Frank Burlison

With apologies to the other seven teams that advanced to the Sweet 16 round next Thursday and Friday, the biggest NCAA Tournament news Sunday was delivered AFTER the conclusion of one of the third-round games played.

It was announced shortly following the conclusion of North Carolina’s 87-73 Midwest Regional victory over Creighton in Greensboro that Tar Heels’ sophomore point guard Kendall Marshall has suffered a broken bone in his right wrist.

It borders on the amazing as to how many injuries the Tar Heels have suffered, with wing Leslie McDonald going down in the summer with a torn ACL, starting guard Dexter Strickland falling by way of the same injury in late January and John Henson suffering a sprained left wrist during the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament.

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For the most part, Saturday’s eight Round of 32 NCAA Tournament tilts were competitive as all get out.

It’s just that, they all ended the way the seeds given to the 16 teams on March 11 suggested they should end.

Each of the higher seeds – No.’s 1Kentucky and Syracuse, 2 Ohio State, 3 Baylor and Marquette, and 4 Indiana, Louisville and Wisconsin – moved on to the Sweet 16 with victories on Saturday.

“Mid-majors” – or, as I prefer to refer to them, “non-BCS conference members” – VCU (Colonial), Gonzaga (WCC) and Murray State (Ohio Valley) fell to Indiana and Ohio State (Big Ten) and Marquette (Big East), respectively.

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OK.

That was more like it.

After a Thursday of 16 second-round games that left us with just two games that created any real buzz, the NCAA Tournament delivered on Friday.

Oh, did it ever  . . .

There were eight “seed upsets” among the 16 games.

One – 13 seed Ohio holding on to beat 4 seed Michigan, 65-60, in a Midwest Regional contest in Nashville – was a whopper, indeed.

But that was nothing compared to the mind-boggling outcome to a couple of No.’s

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And then there were 48 . . .

The evening portion of Thursday’s 16 second-round NCAA Tournament games provided us a healthy heaping of the thrills we’ve come to expect from the first week of the event.

Of course, there was one nail bitter of sorts in the afternoon in Pittsburgh when the University of North Carolina – the Asheville version – made things a tad painstaking for the East’s top seed.

The Orange – just two days after sophomore center Fab Melo was declared ineligible – trailed most of the first three quarters of the game before pulling in front and then hanging on to edge Bulldogs.

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And once they get to New Orleans . . .

Ohio State over Kansas, and Kentucky over Michigan State, with the winner being . . .

The Kentucky Wildcats.

And so will conclude an incredible season for Anthony Davis, John Calipari and all the dedicate citizens of Big Blue Nation.

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