Pack Your Bags! We're Goin' to Hot-lanta!

In 5 days, about 50,000 people will pack the not-so-cheap seats at the Georgia Dome for some Final Four basketball action. Before we get to that, though, let's have a look at how I did on my brackets through the Elite Eight:



Once again, as with every other round in this tournament, I have one pick that turned out to be a complete bust, and today's pick was Kansas. I don't think it's a matter of Kansas being a bad team, though they did look somewhat shaky in their game against Southern Illinois. UCLA's victory over Kansas is an example of the guys from Westwood doing exactly what they need to do to win games. The best example of this so far in UCLA's run was the close victory over Indiana. Right when they looked like they were going to collapse in the final minutes, they played solid defense which helped force the botched inbound play by the Hoosiers. This weekend, they did exactly what they needed to do to play two solid games against Pitt and Kansas. Needless to say, Florida will have a tough test on Saturday night.

Obviously, my best pick remains the Hoyas of Georgetown University. Georgetown went on a massive tear in the last 5 minutes of their elite eight game against the North Carolina Tar Heels to tie the game. Then they played some excellent shut-down defense to hold UNC to a total of 3 points in overtime. After being down for much of the game, the gritty effort showed that Georgetown is definitely ready to take this tournament.

Georgetown will face a tough test in the Buckeyes from Ohio State, who match the size of Georgetown's front three. UCLA will face Florida in the other Final Four game in a rematch of last year's national championship game. It promises to be a good day of semifinal games under the big top in Atlanta. I'll be previewing the Final Four a little more in-depth when it gets to be that time.