If Syracuse had not missed their final shot against Dayton, all eight of our projected Elite 8 teams would still be alive including our surprise picks of 11-seed Tennessee and 7-seed Connecticut. Perhaps even more impressive, three of the 2014 Final Four we projected two years ago on May 12, 2012 are still alive (click on Top 50 College Basketball Teams in 2014 – Way, way too early, but objective). If you went the safer route of picking higher seeds you would only have five Elite 8 teams alive, instead of the seven we have in place. Here is the table of match-ups and start times for games on CBS and TBS. You can also check the Value Add rating of every player in the tournament at www.valueaddbasketball.com, or get comprehensive coverage of each game from a separate post.
| Day | EST pm | Team we picked for Elite 8 | Opponent in that Game | Bracket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday | 7:15 | (we missed, picked #3 Syracuse) | #11 Dayton vs. #10 Stanford | South |
| Thursday | 7:47 | #2 Wisconsin (we picked Final 4) | #6 Baylor | West |
| Thursday | 9:45 | #1 Florida (we picked runner up) | #4 UCLA (Final Four 2 yrs out) | South |
| Thursday | 10:17 | #4 San Diego St. (we picked Elite 8) | #1 Arizona (Final Four 2 yrs out) | West |
| Friday | 7:15 | #11 Tennessee (we picked Elite 8) | #2 Michigan | Midwest |
| Friday | 7:27 | #7 Connecticut (we picked Elite 8) | #3 Iowa St. | East |
| Friday | 9:45 | #4 Louisville (we picked as Champion) | #8 Kentucky (Final Four 2 yrs out) | Midwest |
| Friday | 9:57 | #4 Michigan St. (we picked Final 4) | #1 Virginia | East |
See separate post for a breakdown of every Sweet 16 game, with details on where Value Add projected them to be two years ago and all of the Elite players who will be on the floor in each game (finished in Value Add Top 100 this season and/or projected as potential NBA draft pick in next two seasons). So do we root for UCLA, Arizona and Kentucky to win to try to keep some of our “way too early” Final Four in place from two years ago, or do we root for them all to lose to keep more of our Elite 8 in tact? Better yet, we encourage you to just enjoy all the games.
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