ESPN Men's Basketball

Let's take a break from all the Bo Ryan sturm and drang, shall we? Here's a story from the lighter side of life, one in which Erving Walker ended up paying $301 for a taco-truck taco.

How did this happen? On March 30, Walker was named in an arrest report, charged with petit theft and resisting an officer without violence at 1 a.m. ET on Main Street in Gainesville, Fla. According to an arrest report, Walker ordered and received a $3 taco from a food truck, but left the scene without paying for it. Police chased Walker and told him to stop, but Walker kept running. A few blocks later, police caught up to him. Walker said he was "just playing around," which ... OK then.

In any case, Walker had his court date Thursday morning. He plead no contest to the petit theft charges -- the state dropped the resisting charge -- and Walker's only fine was his $301 in court fees.

"It was just a silly mistake," Walker said after his court appearance. "I apologize to everybody. I'm embarrassed about it. That's not me. I'm just trying to put it behind me and move on."

That's a mighty steep taco, but as The Daily's Dan Wolken tweeted, we all go through times when $301 for a taco would feel like fair market price. I love tacos.

All's well that ends well, I suppose. But let this be a lesson, kids: Never flee the scene with your taco. (Or something like that. There's got to be a lesson in here somewhere.)

PHOENIX -- Erving Walker tossed up his futile, last-ditch 3. As it plummeted to its pointless finish, the buzzer sounded and the scoreboard was clear. Louisville 72, Florida 68.

Rub your eyes for a moment, and check again. Louisville 72, Florida 68.

Ecstatic and unmoored, Louisville's bench sprinted across the floor, players hugging and popping their shirts and pointing at their fans and reveling in another incredible chapter of their unlikely story -- an 18-3 run to close the game, a recovery from Florida's lights-out first half, an Elite Eight victory over one of the hottest and most talented teams in the tournament.

The Louisville Cardinals were going to the Final Four -- this team! in the Final Four! -- and they meant to celebrate that fact.

But one player was restrained. As his teammates bounded and embraced, UL freshman Chane Behanan sat on his team's bench, head down, frozen in place.

"I felt like I was in a dream," Behanan said. "No way. No way.

"I don't know how we win that game. How did we win that game, man?"

In truth, the Cardinals won that game with the same characteristics that got them to the Elite Eight in the first place. Some are tangible, easy to see: versatile defense, rebounding, brilliant coaching adjustments, conditioning, Behanan's revelatory emergence.

Some are intangible, more difficult to define: unwavering self-confidence, pluck, intelligence, a knack for the big moment, the occasional dash of luck. Or, as guard Peyton Siva defined it: "heart."

Whatever you want to call it, the Cardinals are swimming in it. How else do you explain it? This is the same team that was riddled with injuries all season, played oft-horrific offense and lost four of its final six regular-season games.

These are the best guesses as to why this team hasn't lost since the start of the Big East tournament. These are the reasons why its coach, Rick Pitino, will appear in his sixth Final Four, why he'll become just the third coach (alongside Roy Williams and Jack Gardner) to take two different programs to multiple Final Fours. They're why Pitino moved to 7-0 against Billy Donovan, his former player and assistant and why, after three decades in the game, Pitino reserves a special place for this team.

"I never wanted a Final Four more than for these guys," Pitino said. "They give me every single thing they have in their bodies. They're just the most incredible group to coach."

Why? Saturday was the perfect example.

Florida came out hot -- hotter than it could have ever reasonably hoped, considering it faced the nation's No. 1-ranked per-possession defense. Two days ago, the Cardinals had stymied No. 1-seeded Michigan State with punishingly quick defense, with a zone that gave the Spartans no chance of offensive rhythm.

On Saturday, the Cards unleashed their zone again, but the Gators shredded it. In the first half, UF scored 41 points -- just three fewer than Michigan State scored in 40 minutes Thursday night -- on 14-of-21 shooting from the field and 8-of-11 from 3.

Not only was Louisville's defense not holding the Gators' attack back, but Florida was comfortable -- swinging the ball from side to side, finding trailing players for open 3s, knocking down everything, seemingly burying the game.

Seven of Florida's eight first-half 3s came against the zone. On the first play after the half, UF knocked down another jumper against the zone, and Pitino refused to sit by and watch. He knew he had to switch. So the Cardinals moved to their man-to-man.

Of course, the pupil countered: Donovan exploited the man defense by running ball screens designed to force Louisville big man Gorgui Dieng to guard the perimeter. It worked, until the master countered back: Pitino told Behanan to wait until the last second on defense and switch with Dieng, flustering the designed screens just as they began to take shape.

It was around that point -- with 10:56 remaining -- that official Karl Hess whistled Pitino for a technical foul even though he was talking to Siva. ("I'm yelling at Peyton, 'Why would you foul, he's falling down,'" Pitino said. "I'm yelling, 'Why, why? Why would you foul?' And he gave me a technical.") Walker knocked down all four free throws on that dead-ball situation, Florida stretched its lead to 11 points, Siva was in foul trouble and the Cardinals looked like toast.

"I'm not going to lie," Behanan said. "I thought that was it after that."

That's when one of the Cardinals' quieter players called an impromptu, in-game team meeting. Kyle Kuric doesn't talk much, his teammates said, but when he does, they listen. And Kuric was talking now.

"Kyle grabbed everyone together and said, 'Listen, we're going through adversity,'" guard Russ Smith -- whose nickname, "Russ-diculous," couldn't possibly be more fitting -- said. "'They're hitting ridiculous shots. Let's just get some stops, because we're facing adversity. We've been here before.' We took off."

The Cardinals embarked on a 25-10 run to close the game. Smith and Behanan combined to score 23 of those points. Forward Behanan made key buckets down the stretch -- the one to tie the game at 66, the one with 1:12 left to play, when he cleared Dieng out and drained a turnaround jumper to give his team its first lead since the 14-minute mark in the first half.

Meanwhile, thanks to Siva's fifth foul at the four-minute mark, guard Smith finished the game on the floor. In typical "Russ-diculous" fashion, he threw the ball away to Florida guard Bradley Beal with 25 seconds remaining ... but lucked out when Beal traveled in the ensuing fracas.

"I could have cost us the season," Smith said. "I was very nervous. Thank God we won the game."

As for that defense, by the final whistle, the Cardinals had played 48 possessions in man-to-man. Florida shot just 11-of-29 against that pressure. In the second half, the Gators went 0-for-8 from long range and 9-of-25 overall. Pitino's adjustment, combined with Smith and Behanan's punctual baskets, changed the game.

