With half of the Sweet Sixteen over, half of the Elite Eight is now set and Saturday's two regional finals promise to be entertaining affairs.

In the West Regional final, the top seeded Connecticut Huskies will face the three seeded Missouri Tigers and the match-up definitely favors Connecticut for numerous reasons. 
 
In its last two victories, Missouri has been thriving on layups and mid-range jumpshots, an offensive strategy that worked against both Marquette and Memphis.  However, mid-range jumpers and close range layups are the exact types of shots that Connecticut stifles with their two legitimate shot blocking threats down low in the key.  Stanley Robinson is 6'9" and Hasheem Thabeet is 7'3" and neither of them allow smaller players to get to the rim with any kind of ease.
 
Some insight into the match-up can also be gained by looking at how the two teams have fared against a recent common opponent, take the Texas A&M Aggies for example.  While Connecticut manhandled Texas A&M just last week by posting a twenty-six point victory in the second round of the tournament, Missouri, on the other hand, lost to the Aggies as recently as March 7th, by a solid ten points.  In short, if Texas A&M is used a measuring stick, Connecticut is a full thirty-six points better.
 
Also, Connecticut has played consistent high level basketball since the tournament began, constantly maintaining or building upon leads.  Missouri, conversely, has struggled to maintain their leads and has often looked as though they were on the edge of collapsing.  Take their wins against either Marquette or Memphis: in both games Missouri held convincing double digit leads in the second half only to squeak out relatively close victories.  Memphis, for example, narrowed a twenty-our point deficit against Missouri down to six before they ran out of time to complete their comeback.  Quite simply, Missouri has failed to put a full game together against a quality opponent.
 
Where Connecticut should breeze to the Final Four, Pittsburgh should finally fall short.
 
Even though Pittsburgh has won it's last three games, they have never looked all that impressive for a number one seed.  In fact, they have almost lost each of their last three games including their first round match-up against a sixteen seed whose name already escapes me.  In the Sweet Sixteen, they drew Xavier and probably would have lost if a Xavier player hadn't made a key gaffe.  Up by two with less than a minute to play, a Xavier ball-handler stepped out of bounds, unprovoked by any Pittsburgh player, and turned the ball over.  Then Pittsburgh hit a three pointer, the biggest shot in modern school history, and held onto win.
 
Now Pittsburgh has to prove themselves against Villanova, the three seed in the region that is playing much better than their seed would indicate.  In the last two rounds, Villanova has destroyed their opponents, dismissing UCLA by a surprising twenty points and dismantling Duke, the number two seed, by an even more surprising twenty-three points.  While their are no more 'locks' at this point in the season because all the bad teams are gone, it is hard not to pick Villanova to win.  The clincher is simple enough: the two teams, both out of the Big East, have already played once this year and Villanova won that game by ten points.
 
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