region games, taking place Thursday night?at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. This is the only one of the four regions where the top four seeds reached the round of 16, just as the men's basketball tournament selection committee drew it up almost two weeks ago.

Miami vs. Marquette

Game one of the evening will pit second seed Miami of Florida against Marquette, the region's third seed. The Hurricanes, out of the Atlantic Coast Conference, defeated both Pacific and Illinois on their way to our nation's capital. Point guard Shane Larkin, son of Baseball Hall of Famer Barry Larkin, runs the show for Miami. Unfortunately for the 'Canes, they will be without the services of center Reggie Johnson, who injured a leg against?Illinois according?to a?school statement.

Miami head coach Jim Larranaga, who led George Mason University to the 2006 Final Four, has a great deal of respect for Marquette's defense.

"Well, we've watched them throughout the Big East ... and they're just a very hard-nosed defensive team. They play ... maybe harder than anybody we've played against all season," Larranaga told reporters on Tuesday.

The Golden Eagles have used that strong defense to survive and advance, coming from behind to edge Davidson in the second round and hanging on to nip Butler in Round 3. Marquette guard Vander Blue is one of the top scorers in the NCAA tournament, averaging 22.5 points per game.

Indiana vs. Syracuse

Thursday night's second game features East top seed Indiana and fourth seed Syracuse. The Hoosiers, who spent 10 weeks ranked No. 1 in the country, cruised past James Madison, then overcame a second half deficit to defeat Temple.

The Orangemen crushed Montana by 47 points in their first tournament game. But things weren't so easy against California in the next round, as the Golden Bears made Syracuse work for a six-point victory.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/hzbHtRQ2LOI/NCAA-Sweet-16-Big-10-teams-lead-the-way-in-East-and-West-regions

lone ranger aaron brooks dave matthews band solar flares 2012 whitney houston will toyota recall northern lights