So it was that, slowly but surely -- the product of conditioning and defensive adjustment and an uncanny knack for the timely play, more than any obviously overwhelming run -- Louisville won the game. It overcame a white-hot Florida first half, five fouls for its starting senior point guard, a second-half Pitino technical, and an 11-point deficit to get to the Final Four.

All season, it has overcome injuries and a putrid offense ("The other day we had an open practice, and I said to my son, 'We're about 2-of-50' -- and Gorgui made one of the two shots," Pitino cracked). Now, at the most important moments, it is overcoming teams with more talent, teams with more future draft picks, teams with more size, teams with more speed, lineups like Michigan State's and lineups like Florida's.

This Louisville team overcomes.

At the end, it all culminated with Walker's pointless heave, with a team hugging and screaming at midcourt, preparing to cut down the nylon net, with the freshman forward who had just carried them there sitting on the sideline, motionless, trying to take it all in.

"Somebody wake me up," Behanan said, before trailing off and laughing. "I still don't know how we won that game. I'm glad we did -- but it was crazy how we won."

Crazy? Sure. But par for the course for this Louisville team, which makes "find a way to win" less a cliché than a credo. It isn't pretty. It doesn't always make sense. But if Behanan was dreaming, he should roll over and hit snooze.

Somehow, his team is going to the Final Four.

It's not time to wake up just yet.

The teacher prevails again as Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals erase an 11-point second half deficit to beat Billy Donovan’s Florida Gators 72-68 and advance to their first Final Four since 2005.

This was the seventh all-time meeting between Pitino and Donovan as head coaches, and Pitino has still yet to lose to his student Donovan. Rick Pitino joins Roy Williams and Jack Gardner as the only coaches to take two schools to multiple Final Fours.

Déjà vu for Louisville?
The Cardinals appear to have destiny their side during their remarkable 8-0 run since the beginning of March.

Similar to last year’s national champion, the Connecticut Huskies, Louisville dropped four of its last six regular-season games. The Cardinals lost eight conference games, one fewer than the Huskies last year.

Like UConn, Louisville then stormed through the Big East Tournament, capturing the title in New York City, and has now reached the Final Four.

The last time that Louisville made the Final Four was 2005, when the Cardinals were also the 4-seed and won the West Regional.

In both 2005 and this year, Louisville beat the No. 1 seed by double digits in the Sweet 16, and played a No. 7 seed in the Regional Final.

And in the Elite Eight both years as well, the Cardinals had to overcome a hot shooting performance from their opponent to advance to the Final Four.

Turning point
Louisville mixed up its defense in the first half but couldn’t stop the Gators, allowing as many field goals in the first 20 minutes tonight (14) as it did Thursday in the entire game versus Michigan State.

Florida connected on 7-of-10 3-pointers against the Cardinals’ vaunted zone defense in the first half. In their first three tournament games, the Cardinals' zone limited opponents to 11-of-52 (21 percent) shooting from beyond the arc.

After allowing a made jumper while playing zone on the opening possession of the second half, the Cardinals played man-to-man defense the remainder of the game.

Florida then missed all eight of its long-distance attempts the rest of the way against Louisville's man defense and was outscored 39-27 in the second half.

After trailing by 11 with 8:16 left, Louisville finished the game on a 18-3 run. Florida made one of its final six paint attempts, two of which were blocked by Louisville. The Gators had made 12-of-15 field goals in the paint prior to the final eight minutes.

Florida’s historical obstacles
Entering Selection Sunday, the Gators had lost six of 10 games. Including this season, there were 75 teams since 1985 that entered the NCAA tournament with a 4-6 record or worse in the season's last 10 games.

Florida was just the third of those teams to reach the Elite Eight. The others were the 1986 North Carolina State Wolfpack and the 1997 Providence Friars.

Like the Gators, their incredible runs too ended with a loss in the Regional Final.

Stat of the game
No. 7 seeds are 0-7 all-time in the Elite Eight since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

Jay Bilas, Hubert Davis, Digger Phelps and Rece Dave break down Louisville's Final Four-clinching victory over Florida.

PHOENIX -- A quick recap of Louisville's 72-68 win over Florida on Saturday:

Overview: Somehow, despite everything, this Louisville team finds a way.

What else can you say?

The vaunted Louisville defense -- the nation's best on a per-possession basis, and one that swallowed up the No. 1-seeded Michigan State Spartans in the Sweet 16 -- was nowhere to be found in the first half. The Gators' vaunted offense -- the third-most efficient in the country -- went to work early and often. Florida's scoring was stellar in the first 20 minutes: The Gators posted 41 points on 14-for-21 shooting from the field, including 8-of-11 from 3-point range (yes, 8-for-11, good for a mind-boggling 72.7 percent). Much of this shooting was just flat hot, but some of it had to do with Louisville's defense -- which gave up a handful of open looks and transition 3s to trailing shooters such as Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton.

It would have been a shock to see Rick Pitino's team come out so flat in two straight halves, and the Cardinals turned up the pressure early, going on a 7-2 run to cut the lead to 43-40 in the first two minutes of the second half.

Florida didn't slow down, though. Instead, the Gators kept pushing, unaffected by the Cardinals' pressure defense, and the Gators continued to pile up points. Meanwhile, Louisville's 3-point shooting -- the most important facet of its offense -- went cold. The Cardinals shot 1-of-6 from beyond the arc in the first eight minutes of the second half, and by the under 12-minute timeout they trailed 54-47.

Turning point: That's when official Karl Hess struck. Hess whistled a somewhat ticky-tack foul on guard Peyton Siva, his fourth of the game, sending Louisville's leader to the bench with just under 11 minutes remaining. Pitino was livid, and Hess wasted no time assessing (or, as the Louisville fans sitting behind me put it, "Hessing") a technical foul. Walker stretched the Gators' lead, and a quick Erik Murphy hook brought it to 60-49, and the game appeared easily in hand.

Oh, and this wasn't exactly a turning point -- it came before the Hess-Pitino debacle -- but with 12:31 left, Walker assisted Patric Young on one of the most ridiculous and mind-blowing alley-oops these eyes have ever seen. No Rapid Reaction would be complete without its mention. (Just ... wow.)

But Louisville didn't go away. With six minutes remaining, Walker missed two free throws, which were followed by a corner jumper from Louisville's Russ Smith, a Bradley Beal travel and a trademark Smith runner. Suddenly Louisville trailed just 65-64 with 4:30 left to play.

Hess struck again. Pitino had gambled by leaving Siva in the game for much of the second half despite his four fouls, but Siva reached around Young in the post, and Hess called him for his fifth. By this point, Pitino either agreed (it wasn't a smart play on Siva's part, that's for sure) or was too exhausted to complain, but in any case Louisville's most important player ended his night with his team down one and just 3:58 left to play.

