ESPN Men's Basketball

Incoming freshmen should anticipate major adjustments at the Division I level. The players are bigger, stronger and faster.

But the uptick in competition is only part of the transition from high school to college. The 21st-century college basketball player should understand off-court expectations, too.

They're all about adhering to proper swagger etiquette.

I hope you all have notepads ready. Here’s what you’ll need to get ready for Division I basketball off the floor:

• An Instagram account: Twitter is so 2011. These days, college basketball players send messages through photos via Instagram. It’s a cool tool. You take photos, attach a brief memo and ship the image to the world. Or if you’re Jared Sullinger, you send photos of text-message exchanges with other All-America forwards. You need this. Trust me.
• Friendships with rappers: Blame Notre Dame’s Skylar Diggins. Lil Wayne’s highly publicized crush on the talented guard dramatically increased her street cred and Twitter follower count. Jay-Z sat behind Kentucky’s bench during the Final Four. Romeo Miller (the onetime Lil' Romeo who now just goes by Romeo) didn’t just support USC basketball. He actually joined the team. Find a rapper. Become his friend.
• Fashionable specs: I know. You have 20/20 vision. Doesn’t matter. This is all about style. I learned about this recent development in college basketball fashion from Michigan State’s Adreian Payne. He says his black glasses project sophistication. It’s either that or an affinity for Clark Kent.
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Kelly Kline/Getty ImagesNerlens Noel brings a signature coif to Kentucky ... but does he have the right backpack?
• The Kevin Durant backpack: Throw the gym bag in the trash. That’s old school. You need a backpack. Not a normal backpack. You won’t haul anything in it. You need a backpack that’s also a fashion statement. Durant’s backpack -- one he wears to postgame press conferences -- started this trend.
• Access to a state-of-the-art facility: Florida State’s players get access to their team’s practice facility by placing their hands on some sort of “Star Trek” detection device. Indiana’s facility features underwater treadmills in the training room, his and hers gyms for the men’s and women’s squads and an atrium that doubles as a museum for Indiana basketball. Players’ lounges -- think college kids bonding, not “Shaft” -- are standard, too. And then, there’s Oklahoma State’s basketball facility. Is that legal?
• Trend-setting hair: Nerlens Noel is covered. But what about the rest of the incoming freshmen? Will your hair matter? It definitely did for Wisconsin’s Mike Bruesewitz. Stores in Madison sell wigs of his former curly-afro look. Still waiting for the cornrows version. The hair on top of St. Louis guard Jordair Jett’s head can only be described as majestic. Talk to your barber about this.
• Beats by Dre headphones: Yes, they’re $300 headphones, but a multitude of college players wears them and, somehow, purchases them. They’re a necessity, I guess. You either have a pair of mammoth Beats by Dre headphones or you don’t wear headphones in public as a Division I basketball player. I don’t think the headphones offer a real advantage over their competitors. But, they’re the norm for college basketball players. The obsession with Dr. Dre’s headphones among NBA players has certainly trickled down. Even high school players demand them now. Put it on the shopping list.

Feel free to add on …

On this season of "Mad Men," Megan Draper decides to leave the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce offices to pursue her dream of acting despite her clear ease in the profession. Discussing the decision, Peggy, a former secretary whose success in the office was hard won, says to Joan: "I think she's good at everything. I think she's just one of those girls."

It would appear Delvon Roe is just one of those guys. The former Michigan State forward was a future NBA star coming out of high school. After seemingly constant knee injuries, and three difficult, but productive years at Michigan State, Roe's legs finally betrayed him, and he decided to step away from the Spartans in his senior season to focus more on his other love, acting.

Lo and behold, just a year into his acting career -- after performances in Michigan State theater productions -- Roe is already having at least some small measure of success. As MLive's Diamond Leung reports, Roe's feature-film debut, "Love and Honor," will premiere Wednesday at the Cannes Film Market.

Roe spent last summer on location in Ann Arbor filming scenes from the movie, which was formerly entitled "AWOL." Liam Hemsworth ("The Hunger Games") stars in the Vietnam War-era film about a soldier who secretly returns home from war to win back his girlfriend. The 6-foot-8 Roe plays the role of Isaac. Lightning Entertainment announced last week it had acquired the international sales rights to "Love and Honor" and would introduce it to buyers in Cannes.

