Sweet 16 Viewing Is Sweet

With Oregon St. women's basketball having exited the post-season early, Beaver basketball fans can sit back and relax, and take in the start of the Sweet 16 of the men's NCAA Tournament tonight.

And there is plenty of what should be interesting action to watch, as CBS covers the Mid-West Regional from Cleveland (who knew Cleveland was in the mid-WEST?), and TBS brings us the West Regional from Los Angeles.

Depending on your internet service, the games are also available via The NCAA's Tournament stream.

The evening starts with 7th seed Wichita St. (30-4), the lowest seed in action tonight, from the Missouri Valley Conference taking on 3rd seed Notre Dame (31-5), now of the ACC, at 4:15 PM PDT. The Shockers are one of only 2 true "mid-majors" left, while the Irish have emerged as one of the best dark-horse possibilities to stop Kentucky's run at 40-0 history.

The night cap in Cleveland at about 6:45 PM PDT will see if 5th seed West Virginia (22-9), the lone remaining team from the Big XII, can derail tournament overall 1 seed Kentucky (36-0) from the SEC. The Mountaineers under Bob Huggins has done it to the Wildcats several times before, including as recently as 2 years ago, so its not out of the question.

Out in LA, 4th seed North Carolina (26-11) from the ACC takes on 1 seed Wisconsin (33-3) from the B1G Ten at 4:45 PM PDT in the Staples Center. The Tar Heels are another part of what has been the best run by any conference so far in the NCAA Tournament, as the ACC has 5 teams still in the tournament. The Badgers have the only win over a Pac-12 team in the tournament so far, having eliminated Oregon last Sunday.

The night cap from LA will pit 6th seed Xavier (23-13), the last remaining Big East team, against the Pac-12's own 2nd seed Arizona (33-3) at about 7:15 PM PDT.

The Muskateers were the lowest finishing Big East team to make the NCAA Tournament, while the 'Cats represent the best bet of the remaining 3 Pac-12 teams (Utah and UCLA both play tomorrow) to maximize the return to all of the Pac-12 members. Remember, each appearance in an NCAA Tournament game is worth a little over a quarter of a million dollars, which the Pac-12 divvies up equally to all its members, so the Ducks upsetting the Badgers, as much as Beaver Nation might not like it, would have been worth a check well into 5 figures to Oregon St. as well. So cheer for the 'Cats!

But March Madness is much too much fun to miss, even if you are just an interested on-looker, instead of a fully invested participant!