And yet, the Cardinals clawed back, getting the stops they couldn't find in the first half, scrapping for buckets under the rim and even getting a break or two (especially Beal's turnover after an awful pass from Smith in the final seconds). Chane Behanan gave Louisville its first lead with less than a minute to play, as much a turning point as this game had. Smith extended the lead to three points on two free throws; Florida missed two good looks at 3s on the penultimate possession; and the Cardinals' comeback -- so unlikely and yet so characteristic of this team -- was complete.

Key player: Smith. The guard was his typical "Russdiculous" self, mixing head-shaking plays with timely brilliance, and he had to take over for Siva in the final four minutes. He poked and prodded the Florida defense in classic Siva style, finding Behanan for a huge bucket to tie the game at 66 with three minutes left. Smith went to the line with a one-point lead and just 16.7 seconds remaining.

Likewise, Behanan's canny interior play was major again -- his bucket in the final minute gave Louisville its first lead of the second half, at 69-68. Behanan took control, telling Gorgui Dieng to clear out and let him work on Murphy, and he did. It couldn't have come at a better time. A star, as they say, was born.

Up next: Louisville's remarkable season continues with a trip to the Final Four and a likely matchup with Commonwealth rival Kentucky; prepare for every Kentucky resident to make an RV-led pilgrimage to New Orleans this week. (Provided, of course, the juggernaut that is the Kentucky Wildcats beats Baylor on Sunday.) Meanwhile, Florida falls one game short of becoming the first No. 7 seed since the 1984 Villanova Wildcats to make it to the Final Four.

And Florida coach Billy Donovan, so close to the man who robbed him of that Final Four spot, falls to 0-7 against his former coach and mentor -- in the most difficult of ways.

The Elite Eight begins with two intriguing matchups Saturday. Florida and Louisville overcame late-season challenges to reach this stage. Syracuse and Ohio State might be the most competitive matchup in the field.

(4) Louisville vs. (7) Florida, 4:30 p.m. ET, CBS

Things to know: Florida coach Billy Donovan once starred for Louisville's Rick Pitino at Providence. That’s the TV-friendly storyline that’s dominated the buildup to this Elite Eight matchup.

But first, we have to answer one question: How on earth did we end up with Florida and Louisville playing for a trip to New Orleans?

Prior to the NCAA tournament, the Gators had lost four of five. Three of those losses were by double digits. Before Louisville earned the Big East tournament crown, the Cardinals had lost four of six.

There just weren’t many reasons to consider this as a potential Elite Eight matchup once the Big Dance began. But both teams are riding serious momentum created by Sweet 16 upsets.

Louisville knocked off 1-seed Michigan State with one of the best defensive efforts in NCAA tourney history. The Spartans scored only 44 points, the lowest tally by a 1-seed since the introduction of the shot clock. Florida sent Marquette home after holding the Golden Eagles to 30.8 percent from the field.

The two teams have been carried by two athletes who’ve stepped up in the NCAA tournament.

Bradley Beal has recorded the following stat lines in Florida’s three NCAA victories: 14 points and 11 rebounds against Virginia; 14 points and 9 rebounds against Norfolk State; 21 points and 6 rebounds against Marquette. The freshman has competed like a veteran.

Louisville, No. 1 in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency ratings, has been the beneficiary of Gorgui Dieng’s surprising NCAA tournament production. The 6-foot-11 sophomore from Senegal has recorded 12 blocks and 5 steals in the Big Dance.

Look for the Cardinals to pressure point guard Erving Walker (8 turnovers in three NCAA tournament games), harass Florida’s potent shooters and dare the Gators to challenge Dieng inside. Look for the Gators to rely on Beal to play catalyst again and slice and dice a Louisville defense that doesn’t match up well with him.

The journey: Louisville defeated Davidson, New Mexico and Michigan State to reach the Elite Eight. Florida earned its shot at New Orleans with wins over Virginia, Norfolk State and Marquette.

Monitor his progress: When Patric Young gets touches (just 13 points on 9 shots combined in team’s last two games), the Gators are a better team. With Dieng surging for Louisville, the Gators need Young to produce on both ends of the floor.

Numbers to impress your friends: Michigan State shot just 22.2 percent from the field against Louisville’s zone (45 of 48 half-court possessions), according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Game’s most crucial question: How will Louisville guard Beal?

The matchup: Peyton Siva vs. Walker. Two speedy point guards who aren’t afraid to attack bigger defenders.

Don’t touch that remote because … Both teams have overachieved thus far. And Dieng’s defensive prowess is worth watching.

(1) Syracuse vs. (2) Ohio State, 7:05 p.m. ET, CBS

Things to know: One of two No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchups in the Elite Eight, Syracuse versus Ohio State features an intriguing personnel matchup.

Syracuse has reached the Elite Eight, its first since 2003, via a zone that is anchored by depth, length and athleticism. The Orange have three of the toughest guards in the field -- Scoop Jardine, Dion Waiters and Brandon Triche. The trio scored 38 points combined against Wisconsin on Thursday. And the Cuse's frontcourt length is unmatched (C.J. Fair, Baye Keita, Rakeem Christmas).

It’s easy to focus on the 14 3-pointers that the Badgers hit against Syracuse in their one-point loss in the Sweet 16. But the final possession -- Jordan Taylor air-balled a 3-pointer -- showcased Syracuse’s defensive lockdown ability. The Badgers couldn’t find a good shot. Wisconsin shot 52 percent from the 3-point line against Syracuse but was 7-for-22 (31.8 percent) on 2-pointers.

Syracuse has everything a national championship contender needs. Ohio State, however, possesses the same profile.

Aaron Craft is the best pure point guard in the field. The sophomore is averaging 12.0 points, 4.0 steals and 6.3 assists in the NCAA tournament. The only blemish on his tourney experience thus far has been his issues with turnovers (11 in three games). That could be a problem against a Syracuse team that entered the Sweet 16 forcing turnovers on nearly one-quarter of its opponents’ possessions.

But Craft is not the Buckeyes' only weapon. Deshaun Thomas and Jared Sullinger comprise the best frontcourt in the field. The sophomores combined for 49 points and 18 rebounds in the Sweet 16 victory over Cincinnati. Syracuse’s chances of neutralizing the tandem decreased when Fab Melo was ruled ineligible for NCAA tournament play.

But the Buckeyes are also one of the top defensive teams in the country (No. 2 in Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency ratings). Syracuse loves to play an up-tempo game, considering its knack for forcing turnovers and scoring on the break. But the Buckeyes (73rd in Pomeroy’s adjusted tempo ratings) can run, too.

