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West Virginia University vs. Washington

The Line: West Virginia -4

People always say that you can only get as far in the NCAA tournament as your point guard takes you. If that is true, the Bob Huggins West Virginia Mountaineers could be in trouble. Just hours before their tip against the Washington Huskies, the team found out that it had lost its floor leader to injury for the season. At first, Darryl Truck Bryant simply thought he had a sore foot. Then he found out it was broken. Fortunately for the Mountaineers, backup Joe Mazzulla has played about as many minutes this season as Bryant. Unfortunately, Mazzulla does not have anywhere the production that Bryant has.

The Mountaineers, however, have made their name on the defensive end of the floor. And they will need to really step it up at that end against a Washington team that has been playing with its back against the wall for months. In January, the Huskies were 3-5 in the Pac-10 and had not won a conference road game. They then went on to win 12 of their next 14 conference games and have looked unstoppable on offense in their first two tournament games. A true inside-out team, the Huskies have scored half their points in the paint and about 40 percent from downtown on 55 percent shooting from outside the arch. With so many of their points coming in transition, however, the Huskies will have to be more effective on the boards against a WVU team that owns the boards. Expect the Mountaineers to try and abuse the Huskies physically and slow down the pace of the game.

Kentucky vs. Cornell

One of the most intriguing tournament games in years pits a school from a league better known for academics than basketball against a team from a state better known for basketball than just about anything else (sorry, horse racing). To call the Cornell-Kentucky game a battle of David vs. Goliath would be fair, but it has to be done with a caveat: this David has already proven that it can beat, if not a Goliath, at least a big boy. The Big Red destroyed Wisconsin last week, which beat both Duke and Ohio State this season, so they are not fearful.

But Wisconsin played a similar style to the Big Red. Against Kentucky, they will be facing an entirely different animal. This Wildcats team will have more pro players on it than Cornell has ever sent to the NBA in its history. The Wildcats are fast and physical, and the Big Red will need to counter that by playing their style of methodic basketball and then knock down a huge percentage of their shots. After watching them destroy two of the best defenses in the country in Temple and Wisconsin, there is no reason to think Cornell can not have offensive success against the Wildcats.

Where they will have their hands full is on the defensive end. The Big Reds Big Three of Louie Dale, Jeff Foote and Ryan Whitman have plenty of offensive game, but they can not match up against man-for-man against Kentuckys talent. To stay with the Cats, the Big Red will need to force Kentucky to shoot from the outside, box out and set up their offense. In short, they will need to be near perfect and hope that Kentuckys players, despite their rote praise of Cornells talent, overlooks the Big Red. Stranger things have happened.