Look for Duke to finish first out of this year's Sweet Sixteen teams

Remember in last week’s paper when I said that Gonzaga was going to win the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament?

Scratch that.

Gonzaga was just one of a number of highly ranked teams that went down in flames during the first two rounds of the tournament last week. Gonzaga, a No. 1 seed, lost to No. 9 seed, Wichita State, on Saturday. Other upsets included a win by No. 15 seed Florida Gulf Coast over No. 2 seed Georgetown and a win by No. 14 seeded Harvard over No. 3 seed New Mexico. No. 13 seed La Salle also downed No. 4 seed, Kansas State.

These “bracket busting” games left the brackets filled out by fans across the country in disarray, but what else is new? This is “March Madness,” so while this sort of thing can’t be predicted, it is to be expected. There’s nothing we can do about the past, so us basketball fans are left with little choice but to pick up the pieces and forge on with the teams that remain as we enter the Sweet Sixteen round of the tourney.

With that said (and for what it’s worth), here’s how I see the rest of the tournament playing out. In games today (Thursday), I like Wichita State over La Salle, Ohio State over Arizona, Indiana over Syracuse and Miami over Marquette. In games tomorrow (Friday), I like Louisville over Oregon, Duke over Michigan State, Kansas over Michigan and Florida over Florida Gulf Coast.

In the Elite Eight round of the tourney, which will play out on Saturday and Sunday, I like Duke over Louisville, Ohio State over Wichita State, Kansas over Florida and Miami over Indiana.

That would set up Final Four round games on April 6 between Duke and Kansas and Ohio State and Miami. In that scenario, I’d go with Duke and Miami to win, setting up a NCAA title game between those two schools on April 8. If that comes to pass, I’d go with Duke to win it all.

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When will Paul Finebaum be back on the radio?

That’s a question that I’ve been getting on and off for several months now, and I’ll be just as happy as the next sports fan when he returns to the airwaves.

For those of you unfamiliar with Finebaum, he’s the host of a popular sports radio talk show that airs Monday through Friday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. His show is based out of Birmingham, but listeners in Conecuh County and in adjacent counties had the pleasure of listening to his entertaining program on WPPG 101.1FM in Evergreen.

Finebaum has been off the air since Jan. 22, and he’s currently serving out a three-month no compete clause that he had in his contract with Cumulous Radio. No one’s sure what will happen at the end of that three-month period, but rumor is that he might land on ESPN, XM Radio, CBS Sports Radio or on The Zone in Birmingham. Hopefully, he’ll return to the local airwaves shortly thereafter.