Roe has said he plans to turn to coaching if acting doesn't work out, but if this keeps up, it might never be an issue. This is already an auspicious start to his second career. How great would it be if Roe, whose NBA future seemed like a certainty before his first knee injuries derailed the sheer natural talent he displayed in high school, made it big in acting instead?

Most of us are lucky enough to be good at one thing. Roe, apparently, is not like most of us.

1. The National Association of Basketball Coaches' board of directors is meeting in Indianapolis on Thursday, with the issue of transfers and how to handle the requests as a primary agenda item. The board has some notable names, including Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, who was involved in a high-profile case in which the player was initially restricted from transferring to a number of schools; Michigan State’s Tom Izzo; Pitt’s Jamie Dixon; Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim; Notre Dame’s Mike Brey; and NC State’s Mark Gottfried, among others. The NABC doesn’t have legislative power but does serve as a lobbying group to the membership -- and can also influence other coaches on how to handle a transfer situation.

2. The men's NCAA tournament basketball selection committee will also meet Thursday in Indianapolis. The primary agenda item, according to incoming chair Mike Bobinski of Xavier, is to determine the 2013 East Regional site. The finalists are expected to be Syracuse and Brooklyn (Newark, N.J., is still technically in, but it would be a surprise since the regional was there in 2011). Bobinski said it is unusual for the site still to be unknown less than a year before the event. The dismissal of former NCAA vice president Greg Shaheen apparently contributed to the site selection delay; Shaheen’s replacement, Mark Lewis, will be at the meeting. The original plan was for the tourney’s 75th anniversary to have a presence at Madison Square Garden. But the NCAA couldn’t make a commitment before the Garden had to turn in its Knicks and Rangers schedules to the NBA and NHL, respectively. The 2013 Final Four is in Atlanta. The other regional sites are set in Los Angeles (Staples Center), Dallas-Fort Worth (Cowboys Stadium) and Indianapolis (Lucas Oil Stadium)

3. New Illinois coach John Groce has added two transfers in Rayvonte Rice from Drake and Sam McLaurin from Coastal Carolina. The Illini are also busy finalizing their last major non-conference game. Illinois will play Auburn on Dec. 29 at the United Center in Chicago to fill the final significant game on the schedule.

This morning, my man Myron Medcalf honed in on the Indiana Hoosiers. He spoke with coach Tom Crean about Cody Zeller's similarities to Andrew Luck -- which go deeper than "they're both really good" -- and the massive preseason expectations the Hoosiers will face in the run up to the 2012-13 season. Crean is handling the preseason expectations how you'd, ahem, expect -- by trying to instill some perspective in his players, who he believes aren't "caught up" in the hype for next season:

"When you’re immersed in it, you stay in your own reality. And our reality is we’ve got a long way to go to get where we want to go. We’re going to have upwards of eight freshmen and sophomores on this team next year. Obviously, one of them is Cody [Zeller] but still, he’s only going to be a sophomore. And the bottom line for us is we’ve got to get a lot of guys meshed into this team."

Of course, he's right. That goes not only for Indiana's chances of competing for a Final Four spot or a national title, but also for winning the Big Ten, which will again be the nation's best conference in 2012-13.

Indiana is the early favorite to win the league, but it's hardly a guarantee. At least two other teams, the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines, are fully justified in having Big Ten title aspirations. Both teams will arguably have as much talent on their rosters as the Hoosiers.

As expected, Ohio State lost Jared Sullinger to the NBA draft, and shooting guard William Buford graduated this spring. But the Buckeyes -- thanks to Thad Matta's excellent 2011 recruiting class -- have big-time players waiting in the wings.

Center Amir Williams was infrequently used in his freshman season, but was the No. 4 center in his recruiting class. He should be ready, after a year of Sully apprenticeship, to take on big minutes and a major role on both ends of the floor. Swingman Sam Thompson could experience a similar sophomore boost, and point guard Shannon Scott will take on a bigger share of minutes playing behind and alongside starting point guard Aaron Craft. Sophomore small forward LaQuinton Ross missed his entire freshman season due to academic issues, but he could play a role as well.