Both teams are talented enough to adjust to any situation and/or style. Look for Ohio State to go to Thomas and Sullinger early in the paint. Syracuse doesn’t have the beef to keep the duo from the bucket. Look for Syracuse to trap William Buford and Craft (eight combined turnovers against Cincinnati) and to attack Thomas and Sullinger on offense, seeking early fouls.

The journey: Ohio State defeated Loyola (Md.), Gonzaga and Cincinnati to reach the Elite Eight. Syracuse beat UNC Asheville, Kansas State and Wisconsin.

Monitor his progress: This is a William Buford game. The Buckeyes will need the senior in order to advance to New Orleans. His shooting touch could be a crucial weapon against Syracuse’s zone. But Buford has disappeared at times this season. He scored four points against Cincinnati in the Sweet 16. The Buckeyes will need more from him against Syracuse.

Numbers to impress your friends: Ohio State has scored 55 points off 39 forced turnovers in three NCAA tournament games.

Game’s most crucial question: Will Ohio State crack Syracuse’s zone, despite Craft’s turnover challenges and a 33.6 percent clip from the 3-point line?

The matchup: Craft versus Jardine. Jardine leads one of the best transition attacks in the country. Craft is one of the nation’s top transition defenders. Both have cracked double digits in turnovers in the NCAA tournament.

Don’t touch that remote because … This matchup features two teams with few weaknesses and plenty of star power.

PHOENIX -- There is nowhere to hide. There are no secrets to keep and no shocking, revolutionary game plans to unveil.

With Louisville and Florida, this would also be the case in November: Is there a high-profile coaching duo as familiar with one another as Rick Pitino and his former star player and pupil, Billy Donovan? No.

That familiarity will play a factor, no doubt ... but it's also the default situation for any two teams squaring off with a Final Four berth on the line. By this point, the Cardinals and Gators are what they are. Both teams have revealed themselves in their three NCAA tournament victories to date. And both coaches will prepare their teams accordingly.

What do those preparations entail?

There's the obvious strength-on-strength matchup: Over the course of the season, Florida's offense has been one of the best and most efficient in the country. As of Friday's pregame press conferences, the Gators ranked No. 3 in adjusted efficiency, per KenPom.com. Louisville, meanwhile, has likewise been a great defensive team all season -- after Thursday night's historically brutal lockdown of No. 1-seeded Michigan State, the Cardinals rank No. 1 in the nation in defensive efficiency.

But there are also recent concerns to factor. Louisville's defense has gotten even better of late, but its offense has improved as the Cardinals have forced more turnovers and pushed the pace more often than during the regular season. And Florida, which struggled defensively all season, has morphed into a defensive beast in its own right. After allowing 1.04 points per possession in SEC play, the Gators have allowed just .80 points per trip in three impressive tournament wins over Virginia, Norfolk State and Marquette.

The Gators are eager to prove they're more than a deep shooting team -- a reputation they rightly earned throughout the season but which feels less applicable with each passing game. The Gators aren't shooting 3s particularly well of late, but they're winning all the same.

"Everyone already has an opinion on this team -- that we're a 3-point shooting team," guard Kenny Boynton said. "That's what everyone is saying. But we're not shooting a great 3-point percentage. In this tournament, it shows that we can score in different ways."

The Gators' newfound defensive toughness and overall versatility makes Pitino's game plan a bit tougher. He'll still be eager to unleash his team's hassling high-pressure defense on Florida's coterie of skilled guards, particularly primary ball handler Erving Walker. Pitino will also search for a team-oriented way to stop Bradley Beal -- the talented freshman swingman whose 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field made the key difference in Florida's win over Marquette -- because the Cardinals don't have one player who matches up with a future NBA lottery pick on a sheer personnel level.

In general, Pitino's defense will look to keep the Gators from doing their favorite thing of all -- storming opponents with lethal 3-point shooting, whether they admit it or not -- and let big man Gorgui Dieng, who tied a Louisville tournament record with seven blocks Thursday, handle the rest.

"Our ball pressure is tremendous," Louisville guard Chris Smith said. "We trace the ball wherever it goes. And we just really try to keep it out of reaching the 3-point line. And with this team, we have to step out even deeper to NBA range, because those guys can really shoot it."

Donovan, meanwhile, knows how good this defense is, and knows his team not only has to handle the Cardinals' ball pressure but also has to find a few easy buckets against Dieng on the inside. How? There are no secrets in the Elite Eight, and no easy answers for a Louisville defense this good.

"There's probably not a lot of stuff that they haven't seen run at them, being in the Big East and playing the schedule they've played," Donovan said. "Everybody's tried to attack it in a lot of different ways. But their defensive percentages from inside the line and behind the line are really remarkable."

Whom to watch:

Erving Walker, Florida: Walker's game may well determine whether Florida moves on. The Gators' point guard will handle much of the task of getting the ball across half court against Louisville's tricky off-again, on-again pressure, and he has been prone to turnovers in the past (his 18.0 percent turnover rate is the highest of any of Florida's starting guards, and the third-highest on the team). If Louisville guard Peyton Siva can create havoc for Walker, Louisville could again grind another opponent into submission even without much offensive efficiency of its own. Walker's ballhandling is absolutely crucial.

Chane Behanan, Louisville: The freshman was brilliant in Thursday's win, scoring 15 points, grabbing 9 rebounds and swiping 3 steals, and perhaps most impressive -- especially against Michigan State's defense, one of the best in the country -- was Behanan's calm, collected interior finishing. The Cardinals may need it again. Louisville isn't likely to shoot the ball well, especially against a Florida team with the quickness to keep up on the perimeter, and Dieng will likely neutralize much of what Gators big man Patric Young tries to do in the low block. Behanan, however, can be a matchup nightmare, too big for Beal, too quick and strong for Erik Murphy. Behanan is a tweener -- and he might be the Cardinals' best hope of posting something resembling an efficient offensive performance Saturday night.

What to watch:

To zone, or not to zone: On Thursday night, Pitino's team used a zone on 45 of its 48 possessions, holding Michigan State to just 22.2 percent shooting from the field in those trips. The ability to transition from a brutal midcourt pressure to a zone that slaps and claws and closes down angles -- well, needless to say, the Spartans didn't know what hit them.

In a perfect world, then, Pitino would bust out the zone again Saturday. That might not be the best idea. Florida loves to shoot those outside jumpers, and the team's biggest point of emphasis in recent weeks -- besides defense -- has been making sure everyone, from Walker to Boynton to Beal to Murphy and down the line, is hoisting shots with confidence. With all that backcourt quickness and the ability to fire from range, they may be the perfect zone-busting team. But can they be lulled into taking too many 3s? And is that what Pitino actually wants?

