After two lopsided games and two battles to the wire, the 2011 NCAA Tournament has reached the Elite Eight round. SB Nation has put together an updated NCAA Tournament printable bracket for your viewing pleasure. At the very least you can print it out and burn it to reflect the destruction of your bracket to date. Well, except the people who picked Kansas.
We start the Elite Eight round with Butler versus Florida at 1:30pm pacific and Connecticut versus Arizona at 4:05pm pacific. Logic would dictate taking the Gators and the Huskies, but this tournament has been fairly devoid of logic to date. We’re down to a single number one seed that could conceivably get to the national title game without playing anything higher than an eight seed. It requires a special brand of thinking for this kind of insanity.
According to Odds Shark Florida opened as a three point favorite and has seen the line move to -4 or -4 1/2. I really don’t know what to expect from Butler. After squeaking by in the first two rounds, they handled the Wisconsin Badgers with relative ease. I think Florida puts an end to the Bulldogs dream but I am rooting for Butler to continue its magical run. My money is on Florida covering, but I don’t like it.
Connecticut opened as a two point favorite over Arizona, but has seen that line move to three points. Arizona is coming off a dominant upset of Duke, while UConn is as hot as any team in the country. I liken this Connecticut team to the Carmelo Anthony led the Syracuse Orangemen to the national title. Both teams have other players, but Kemba Walker is sort of the Carmelo of this team. I think UConn wins and covers this game.