Plus, the remaining starters are awfully good. Deshaun Thomas is one of the nation's most versatile scoring threats who rounded out his game throughout an excellent sophomore season, while Craft remains the nation's best perimeter defender, bar none. Offense may be a struggle for these Buckeyes early in the season, but their sterling ballhawking defense, a trademark of Matta's teams at OSU, isn't going anywhere.

Michigan will be no less talented. Coach John Beilein got the best news of his offseason when he learned that Big Ten Freshman of the Year (media) Trey Burke would eschew the NBA draft and return to school. Burke is a fantastically intelligent, savvy player, and his efficiency statistics (he posted a 105.3 offensive rating in 2012) will only get better as he improves his outside shooting and cuts down on the turnovers that occasionally marred his proclivity (as evidenced by his 28.7 percent assist rate) for the art of the dime. Shooting guard Tim Hardaway Jr. could be one of the nation's most polished perimeter scorers as a junior.

Beilein will mesh his leftover talent -- from a team that won a share of its first Big Ten title since the mid-80s, no less -- with the two best recruits of his Michigan tenure. Glenn Robinson III, the son of former NBA star Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson (we agreed we are calling Robinson III "Little Big Dog," yes?) is ranked No. 18 overall in the class of 2012. He has drawn raves from ESPNU's scouts for his "freakish athleticism" and ability to score from the perimeter, off the dribble and in the mid-range. His longtime friend and fellow incoming freshman, power forward Mitch McGary, was once considered the second-best prospect in the class of 2012. He's slipped since then, but only to No. 27 overall in the class, and he promises to be a force in his first season for the Wolverines.

The loss of shooters Stu Douglass, Zack Novak and Evan Smotrycz, and the addition of Robinson and McGary (as well as the return of forward Jon Horford from injury) present Beilein with an interesting but altogether welcome problem: These Wolverines won't be a typical Beilein team. They will attack the glass and pound the paint far more often, if only out of necessity. And with all those weapons, they'll be very difficult to stop.

Then there's Michigan State. The Spartans lost their heart and soul in senior forward Draymond Green, but the rest of the picture is bright: Point guard Keith Appling is back, as are forwards Adreian Payne and Derrick Nix. Impressive freshman guard Branden Dawson saw his season end after tearing an ACL in early March; his return will be tentative throughout the year. The good news? Tom Izzo beat out Indiana and Purdue to land the No. 2-ranked shooting guard in the class, Gary Harris, and will add three top-100 players (power forwards Kenny Kaminski and Matt Costello and small forward Denzel Valentine) to a team positively brimming with big, tough, athletic players. If the Spartans can do without Green -- and that's a valid question, given how much he meant to this program -- and rebound the ball at a similar rate as in 2012, they're legitimate Big Ten contenders, too.

Then there are the usual suspects: Wisconsin is Wisconsin, and Bo Ryan still hasn't finished worse than fourth place, or missed the NCAA tournament, in any season of his 11 seasons at the school. Minnesota will get Trevor Mbakwe, one of the nation's most bruising power forwards (now on his sixth-year medical redshirt season), back from last year's season-ending ACL injury. Purdue coach Matt Painter will bring in three top-100 players (center A.J. Hammons, shooting guard Rapheal Davis and point guard Ronnie Johnson, all three of whom hail from Indiana), an influx of size and young talent to build around. Iowa coach Fran McCaffery hauled in his best recruiting class, including Iowa native Adam Woodbury, the No. 10-ranked center in 2012. Northwestern has Drew Crawford and a spate of solid guards to put around senior transfer Jared Swopshire, an athletic former Louisville forward who could be a perfect fit for Bill Carmody's Princeton system.

You get the idea. Not all of these teams will contend for the Big Ten regular-season title. But most of them will. At the very least, the conference is sure to have a deep spate of teams determined to make any path to the Big Ten crown less a sprint than a drawn-out, physical scrum. Remember when Kentucky went undefeated in its league, with a massive efficiency margin to boot? Yeah. That ain't happenin' here.

Indiana is the favorite, and an obvious pick to get to the Final Four, and for good reason. But before the Hoosiers can turn their attention to the glories of March, they'll have to test their mettle for months on a twice-weekly basis against the best league in the country. That can be a good thing, or a bad one. It can be galvanizing experience, or a humbling one. Either way, nothing will come easy.