Whatever the Cardinals choose, it is likely to be effective. But the chess match between mentor and pupil, particularly when Florida has the ball, could be the tournament's most fascinating to date.

Billy Donovan talks about his seventh-seeded Gators' matchup with No. 4 Louisville on Saturday and about facing mentor and former coach Rick Pitino with a Final Four berth on the line.

PHOENIX -- The No. 7 seeds in the 2012 NCAA tournament were as follows:

Notre Dame. Saint Mary's. Gonzaga. Florida.

Sing it with me now: One of these things is not like the others.

For starters, Florida was the only No. 7 seed to survive the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, and the only one -- after Thursday's 68-58 victory over Marquette -- to reach the Elite Eight and the one-game-from-the-Final-Four precipice it so intensely entails.

But even before the first weekend played out as it did, the Gators stood apart. Their No. 7 seed felt low -- but not because of the RPI or résumé. That part made sense. Rather, this vague feeling was about talent. It was about whether this team could come together at the right time, could flip the proverbial switch, could play up to the tantalizing possibilities presented by so much offensive firepower and future NBA potential.

Two weeks later, Billy Donovan's team has provided the answer.

Thanks to a defense that has suddenly morphed into a shutdown force -- and the continued emergence of talented freshman guard Bradley Beal -- Florida is back in the Elite Eight for the second consecutive season. If the Gators find a way to break down Louisville's vaunted defense Saturday, they'll be back in the Final Four for the first time since Donovan's back-to-back national titles in 2006-07 -- and would become the first No. 7 seed to make it to the tournament's biggest stage since the 1984 Virginia Cavaliers.

"We're starting to peak right now," Florida forward Patric Young said. "It's the greatest time to play your best basketball."

That did not appear to be the case in February, when Florida was drubbed at Kentucky, lost at home to Tennessee and finished SEC regular-season play with three consecutive losses, including a 76-62 defeat at Georgia on Feb. 25.

At that point, it was easy to have the Gators pegged: This was a good, sometimes great, offensive team reliant on 3-point shots and guard play, but one that didn't defend well enough to hold opponents back when that steady stream of outside shots failed to fall.

That once-shaky defense has experienced a sea change in the first three rounds of the NCAA tournament. Last weekend, the Gators held Virginia and Norfolk State to an incredibly low .74 points per trip -- combined. (They won both games by a total margin of 60 points.) On Thursday night, against a much better opponent in Marquette -- and one that boasted not one but two potent All-Big East players in Darius Johnson-Odom and Jae Crowder -- the Gators held that duo to 10-of-30 from the field and, in the process, allowed the Golden Eagles just .86 points per trip.

According to ESPN Stats & Info, the 153 points allowed by UF is the third-lowest total in a team’s first three tournament wins during the shot-clock era.

When your offense is one of the nation's five most efficient for an entire season (it is currently No. 3 in Ken Pomeroy's adjusted efficiency rankings) your defense doesn't have to be this good. When it is? Well, look out.

"When you don't make shots, the easiest thing to say is, well, we just missed shots that we typically make," Marquette coach Buzz Williams said. "That wasn't what happened. They were really good. They were outstanding."

And the Gators needed to be. Marquette is itself an awfully good defensive team, and one particularly inclined -- thanks to its coterie of guards and athletic bigs and focus on tight perimeter defense -- to take Florida out of its bombs-away 3-point shooting game. To some extent, that's what happened. The Gators struggled from the field, and especially from beyond the arc; they went 4-of-14 in the first half and just 3-of-13 in the second. In all, Marquette held UF to a mere 1.01 points per possession, an unusually low number for one of the nation's best offenses.

The difference, by the end, was Beal. The Gators not named Beal shot 16-of-49 from the field and 4-of-22 from 3. Meanwhile, the UF freshman played one of the most efficient individual games of the NCAA tournament to date, dropping 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting (and 3-of-5 from 3).

Fittingly, it was Beal's final basket, a soaring open-floor dunk, that truly signaled the end of Marquette's comeback bid, in which it cut a 14-point second-half lead to six with just 3:18 left to play. Donovan warned his players the Golden Eagles would "keep coming," and keep coming had finally, in the final minute, gone away. For all of Marquette's fight, for all its guile, and for all the ideal matchups it could field against Florida's guard-heavy lineup, Williams' team had no match for Donovan's surefire future lottery pick.

Williams put it in political terms:

"I think Bradley Beal is their swing vote," he said, "because he's so multi-versatile and talented."

Indeed, Beal's stature as one of the nation's top recruits -- he was the fifth-rated player in the class of 2011 -- was one of the main reasons Florida began the season so highly regarded despite losing forward Chandler Parsons from last season's Elite Eight team. With Beal joining Young and Kenny Boynton and Erving Walker and Rutgers transfer Mike Rosario, the promise of this team was limitless.

But Beal, like so many freshmen, took time to adjust to the college game -- to figure out how it feels when, all of a sudden, the game doesn't quite come so easily.

"At times he could get a little moody and get a little pouty and just didn't know how to handle it," Donovan said. "I had a hard time with him early in the year. ... I asked [Brad] one time, 'What's the most difficult part for you playing in college?' He said, 'Dealing with adversity and dealing with bad games -- because I didn't have a lot of those in high school.'

"He was always the best player on the floor."

Even with two of the nation's most talented teams on the court -- even with two Big East first-teamers on the squad opposite him -- there was no mistaking the best player on the court Thursday night.

His continued emergence, alongside a suddenly stout defense and an offensive attack still capable of sniping defenses into submission, has the Gators one win away from a Final Four. Of course, they'll have to topple another very good defense -- the Louisville Cardinals, who shut down No. 1-seeded Michigan State just minutes before Florida took the court Thursday. And Donovan will have to best his old coach and mentor, Rick Pitino, before UF can line up any Big Easy travel plans. (The over/under on the number of times you read about this dynamic in the next 48 hours is somewhere in the five-digit area. Fair warning.)

But one thing is clear: This is no normal 7-seed. The Gators had their share of ups and downs, sure, but this team is primed for March, playing its best basketball, as Young said, at the perfect time. We say that often about teams this time of year. Rarely does it ring so true.

"We're really locked in," Young said. "Hopefully we haven't reached that peak. Hopefully, we're still going up."

A recap of Thursday's action in the Men's Basketball Championship.

(4) Louisville 57, (1) Michigan St 44
Rick Pitino improves to 10-0 as a coach in the Sweet 16 -- the best mark of any coach in the history of the tournament -- and Tom Izzo loses to a Big East team in the Men's Basketball Championship for the first time in his career (5-1).

Michigan State's 44 points and 28.6 field goal percentage are both its worst in a Men's Basketball Championship game.

