Once More Unto the Bracket: Sweet Sixteen, Thursday March 26

#11 Texas Longhorns v #2 Purdue Boilermakers

7:10 ET/6:10 GTZ. CBS.

BoilerUp89: A Purdue fan's worst nightmare: a double digit seed in the Sweet 16. Old friend Cam Heide plays for the Longhorns. Because he's an old friend, Purdue shouldn't lose him on the three point line.

Texas is a bit like Miami in that they are good on the glass, just an okay three point shooting team that doesn't take a lot of them, but an overall solid offensive squad. Their defense is a little worse than Miami's and they don't force any turnovers.

Keep Texas off the offensive glass, knock down open shots, and don't lose sight of Heide, Jordan Pope, or Dailyn Swain behind the arc.

One final thought. Doesn't sound like CJ Cox will play. Officially he's listed as questionable, but he hasn't practiced fully and I don't see him going from not practicing fully to game speed. Purdue can beat Texas without Cox but their advantage over the Longhorns gets a little thinner and a potential Elite 8 game without him looks rough.

Kind of...: Do NOT lose to Sean Miller, Purdue.

HoustonBoiler: Texas is on a bit of a roll, winning three straight tourney games last week to go from play-in to Sweet 16. As BoilerUp89 has already said, Texas is good rebounding team, solid offensively, but mediocre when it comes to defense. The usual indicators apply to this game - if Purdue rebounds well and limits their turnovers, and contain the dribble, they will have a shot at winning this game. By executing the first two, Purdue will a lot of pressure on Texas' defense. A key here will be Braden Smith executing at a high level, both in controlling the game through ball distribution and making shots. If Cox cannot go, Purdue will need contributions from Harris and Mayer.

#9 Iowa Hawkeyes v #4 Nebraska Cornhuskers

7:30 ET/6:30 GTZ. TBS/truTV.

BoilerUp89: All of a sudden things fans get a lot more nervous if their teams are still in the field - except for Iowa and Nebraska fans who are just extremely thrilled to be here and ready to drink Houston dry. Pro tip - ask MNW and HoustonBoiler for tips on where to drink. MNW will yell at you to say hi to his favorite bartender, but otherwise they should have good advice.

As for the basketball, the two teams split their season series with Iowa winning at home 57-52 but losing on the road in OT.

Kind of...: Truly amazing that Nebraska fans wait forever to win an NCAA game and immediately advance the the misery stage of 1) "We're favored to make the Elite Eight. It's gonna suck if we lose tonight," and 2) "We better not effing lost to that team."

Obviously Nebraska's style of play is aesthetically superior, but McCollum is a wizard. Iowa beat the 1-seed and defending national champs despite Stirtz going 5-16 with 5 turnovers. Let the better team win.

!!But please let that be Nebraska!!

HoustonBoiler: Here we go! Round 3 of Iowa versus Nebraska - both team won on their respective courts so this will be the rubber match on a neutral court. I think Nebraska has a slight edge due to their more consistently winning games over the course of the season. Counterpoint - Iowa just beat the top seed in their region, Florida, the SEC regular season and tournament champion.

As for watering holes, my favorite in downtown Houston is the Flying Saucer Draught Emporium, located at 705 Main Street (corner of Main and Capitol Streets). They have roughly 100 varieties of beer on tap so there is surely something that you will enjoy. More ambitious readers may even opt to join the UFO Club - if you taste 200 beers, you will join the ring of honor and get a saucer on the wall or ceiling with a message of your choosing - see the photo above from last December. I know, I know that is a mere weekend of drinking for folks from wisconsin. Note, the ceiling of this very fine establishment has already been desecrated. And no, Clint doesn't work here.

Plus, you can take the METRO light rail red line (30 or so minute ride with trains every 6 to 12 minutes) from one of the stations along Main Street (just outside the Flying Saucer) to NRG Stadium. Thus, it's easy to drink and ride!

#4 Arkansas Razorbacks v #1 Arizona Wildcats

9:45 ET/8:45 GTZ. CBS.

BoilerUp89: Arkansas has the high powered offense to knock off an Arizona type team. Darius Acuff will be asked to carry more than his fair share of the load.

Kind of...: A factoid that absolutely doesn't matter: this is the second all-time NCAA tournament meeting between these two team. The first was at the 1994 Final Four, where, in a role reversal, the bigger, more physical Razorbacks hounded Arizona's elite guards Damon Stoudamire and Khalid Reeves. There's no reason to love John Calipari, but, until Tommy Lloyd actually has a team play to seed, this is a coaching mismatch and this game will probably be close enough that the Wildcats will have to make plays down the stretch to win. They're certainly capable of that. And none of their stud frosh were around for past tournament failures. Just don't assume that this is a cakewalk for many people's title favorite.

HoustonBoiler: This should be a great game. Arizona has the better team (on paper), but Arkansas has the better coach and Darius Acuff, who will need a great game for Arkansas to move on to the Elite Eight.

#3 Illinois Fighting Illini v #2 Houston Coooooogs

10:05 ET/9:05 GTZ. TBS/truTV.

BoilerUp89: This should be an amazing game! Bit of a rough go for the Illini that it's a road game, but really interested in seeing the great offense v. great defense.

Kind of...: I've been on the Houston train for a long time, and I'm not looking for a way to get off, perhaps. Really think Illini has a good shot. Kingston Flemings will probably be a tremendous pro, but I don't think he's a great defender right now. And while Houston is still quite good as a team defensively, they're not quite up to their typical standards. Further, their approach is centered on shutting down the interior (they are 245th in 3PA/FGA), and Illinois will have no problem shooting 3's.

The big problem for Illinois is that they just do next-to-nothing to make their opponents uncomfortable when they're on offense. They are dead last in America, but a clear margin, at forcing turnovers. The Illini win most of their games and they usually shoot better than they're opponent. There's obviously a high correlation here. But Illinois's margin-of-error on bad shooting nights--the offensive glass--will be tested. That said, Houston is not especially tall. Cenac is 6'11", but that's it. Really fun to think through all the permutations here. If you think you know how this one's going to unfold, you're lying to yourself.

HoustonBoiler: This should also be a great game for the reasons already covered by BoilerUp89 and Kind Of.... Houston will be very aggressive on defense so keep an eye on how closely the officials call this game. "Letting them play" will definitely be an advantage for Houston as they generally like to be very physical on defense. All this said, a good offense, which Illinois most definitely has, can score on Houston. However, Illinois will need to be efficient and limit their turnovers.

AlmaOtter: God, this game makes me nervous. We've seen Houston in the tournament just a few years ago (you may recall the infamous RJ Melendez tech for hanging on the rim). Houston has been annoyingly, irritatingly, obnoxiously good for damn near a decade. They're well coached, they make you work for every point, and they're fast. Both teams grab offensive rebounds with the best of them. It'll come down to whether the Illini can get some 3s to drop early and get in a rhythm and whether the Ivisic boys can pull down rebounds to limit Houston's extra chances.

Also, who the fuck scheduled this thing for 10:05 ET?!