Michigan State forward Derrick Nix was one of the 2011-12 season’s great redemption stories. Last season, Nix was out of shape, little-used, and at risk of being kicked off the team entirely. This past fall, he returned to the team in the best shape of his life -- going from a “barely-fits-into-his-jersey” 314 pounds to a much trimmer and more physically imposing 267 -- and played a key reserve forward role as the Spartans returned to the top of the college hoops landscape.

And then he screwed up. On April 3, Nix was arrested in his car in East Lansing, Mich., on charges of operating a vehicle with the presence of drugs and marijuana possession. Nix was suspended indefinitely by coach Tom Izzo, and his immediate future appeared to be in doubt.

On Thursday, after the court process began to play out -- Nix pleaded guilty to a charge of impaired driving, while the marijuana possession charge has been dropped, and he’ll receive sentencing May 11 -- Izzo called a news conference to announce Nix’s reinstatement to the team. Nix apologized to his teammates, media and fans; he was contrite and likable, as Graham Couch wrote at MLive.com:

He’s a likable guy and, by every encounter and account, a decent guy — immature enough to almost throw away his promising basketball career, humble enough to know he couldn’t avoid a week of shame.

This giant of a 21-year-old was the reason we were packed in a room at Breslin Center on Thursday. And yet he began by introducing himself.

“Good afternoon, everybody. I’m Derrick.”

Then he said what I imagine most of us were thinking, at least from his perspective:

“I just want to say it’s embarrassing to even have this press conference right now.”

Despite the embarassment, the end result was positive. Izzo gave Nix another chance, reinstated him to the team, and promised rigorous oversight to come. And given the following quote, let me be clear: I would not want to be Derrick Nix right now:

“I am going to challenge him,” Izzo said after Nix issued a public apology Thursday. “I am going to definitely make life miserable for him, because I want him to be successful.”

Yeah, I have the feeling Nix is going to be running a lot of sprints in the days, weeks and months to come. But given the alternative -- dismissal, rejection, the loss of all Nix has worked toward in the past couple of seasons, and over a really dumb but ultimately forgivable decision -- Nix will surely take it. Given the trajectory of his career, there are worse fates than wind sprints.

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.

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.

PHOENIX -- When Louisville center Gorgui Dieng drained a 3-pointer in the first half of Louisville's 57-44 win over Michigan State here Thursday night -- the first made 3-pointer of his career, and just his second attempt all season -- he smiled. On the sideline, Cardinals coach Rick Pitino couldn't help but smile back.

Believe it or not, Pitino had seen this movie before.

"About a week ago in practice after it was over he kept shooting 3s," Pitino said. "I said, 'It looks pretty good, Gorgui.' He said 'Next year, I'm shooting a lot of 3s.' I said, 'No problem, as long as you make them.'

"When he made it, I said, 'I thought it was next year.' He just smiled. It was great."

Not that Dieng will have license to fire at will in the future, whether this season or next. But the story of Dieng's post-practice shooting sessions, just one more check box for the Senegalese player that seems to improve with every outing, is one of the main reasons Louisville can delay talk of "next year" for at least two more days.

Thanks to Dieng's nine rebounds and seven blocks (which tied the all-time UL tournament record held by Pervis Ellison), the Cardinals dominated top-seeded Michigan State on the defensive interior, setting a score of tourney records and superlatives along the way. The Spartans' 44 points were the fewest scored by any No. 1 seed in the shot-clock era. That point total and the 28.6 percent field-goal percentage were all-time tourney lows for MSU.

Thanks to a press that harried the Spartans, that wore them out and changed their style, Pitino is now a remarkable 10-0 all-time in the Sweet 16 -- the best record of any coach in the history of the tournament. And Michigan State, the West Region's clear Final Four favorite, ended its surprisingly successful season on an entirely uncharacteristic night.

"I think we ran out of gas a little bit -- emotionally, mentally and physically," MSU coach Tom Izzo said. "Louisville had the gas. They deserved to win."

"You know what our press does a lot of times? It just wears people out," Pitino said. "We didn't really want to trap them. We wanted to run and jump to get to the legs. ... Certain people we try to create steals or traps or rotate. Tonight we just tried to get into our zone, wear them out and neutralize the backboard."