Gorgui Dieng blocked seven shots, tying both his career high and the school record for blocks in a Men's Basketball Championship game (Pervis Ellison, 1989), to help Louisville advance to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2009 and the 12th time in school history.

Draymond Green leads the Spartans with 13 points and 16 rebounds in his final collegiate game.

(1) Syracuse 64, (4) Wisconsin 63
With their victory over Wisconsin, the Orange return to the Elite Eight for the first time since winning the national championship in 2003.

With his 48th tournament victory, Jim Boeheim passes John Wooden for fifth place all-time in tournament wins.

Wisconsin shot 14-for-27 from behind the arc but just 7-for-22 from inside. The 14 3-pointers are the second-most in a tournament game for the Badgers.

The last time Syracuse won a game by one point in the NCAA tournament was the Sweet 16 in 2003, when the Orange beat Auburn 79-78 and went on to win the national championship.

It’s just the fifth time a 1 seed won by just a single point in the Sweet 16.

Wisconsin tried to impose its will in this game, limiting Syracuse to just 52 possessions. That’s the fewest possessions for Syracuse in any game in the past 15 seasons. The previous low was 54, done twice (1999 versus Princeton and 2006 versus West Virginia, both wins).

(7) Florida 68, (3) Marquette 58
Florida reaches the Elite Eight for the fourth time in seven seasons behind one of the best defensive efforts in the shot-clock era.

The Gators have allowed just 153 points through three games in the tournament; only two teams since 1986 have allowed fewer in their first three tournament wins.

The Golden Eagles made 20 field goals, just one more than their season low, but are the first team to top 50 points against Florida in this year’s tournament.

(2) Ohio State 81, (6) Cincinnati 66
Aaron Craft led the defensive effort with six steals, an Ohio State record in a Men's Basketball Championship game. The loss matches Cincinnati's worst in the Sweet 16.

Deshaun Thomas leads all scorers with 26 points (20 in the first half) and adds seven rebounds as Ohio State beats Cincinnati in the Men's Basketball Championship for the first time in school history.

Thomas joins a great list of players in the past five seasons to average at least 25.0 point per game and reach the Elite Eight. The bad news for the Buckeyes is that none of the other three players reached the Final Four.

Dick Vitale, Hubert Davis and Rece Davis discuss Florida's defense and the play of Bradley Beal.

PHOENIX -- A quick recap of Florida's 68-58 win over Marquette Thursday night:

Overview: Maybe Florida can defend after all. The Gators' defense has been their chief deficiency all season, the one major factor keeping such a talented team -- and such a high-powered offense -- from truly breaking through. But after two huge defensive performances in their first two tournament wins, the Gators kept it up, holding Marquette stars Jae Crowder and Darius Johnson-Odom to a combined 29 points on just 10-of-30 shooting from the field.

Turning point: As usual, Florida's shooting made the difference. The Gators maintained a six-point lead for the first six minutes of the first half when Erving Walker and Bradley Beal made back-to-back 3s, opening a 12-point advantage the Gators more or less maintained until the final three minutes. That's when Marquette -- thanks to a steal, a timeout call, a made 3 and a fast-break layup, all from Todd Mayo, all in the matter of 50 seconds -- drew the game back to 58-52.

On the ensuing possession, Walker found Kenny Boynton for a wide-open 3. Boynton missed, but forward Patric Young corralled the rebound and kicked it out just in time to preserve the possession. Walker knocked down a 3 of his own, stretching the lead to nine. Crowder answered with a 3 -- as expected, the Eagles refused to go away --but four free throws from Boynton essentially sealed the game.

Key player: Bradley Beal. The freshman and likely NBA lottery pick has had a mostly unsung season for the Gators, but he remains as dangerous as any player on the floor at any given time. His 21 points -- the last two of which came on a thunderous punctuation-mark dunk in the game's final minute -- came in hyperefficient fashion on 8-of-10 shooting from the field. Beal doesn't force; rather, he picks and chooses his spots. He did so brilliantly Thursday night.

Key stats: The combined marks for Crowder and Johnson-Odom tell the tale; without efficient contributions from its two stars, Marquette scored just 58 points on 66 possessions, well below its typically stellar offensive averages.

What’s next: Marquette coach Buzz Williams saw his second straight team into the Sweet 16, but that's the ceiling yet again. The Golden Eagles will go back to the drawing board in 2012-13 without their two senior stars. Meanwhile, the Gators progress to the Elite Eight, where they will meet No. 4-seeded Louisville, which got there by posting the tournament's best defensive performance to date. That should be a fascinating matchup.

Before the Sweet 16 gets under way, our experts offer their predictions for all four regions:

EAST REGION (Boston)

Jay Bilas: Ohio State over Syracuse
Eamonn Brennan: Ohio State over Wisconsin
Fran Fraschilla: Syracuse over Ohio State
John Gasaway: Ohio State over Syracuse
Doug Gottlieb: Ohio State over Syracuse
Andy Katz: Ohio State over Syracuse
Jason King: Ohio State over Syracuse
Joe Lunardi: Wisconsin over Ohio State
Myron Medcalf: Wisconsin over Cincinnati
Dana O'Neil: Ohio State over Syracuse
Miles Simon: Syracuse over Ohio State
Dick Vitale: Ohio State over Syracuse
Jay Williams: Syracuse over Cincinnati

WEST REGION (Phoenix)

Jay Bilas: Michigan State over Marquette
Eamonn Brennan: Michigan State over Marquette
Fran Fraschilla: Michigan State over Marquette
John Gasaway: Michigan State over Marquette
Doug Gottlieb: Florida over Michigan State
Andy Katz: Michigan State over Marquette
Jason King: Marquette over Michigan State
Joe Lunardi: Michigan State over Marquette
Myron Medcalf: Michigan State over Marquette
Dana O'Neil: Michigan State over Marquette
Miles Simon: Marquette over Michigan State
Dick Vitale: Michigan State over Marquette
Jay Williams: Marquette over Michigan State

SOUTH REGION (Atlanta)

Jay Bilas: Kentucky over Baylor
Eamonn Brennan: Kentucky over Baylor
Fran Fraschilla: Kentucky over Baylor
John Gasaway: Kentucky over Baylor
Doug Gottlieb: Kentucky over Baylor
Andy Katz: Kentucky over Baylor
Jason King: Kentucky over Baylor
Joe Lunardi: Kentucky over Baylor
Myron Medcalf: Kentucky over Xavier
Dana O'Neil: Kentucky over Xavier
Miles Simon: Kentucky over Baylor
Dick Vitale: Kentucky over Baylor
Jay Williams: Kentucky over Baylor

MIDWEST REGION (St. Louis)

Jay Bilas: Kansas over North Carolina
Eamonn Brennan: Kansas over North Carolina
Fran Fraschilla: North Carolina over Kansas
John Gasaway: Kansas over North Carolina
Doug Gottlieb: Kansas over North Carolina
Andy Katz: North Carolina over Kansas
Jason King: North Carolina over Kansas
Joe Lunardi: Kansas over North Carolina
Myron Medcalf: Kansas over North Carolina
Dana O'Neil: Kansas over North Carolina
Miles Simon: Kansas over North Carolina
Dick Vitale: North Carolina over Kansas
Jay Williams: NC State over North Carolina

PHOENIX -- A lesson to those still getting to know Marquette coach Buzz Williams:

If you give him a chance to be self-deprecating, he will take it. Boy, will he ever take it.

