Eight waits for Michigan State; Purdue's likely done

Since there's nothing so riveting as discussion about someone else's NCAA Tournament pool - unless it's talk of someone else's fantasy football team or golf game - I'd like to begin by announcing I'm in 25th place in my CBSSports.com pool.

Considering there are pools out there with more than a million people battling for bucks and bragging rights, doesn't that sound awfully impressive?

Alas, my pool consists of exactly 24 other people.

I'm dead-last and demanding to know why West Virginia and Portland State - among many others - dared not to be all I thought they should be.

But enough about the past. We've got four riveting matchups Thursday and four more Friday that need to be broken down.

West regional

Missouri ranks fifth nationally in scoring. Connecticut stands 16th. Memphis averaged 85 points last week.

Having written all that, are you ready for a defensive free-for-all?

There are seven teams left in the NCAA Tournament that rank among the nation's top 15 teams in defensive efficiency (as measured by points allowed per possession). Four of those seven teams are in this regional.

Memphis leads the world in defense as John Calipari's long-limbed crew surrenders just 0.83 points per possession as opponents shoot 36.7 percent. That's why the second-seeded Tigers will ease past third-seeded Missouri.

In the opener, fifth-seeded Purdue and top-seeded Connecticut are tied for third nationally with 0.88 points allowed per possession.

Neither team will back down, but it will be interesting to see how Connecticut reacts to a tight game.

While Purdue and UConn were two of the five teams that kept a second-half lead throughout both of their opening-weekend games (the others being Syracuse, Kansas and Arizona), the Boilers had to fight off Washington while UConn breezed twice.

In the end, Purdue's rapidly improving JaJuan Johnson (a 2010 All-American, it says here) will be negated enough by Hasheem Thabeet to give UConn the win.

East regional

Pitt didn't look good in either of its first two games, yet the top-seeded Panthers are in their fifth Sweet Sixteen in the last eight years.

You know what? Pittsburgh has never gotten past this point since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985.

Meanwhile, Xavier reached the Elite Eight in 2004 and 2008.

While these respective histories count for something, it's more important to discern how 7-foot, 265-pound Xavier freshman Kenny Frease deals with DeJuan Blair.

Frease looked great Sunday against Wisconsin, but nobody ever confuses Keaton Nankivil for Blair and Joe Krabbenhoft for Sam Young.

Pitt bludgeons onward.

My heart says third-seeded Villanova ought to smack around second-seeded Duke, but my head can't erase the images from 'Nova's lackluster showing Feb. 25 at DePaul.

Give me Duke. Also give me the over on Jon Scheyer flops (the line is 2.5).

Midwest regional

Louisville's guards are scary. Not in a good way.

There was a nasty stretch in the Siena game Sunday when they felt they should take control instead of getting the ball to Terrence Williams.

Once they finally found Williams, Siena's 4-point second-half lead evaporated rapidly.

I think a lot of Arizona's Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger - I put Hill on my 15-man AP All-America ballot - but I think even more of Williams, Earl Clark and Samardo Samuels.

If the Cards' guards are content to set them up, they'll advance. It'll help to have a huge advantage in the Lucas Oil Stadium stands.

I can't wait to see second-seeded Michigan State and third-seeded Kansas. It's a rematch of a 75-62 Spartans win Jan. 10 at the Breslin Center, but neither team was at their best.

That was half a career ago for Kansas' splendid freshmen, while Michigan State senior Goran Suton was sick before the game and battled through 22 minutes.

Here's an intangible that could matter: Dayton coach Brian Gregory, a Hersey High School grad, used to be an assistant for Tom Izzo at Michigan State.

Dayton just played Kansas. Gregory, as any coach does for a buddy in the college game, provided Izzo with every possible scouting nugget he could need.

I'll say Michigan State's veterans edge Bill Self's youth brigade.

South regional

Syracuse and Oklahoma were dominant last week. The Orange is fun to watch and might well be the better team, but I don't care.

I just want to see Oklahoma's Blake Griffin take on North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough in Sunday's final.

No offense to Derrick Rose, but this is the year the Bulls wanted to win the NBA draft lottery. Griffin is absurdly great.