That plan couldn't have worked out better for Pitino and his team. The Cardinals' pressure was never overwhelming on any specific occasion, and more often than not the Spartans were able to get into the half court with minimal issue. But the constant pressure clearly made Michigan State uncomfortable.

The Spartans finished the game with a 24.7 percent turnover rate. But it was their shooting -- a 33.7 percent effective field-goal percentage, a 5-for-21 mark beyond the 3-point arc (and how many of those shots missed even the rim?) and a staggeringly low 22.2 percent offensive rebounding rate -- that truly caused a team averaging nearly 1.17 points per possession this season to score just 0.72 on Thursday night.

Indeed, it wasn't just the pressure, or a matter of winning the purported size-vs.-speed matchup. It was all-court defensive solidity, usually by way of a stifling 2-3 zone. According to ESPN Stats & Info, the Cardinals played zone on 45 of Michigan State's 48 possessions, holding Draymond Green & Co. to a mere 22.2 percent shooting in the zone.

It came from everywhere. Dieng's shot-blocking and interior defense utterly erased MSU big men Adreian Payne and Derrick Nix from the game. (Nix's constant combinations of head fakes never remotely fooled Dieng. He stood, waited and repelled Nix with ease.) Peyton Siva, Russ Smith and Chris Smith applied the perimeter pressure.

And freshman Chane Behanan did much to eliminate the matchup problems caused by the multitalented Green. His nine rebounds -- five of which were defensive -- were the perfect complement to Dieng on the glass. His offense, which came mostly on efficient (and impressively patient) interior shots, provided a handful of key baskets throughout the second half. And his three steals helped seal the game in the final minutes.

Behanan's matchup was Green; he was a freshman facing off against the Big Ten player of the year, one of the nation's most experienced players. And he won.

"I respect him a lot," Behanan said. "I've watched him play this game, and I really love the way he plays. ... But it felt good [to play well] against him."

From the inside out, Louisville was -- well, pick your adjective. Smothering. Stifling. Twitchy. Ruthless. Anything positive you can say about a defensive effort, say it about this one. Team defensive efforts don't come more comprehensive than this.

And Dieng, the sophomore from Senegal, was always at its heart -- literally and figuratively.

Asked to describe Dieng's performance, Behanan was succinct.

"Lottery pick," he said. "He played like he wanted to get drafted tonight."

Dieng does want to get drafted: According to his coach, it was the first goal Dieng stated when he arrived at the program as a freshman last season. Pitino said he promised Dieng he would "drive him like [he'd] never been driven before."

"My freshman year I was complaining a lot," Dieng said. "I said he worked me so hard, I'm tired, my legs hurt. I thank him for that, [because] he changed my whole mentality. He made me tougher. He teach me [what] this game can do in your life."

Maybe that's why Dieng wanted to get that 3-pointer up Thursday night, maybe that's why he took a break from swatting Spartans' shots to do his best Kuric impression: If he keeps playing like this, he may not have a "next year" at the college level.

But that's a concern for another time. For now, Pitino's perfect Sweet 16 record remains intact and, thanks to a Dieng-led defense, on the verge of a trip to the Final Four. The Cardinals aren't pretty, but after seven wins in a row -- including four in a Big East tourney title run -- their defense, their knack for timely 3s and their legendary coach make them one of the most fearsome teams in the country.

In other words, your favorite team doesn't want to play Louisville right now.

Who would?

Jimmy Dykes discusses Louisville knocking off No. 1 Michigan State and Rick Pitino improving to 10-0 in his career in the Sweet 16.

PHOENIX -- A quick overview of Louisville's 57-44 win over Michigan State:

Overview: On Wednesday, this game was billed by both coaches as a clash between two disparate styles: Michigan State's bruising rebounding and interior play versus Louisville's quick-twitch pressure and up-tempo attack.

Make no mistake: Pressure won. But it wasn't quite that simple. Louisville was defensively great -- not only in the press but all over the court -- forcing turnovers and speeding up the Spartans, but also locking down in the half court. Michigan State finished 14-of-49 from the field -- 14-of-49! -- with 15 turnovers and an offensive rebounding percentage of just 22.2 percent. The 44 points were the fewest scored by a 1-seed in the shot-clock era and the fewest ever in the tourney by an MSU team. The 28.6 percent shooting and 14 made field goals also were all-time tourney lows for Michigan State.