Asked Wednesday how he would compare himself to the three other coaches in this region -- Florida's Billy Donovan, Michigan State's Tom Izzo and Louisville's Rick Pitino -- Williams didn't hesitate to draw the differences. And, as usual, he came prepared with numbers to buttress his case.

"Coach Donovan has won 27 NCAA tournament games," Williams said. "Coach Izzo has won 37. Coach Pitino has won 40. All of them have won national championships. All of them have coached in the [NBA] or decided they didn't want to coach in the league. And the league that I should be in is the Lone Star Conference, a Division II league in Texas. I should be an assistant in that league. So I don't belong. I don't compare.

"I wish that would have been a question on the SAT. I wouldn't have had to go to junior college. [On] the word association on the SAT, I would have gotten that right."

This is the Buzz college hoops fans have come to know the past four seasons: a witty, effusive presence who dresses to impress on the sideline (Williams says his one non-basketball hobby is clothes: "I really like looking at different shirts and ties and suits and gear"), dances when his players dunk (just YouTube it), dances to West Virginia's "Country Roads" in Morgantown (for which Williams again apologized Wednesday), and who, despite all the fun, works so relentlessly that in 2010 he was told by a doctor at the Mayo Clinic he would "die a very early death" unless he dedicated himself to getting more sleep.

Williams' edge is borne of his beginnings. He earned his nickname during his time at Navarro College, when Navarro coach Lewis Orr remarked that Williams constantly "buzzed" around the men's basketball program at the Texas school. At 21, Williams landed his first coaching job by first camping in a hotel lobby at the Final Four and then, ultimately, outside the house of University of Texas-Arlington coach Eddie McCarter.

Now 39 and four years into his tenure at Marquette, Williams has reconfigured an already successful hoops program in his image. Last season, Williams' first trip to the Sweet 16 came thanks to four former junior college players: Darius Johnson-Odom, Jae Crowder, Jimmy Butler and Dwight Buycks. Butler was drafted last season and Buycks graduated, but Crowder and Johnson-Odom remain, not only as senior leaders but as two of the top five contenders for Big East player of the year.

Crowder won the award, but Johnson-Odom was just as qualified. Together, they lead a team whose identity stems from its coach, and vice versa.

"There's no telling what you might see from our coach," Johnson-Odom said. "He's very enthusiastic about what he does. I think that's why a lot of people love him. When you have that much energy, to show your guys that 'I'm here for you guys,' the coach just wants to win because of the stuff he has been through as a coach. As his players, I think it's a joy to see."

Williams also brings another element to the table, one occasionally lost in the talk about shirt-tie combos and junior colleges and "Country Roads" -- few head coaches in the country are as open and fluent in the language of tempo-free statistics. To wit, of Florida, Williams said Wednesday:

"There's very few teams -- everybody knows that they lead the country in 3-point field goal makes, but there's very few teams that have that offensive rebounding percentage and at the same time have those offensive efficiency-type numbers. So it's as potent an offensive team as I've studied this year."

This isn't just manna for college hoops nerds (though we'll certainly take it); it's also a key reason Williams finds himself wedged in a West Region with three of college basketball's most successful coaches, just two winnable games away from the Final Four.

To get there, of course, his team will first and foremost have to handle Florida's aforementioned potent offense. The good news? Marquette's perimeter defense is among the best units remaining in the tournament; since Feb. 24, only one team (BYU) has shot better than 28 percent from beyond the arc against the Golden Eagles. That may be the key matchup in Thursday's second game in Phoenix (10:17 p.m. ET), and the one that could push Williams further than he's ever been in his head coaching career: to the Elite Eight.

Whatever happens, the matchup of two speedy, guard-oriented teams should be one of the tournament's best to date -- a reprise of Marquette's thrilling, hard-fought win over Murray State in the round of 32.

And if Williams' team wins, maybe we'll even see a little dance.

"How could you not love a guy like that?" Johnson-Odom said.

Who to watch

Marquette's Darius Johnson-Odom: DJO's offensive skills are well-documented, but where he will be especially important is on the defensive end. Florida's guards fire more 3s than most, and the Gators' offense -- which relies on ball screens and spacing and minimal post opportunities for forward Patric Young -- has to be efficient from distance to make up for what has been for much of the season a merely mediocre defense.

Florida's Kenny Boynton: Boynton has quietly had a stellar season, at least on the offensive end. There are plenty of worthy guards on this team -- from diminutive senior Erving Walker to likely lottery pick freshman Bradley Beal to former Rutgers transfer and bench spark plug Mike Rosario -- but Boynton's consistency has made him the most indispensable part of Florida's attack.

What to watch

Florida's defense: Florida's somewhat disappointing regular season -- at least relative to preseason expectations and the immense talent of its personnel -- had much to do with a defense that couldn't force stops or turnovers and would fall behind when UF's outside shooting hit occasional (though rare) slumps. But the Gators have shown signs of a postseason turnaround. In their two NCAA tournament victories, they allowed their opponents (Virginia and Norfolk State) a mere .71 and .77 points per possession, respectively. But is that improvement real, or the product of meager opposition? We know Marquette will come to play on defense, and we know the Golden Eagles are capable of scoring in bunches on the other end. Whether Florida has made legitimate defensive strides will almost certainly decide who goes home Thursday night.

When North Carolina guard Kendall Marshall fractured his wrist in Sunday's win against Creighton, it was momentarily easy to forget Marshall isn't the most talented or productive player on his team. There's Tyler Zeller and Harrison Barnes and John Henson, and that's just for starters. So why is losing Marshall such a big deal?

Because he is, without question, UNC's most important player. The most efficient? No. The most gifted? Probably not. But there's little question Marshall -- with his visionary, table-setting passing (second nationally in assists), intelligent tempo management and offensive initiation, and the lack of a viable backup -- was/is the most crucial personnel component to Carolina's style, identity and ultimately success.

