But after starting off down 12-4, Cinderella came storming back and is leading Michigan 29-22. There is obviously still another half to play, and the Wolverines are perfectly capable of putting together a run of their own, but Loyola-Chicago is not backing down at the moment to anyone – this team is for real!!!!

Sophomore Malik Newman scored all 13 points for Kansas in overtime, including a very critical three-pointer from the corner that gave the Jayhawks the lead with 1:51 left in the game.

Duke had a few really good chances to tie the game from Grayson Allen and Trevon Duval, but their long distance shots came up short, and Newman sealed the game from the free throw line.

And it will be the Big 12 Champion Kansas Jayhawks against the Big East Champion Villanova Wildcats in the Final Four to decide who will be the last 1 seed standing. And awaiting them in the championship will be either Big 10 Champion Michigan or Cinderella Missouri Valley Champion Loyola-Chicago. Should be a fantastic Final Four!!!!

That’s right – Duke and Kansas are tied at 72 at the end of regulation as Grayson Allen’s shot just barely rolled out with a couple seconds left. Down three with under 30 seconds to play, and Sviatoslav Mykailiuk hit a clutch three pointer for Kansas to tie the game and extend Kansas’ season for at least 5 more minutes.

Just to put into how crazily different this side of the bracket is. If you take the 4 teams today and add up their seeds, you would get 7 – which is not only 4 lower than the first team that made the final four, it is also 2 lower than both teams that lost Saturday night.

Should be two great games – looking forward to Villanova / Texas Tech and Kansas / Duke.

It might not have been the prettiest of games. But 3 seed Michigan survived by beating Florida State 58-54.

The game was a back and forth game dominated by both teams defensive efforts. Michigan managed to take a 1 point lead going into halftime. But after Florida State hit the first basket of the second half, the Wolverines went on an 11-0 run to take control of the game.

The Seminoles would chip away at the lead, but any time they got close, Michigan would hit a shot to extend the lead. It looked like it was truly over when Duncan Robinson made a three pointer with just over 2 minutes to give Michigan a 54-44 lead. Florida State managed to cut the lead all the way to 2 points with 20 seconds left, thanks to some missed free throws by the Wolverines. But Robinson would hit the two free throws that Michigan needed at the end to give the Wolverines a 4 point victory and send the Big 10 Tourney Champion to San Antonio.

Michigan has now won 15 of their last 16 games – with their last loss coming in early February. They are peaking definitely at the right time, and are now just two victories away from a National Championship.

Two weeks ago, when the Selection Committee announced that the 11 seed Loyola-Chicago Ramblers from the Missouri Valley Conference at 28-5 would play 6 seed Miami, they were listed by experts as a potential good team to pick for an upset. The Ramblers had dominated a traditionally top mid-major, and had also upset Florida earlier in the season.

Then, Loyola hit a last second shot to beat the Hurricanes, and stories started coming out about their 98 year old nun Sister Jean, and they became one of those fun feel-good stories of March.

But then, Loyola knocked off Tennessee and Nevada on last second clutch shots, and suddenly, the feel-good Cinderella story became a lot more.

Tonight, the Ramblers didn’t need any last second heroics. Cinderella went and knocked off Kansas State 78-62, and the 11 seed that started as a trendy upset pick for a round is now heading to San Antonio as the first team to earn their way to the Final Four.

These Ramblers play incredible defense, are extremely unselfish and always make the extra pass, and have multiple players who have proven they can make a clutch shot. And now, Cinderella has a chance to rewrite the history of the Dance. Loyola-Chicago is still dancing, and don’t be surprised if they are still dancing after the Championship game. This Cinderella doesn’t appear to have a curfew at midnight.

The Aggies totally outran and outhustled the defending National Champions. Normally, it is UNC that creates havoc by speading up play. But today, it was Texas A&M who seemed to be the ones controlling the pace in an impressive 86-65 victory.

And so the Lunatic Curse has taken out both his South and West regional champions before the weekend even ended. That probably bodes poorly for Duke, Villanova and Purdue in the second weekend. I might have to think about what other teams I would like to take out by selecting them in my second chance picks.

There is always that team in the NCAA Tournament that proves all the critics, including myself, wrong. Everyone said that Syracuse didn’t deserve to be in the tournament. There were 187 people who projected the bracket before Selection Sunday for the Bracket Matrix project – only 23 (12.2%) had the Orange in the tournament.

So, the Orange head to Dayton – and they take out Arizona State. Then, they shock TCU to make it to the round of 32. But surely a team that is averaging 58.5 points in those two games isn’t going to beat #3 seed, Michigan State. After all, the Spartans were 29-4 and one of the top 5 teams in the polls.

But this is March – and when the Spartans went up 48-43 on a Cassius Winston jumper with 5:43 in the game, it looked like the Spartans would stay ahead – after all points were hard to find in this ugly game.

Then, Michigan State missed their last 13 shots from the field, Syracuse’s Tyus Battle hit a jumper on a nice drive with 49 seconds to give the Orange a 3 point lead, and then we watched as the Spartans got tons of tries to tie the game to no prevail.

The last team invited to dance is still dancing. And should any of us be surprised – these are the kinds of things that happen in March.

Because it wasn’t enough that UNC-Greensboro almost took down Gonzaga.

Because it wasn’t enough for Buffalo to completely destroy Arizona.

It wasn’t even enough that Marshall took down Wichita State this afternoon.

Don’t look now – but Charleston, the Colonial Conference champion is tied with SEC co-champ Auburn.