That's not the Spartans offense that earned them a Big Ten title and a No. 1 seed, and Louisville's defense, which ranked No. 2 in the nation in per-possession efficiency this season, deserves the lion's share of the credit.

Turning point: The Spartans never quite found their offense, but they managed to keep the Cardinals from pulling away throughout the first half thanks to stellar defense. However, up 31-26, a spate of Spartans turnovers and Cardinals transition buckets built the first double-digit lead of the night for Louisville. Draymond Green and company never got comfortable, never settled into an offensive rhythm and never could truly erase the deficit.

Key player: Chane Behanan. The Cardinals freshman was Louisville's best hope to match up with Michigan State's multitalented Green on both ends of the floor, but his offense was the real key. Behanan scored 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting -- many of those buckets on savvy finishes inside 6 feet -- and with eight rebounds aided Cardinals big man Gorgui Dieng (who anchored the defense with nine rebounds and seven blocks, which tied a school tourney record). Behanan was Louisville's X factor, and his performance was exactly what Rick Pitino's team needed.

Key stat: Shooting, or a lack thereof. Again, the Spartans made just 14 field goals. They averaged near 0.724 points per possession. Louisville didn't shoot much better (21-of-55 overall) but did finish with a 9-of-23 mark from beyond the arc. When your defense holds one of the best teams in the country to one of its worst performances all season, that's enough.

What's next: Michigan State heads home; Louisville advances to face Florida.

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

In the West Region on Thursday, two legendary head coaches square off as Louisville’s Rick Pitino faces Michigan State’s Tom Izzo for a spot in the Elite Eight.


Both rank in the top 10 among active coaches in NCAA tournament appearances and winning percentage. They also rank in the top 10 all time in Final Four appearances. In fact, Izzo and Pitino have combined for 11 Final Fours (six for Izzo, five for Pitino).

This will be the second meeting between the two coaches in the tournament. In 2009, No. 2 seed Michigan State beat No. 1 overall seed Louisville 64-52 in the Elite Eight.

When the game tips off Thursday, something has to give.

Izzo is 5-0 in the NCAA tournament against Big East opponents. His teams were the lower seed in four of the five games and won each by at least nine points.

As for Pitino, he does not lose in this round. His teams are a combined 9-0 in Sweet 16 games, and all nine wins have been by double digits. His most recent win in this round also was the most lopsided: a 39-point rout of No. 12 seed Arizona in 2009.

In Sweet 16 play, Pitino is 3-0 as coach of Louisville, and was 5-0 as Kentucky’s coach and 1-0 as coach of Providence. Three of those wins have been when his team was the lower seed, as it will be on Thursday against the top-seeded Spartans.

PHOENIX -- A little over a month ago -- still weeks before Louisville ran off its six-game postseason winning streak, which includes a Big East tournament title and a spot in the Sweet 16 -- coach Rick Pitino gave his then-struggling point guard, Peyton Siva, a bit of visual homework.

The assignment: Watch Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash.

Watch the two-time NBA MVP work possessions. Watch him change the pace and speed of his approach. Watch him keep his dribble alive at all times, even when seemingly every option had broken down. Watch him circle under the rim, watch him play every angle, watch him reload and reassess when nothing came. Watch him attack again.

"One of the reasons why Peyton was struggling is he's so fast, he plays at one pace," Pitino said Wednesday. "I wanted him to start to change his pace, and also, if he didn't have anything, continue dribbling out in a circle and take another opportunity -- and nobody does that better than Steve Nash.

"Anytime you show them a great basketball player, they love to emulate that."

No one would confuse Siva for the Suns legend just yet, but the results of the film session are hardly in dispute. In the past month, Siva has elevated his game, boosted a lackluster offense, and led his team -- which lost four of its first six Big East games, then another four of six beginning in mid-February -- to the US Airways Center, the stage upon which Nash displays his nightly brilliance.

"Growing up he was one of my favorite players to watch," Siva said. "Coach P really had me watch more film on him and how he kept his dribble alive. It really helped me out by not forcing things and getting in trouble or making jump error passes. And it really helped me out probing the court, giving other guys open looks, and seeing the whole court a little better."