Which got us thinking: Who is everyone else's Marshall? Who's the most indispensable player on each of the Sweet 16 rosters, the one each team could least afford to lose? Well, we're glad you (OK, we) asked. Here's what we came up with:

South Region

No. 1 Kentucky: Anthony Davis, forward -- No overthinking this one. Sure, there's an argument to be made for Marquis Teague, who appeared for much of the season to be Kentucky's lone potential weakness; Teague's two months of consistently increased success -- culminating in a brilliant performance in a rout of Iowa State -- have cast doubts about whether he could be easily replaced. But one can envision a scenario in which guard Doron Lamb, whose ballhandling is probably slightly underrated at this point, would be able to get UK into its offense. Coach John Calipari would find a way to make it work. Without Davis, the Cats lose a downright transcendent shot-blocking force and the source of countless easy baskets on the other end of the floor, the type of player who opposing coaches frequently say "changes the game." It's Davis, and it's hard to find the counterintuitive argument here.

No. 3 Baylor: Quincy Acy, forward -- While not the most talented big man in Baylor's lineup, Acy's absence would irreparably harm the Bears for two obvious reasons: He scores easy buckets in the low block, and he rebounds. Perry Jones III does some of these same things, too, but hardly to the level Acy does (and not nearly as consistently), and the Bears -- a very good offensive rebounding team that struggles on the defensive glass -- would not be nearly as good on offense were Acy not around to clean up so many misses.

No. 4 Indiana: Cody Zeller, forward -- Again, no use in overthinking this. Zeller is by far IU's leader in offensive efficiency and rebounding, and he has changed the way the Hoosiers -- who were immensely foul-prone the past three years under Tom Crean -- guard the rim and chase down misses. Plus, without him, Indiana's big man rotation would consist of Tom Pritchard and Derek Elston. We've seen that movie before. It was not critically acclaimed.

No. 10 Xavier: Kenny Frease, center -- Sticking with the all-big-men theme here, Frease is the most indispensable player because Xavier really doesn't have another guy who can do what he does, primarily on the glass. If star guard Tu Holloway went missing, the Musketeers would certainly lack for offensive creativity, but they'd have another talented (if mercurial) guard in Mark Lyons, who would no doubt be more than willing to hoist a few extra shots. Without Frease, Chris Mack's team would be in no-man's-land on the low block.

West Region

No. 1 Michigan State: Draymond Green, forward -- When you do this much for your team, your membership on this list requires no explanation. Really, it's not even close.

No. 3 Marquette: Darius Johnson-Odom, guard -- Jae Crowder's breakout senior season has been a huge factor in this team's success, no doubt about it. But DJO's relentless, attacking, bruising style -- not to mention his all-court game, his lockdown perimeter defense and his ability to go end-to-end on the fast break both with rim finishes and pull-up jumpers -- gives this Marquette team its hard-won identity.

No. 4 Louisville: Gorgui Dieng, forward -- I promise, this list isn't all forwards. The obvious answer here is Peyton Siva, but the Cardinals already have a pretty willing on-ball defender and shot-happy penetrator in guard Russ Smith, while Dieng -- a crazy-lanky shot-blocker, rebounder and defensive anchor -- has keyed so much of the Cards' No. 2-ranked per-possession defense this season.

No. 7 Florida: Kenny Boynton, guard -- The original temptation was to go with another big man, in this case Patric Young, but let's be real: The Gators don't use their frontcourt on offense anyway. Which is why Boynton's ability not only to take a lot of long-range jumpers but actually make them at a high rate is so important. That isn't always the case with the rest of this backcourt. Plus, Boynton -- with the possible exception of Bradley Beal -- happens to be Florida's most creative scorer off the dribble, one of the Gators' few players who can do more than chuck long-range shots to fuel this high-powered offense.

Midwest Region

No. 1 North Carolina: Kendall Marshall, guard -- By now, you get the idea.

No. 2 Kansas: Tyshawn Taylor, guard -- The obvious choice is Thomas Robinson and, you know, duh: Dude's a national player of the year candidate for a reason. But at this stage of the season, Kansas' ability to win a national title rests in large part on Taylor's play at the point guard spot. If he is on -- attacking the rim and finding teammates without coughing up turnovers -- he's truly the biggest X factor on Bill Self's team. If he's off, the Jayhawks turn to Elijah Johnson, Travis Releford and ... Conner Teahan? The defense rests.

No. 11 North Carolina State: Lorenzo Brown, guard -- C.J. Leslie has blossomed into this team's most impressive player, but its point guard deserves as much if not more credit for the unlikely late-season Sweet 16 run this Wolfpack team has somehow managed to piece together. On a team with no tournament experience and plenty of young players, Brown's calming influence on the ball is a major asset.

No. 13 Ohio: D.J. Cooper, guard -- Cooper demonstrated his worth with huge shots down the stretch against a South Florida team that prides itself on disallowing exactly the kind of offensive display Cooper generated. For a team with the No. 2-ranked opponents' turnover percentage in the country, Cooper's 4.3 percent steals rate (the 22nd-ranked individual mark in the country) truly makes it go.

East Region

No. 1 Syracuse: C.J. Fair, forward -- It's hard to pick from Syracuse's still-stacked-minus-Fab lineup, but Fair gets the nod. With all due respect to Scoop Jardine, Dion Waiters, Kris Joseph and Brandon Triche, the Orange wouldn't exactly hurt for scoring guards were one of them to suffer an injury. If Fair went down, Jim Boeheim would lose his last truly effective big man, and the only viable interior option this side of Rakeem Christmas and Baye Keita.

No. 2 Ohio State: William Buford, guard -- This is a bit of a tricky one, because there's simply no replacing Jared Sullinger's interior prowess or Aaron Craft's incredible perimeter defense. But if OSU is truly a national title threat -- and it looks the part thus far -- that's because Buford, who struggled with his shot in nearly every Ohio State loss this season, isn't cashing in from the perimeter. Having Buford as a go-to option on the outside only aids Sullinger's load and takes as much pressure off Craft and the rest of the Buckeyes as possible. The senior has to score efficiently for this team to make a run. Simple as that.

No. 4 Wisconsin: Jordan Taylor, guard -- Again: No overthinking required, no explanation needed. May a resounding duh ring forth across the land.

No. 6 Cincinnati: Yancy Gates, forward -- With all due respect to Sean Kilpatrick, who has quietly become one of the stars of the tournament, the Bearcats would be a team full of guards with no interior punch (sorry) were it not for the indomitable Gates. Losing Kilpatrick would be a major blow, but lineup and skill-set facsimiles abound. Not so with Gates. He's crucial.