The question now, of course, is whether Siva's late-blooming improvement will be enough to key the Cardinals past the No. 1-seeded Michigan State Spartans in the first game in Phoenix (7:47 p.m. ET). If Louisville is going to keep pace with the West favorites, Siva will have to dictate the tone of the game on the offensive end, where the Cards -- who ranked No. 13 in the Big East in points per possession this season -- will be facing the nation's third-ranked efficiency defense, per KenPom.com.

Siva's play at the point of attack, where he often works off high-ball screens before cannonballing himself into the lane, will be crucial: According to Synergy Sports Technology scouting data, nearly 40 percent of Siva's offensive possessions come as the ball handler in pick-and-rolls, and the Spartans are allowing a staggeringly low .059 points per trip on such plays, one of the best marks in the country.

There are other matchups to consider, of course: How does Gorgui Dieng guard the rim against not only Draymond Green but Adreian Payne and Derrick Nix, a trio that dominates the boards on both ends of the floor? For that matter, who matches up with Green, Tom Izzo's hyperversatile star? Asked about the issues Green presents at "his position," Pitino conceded that he didn't have a ready-made answer.

"Well, that's just it, 'his position' -- I'm not sure what his position is," Pitino said "If they need somebody to run a pick-and-roll, if they need a post-up, if they need a guy to take you off the bounce, he does that. He's about the most complete player in college basketball in terms of all phases of the game."

The Cardinals have one major trump card, one area in which they actually rank ahead of Michigan State on a per-possession basis: defense. Louisville's defense is the second-stingiest in the country this season, and not only because it holds opposing shooters to the third-worst effective field goal percentage in the nation. The Cards also force turnovers, and lots of them.

"They're scrappy," Michigan State guard Keith Appling said. "They're going to force a lot of turnovers. We're going to have to keep our composure and get into our offense as fast as we can."

Which, again, comes back to Siva -- not just on the offensive end, but in how he sets the tone on defense, whether he creates turnovers and fast-break opportunities for UL. As Pitino prepares to face off with a similarly brilliant tactician in Izzo (the two last met in the tournament in 2009, when MSU knocked off the top-seeded Cardinals in the Elite Eight), and against a team whose only clear weakness is its tendency to turn the ball over, it's clear that Siva's all-court play will hold the key.

"We got our guys to this point by pressing and running, and we're not going to change because the other team may be a little better on the backboard and try to take possessions away," Pitino said. "So we're going to run with them. They're the better backboard team. But we're going to make it that type of basketball game. We do not want to play slow against Michigan State."

Who to watch

Louisville's Gorgui Dieng and Chane Behanan: The Cardinals will be pressuring constantly, no doubt, but if Michigan State does break the press and get into its offense, UL will be at a severe disadvantage on the interior. Dieng is the lone Louisville player with the size and length to make life difficult for Payne, Nix and Green inside, but at 6-foot-7, Behanan might be the best chance Louisville has of matching a quality rebounder with the athleticism to guard Green on the perimeter. That's a lot to ask of a freshman in his first Sweet 16, but it may be Louisville's best hope of keeping pace on the glass.

Michigan State's Keith Appling and Travis Trice: Appling, Trice and Brandon Wood form the core of the Spartans' underrated backcourt, but how will this trio handle Louisville's relentless defense? Wood has kept his turnovers to a relative minimum this season (his turnover rate is a mere 14.1 percent), but together, Appling and Trice average a turnover rate of 22.1 percent. If MSU has any true vulnerabilities -- and this has been a constant under Izzo in recent seasons, even among his best teams -- this is it. That's music to Pitino's ears, and it makes Appling's and Trice's roles as the primary backcourt ball handlers especially crucial.

What to watch

Simply put? Size versus speed. Take it away, Coach Izzo ...

"Seeing [the pressure] on film and hearing it from a coach or hearing it from another player, and all of a sudden getting in one of those traps and having to get the ball out is a little different," Izzo said. "So we try to do what we can do. But we have played a million different styles. That's not going to be an excuse for this team. We're going to take care of the ball and make some shots and make sure that our defense doesn't let them get a lot of layups and make some shots -- or we're not. And I think that's what the game is going to come down to.

"They've got to handle our physical size inside and we've got to handle their pressure outside. That's what basketball is about, is the matchups, and who exploits whose, and who plays better against whose strengths will probably determine the winner."

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.