Hey, let's rank the Elite 8 teams!

1. North Carolina

As I had in my bracket from the beginning, North Carolina is the best team in the country. There’s really not much to be said about them. Their offensive efficiency has been written about ad nauseam and is outrageous. I’m mostly impressed that they decided to show up defensively and lock down on a Washington State team that admittedly is not an offensive juggernaut.

2. Kansas

Kansas is a really complete team and I think to beat them they’re going to need to be missing jump shots. That is possible, by the way. However, when they’re hitting shots they jump to number one on this list because they certainly defend better than North Carolina and really the only thing keeping North Carolina ahead of Kansas on this list is Hansbrough. A game between Kansas and North Carolina would be fascinating, obviously beyond the obvious Roy Williams storylines. No other team can match the talented depth Kansas can throw out there but I like the high end talent on North Carolina more and in a one game situation I’ll take the better high end talent over great depth.

3. Louisville

This is probably higher than most people have Louisville, but how can I argue with results? Their defense has been outstanding and the offense has been plenty good to make a blowout out of each game they’ve played and two of those games were against pretty solid competition. They have the big bodies to kill people on the glass (just ask Tennessee) and they have enough options on offense to get by. I would like it if they had that one guy that I could trust more to get that one bucket when they really need it but if they keep playing like they have been there may not be “that one bucket” that they need.

4. Texas

I really don’t have much to say about Texas other than they keep impressing and D.J. Augustin is not terrible at basketball. I questioned how well their post players would match up with the Lopez’s and Brook got his but the rest of the team was completely shut down. I’m thinking that if this Texas team shoots the ball reasonably well they are real to beat. I am probably underrating them and that’s probably because I didn’t think they’d be that great at the beginning of the year and I never got over my bias. Picking Texas to win the whole thing is not a bad pick.

5. Memphis

I refuse to overreact too much to them slaughtering a team that could only score 36 points in a game against Iowa so although they manhandled Michigan State I’m not going to jump them up to that top tier. However, I am going to jump them up ahead of UCLA in my rankings of one seeds. I am coming around on Rose though. Earlier in the season I didn’t see what the big fuss was about. Now I don’t really see why he is considered clearly the number 2 pick in the draft, assuming he comes out, but I do see why he’s considered a future pro and a lottery pick. While I’m on Memphis I want to make a quick point on the raised floor at Ford Field and Reliant Stadium. What is the point of this idea? It’s just stupid. Early in the second half when Michigan State went on a 9-0 run (which was the beginning to that 17-0 run) to crawl back to 25 (keep in mind, by the way, that I’m not exaggerating to be funny; Michigan State truly did go on a 9-0 run early in the second half to get back to 25) you could see their players jumping up excitedly under the court and Memphis called a timeout. Then the Michigan State players wanted to get on the court to celebrate the run with their teammates but somebody had to go grab a ladder first. Perhaps Kansas can use this to their advantage to throw Curry off the ledge.

6. Xavier

Watching Xavier is like watching the NBA because what happens at the beginning of the game has not been very important. Still, there are probably not a lot of teams in this tournament that would have escaped their three games thus far this tournament. Perhaps Georgia ran out of gas, but Purdue has been a very solid team and that West Virginia team had been playing awfully well. Xavier plays very good defense, they have enough bodies inside to hang with most teams’ post players, and they can shoot. The balance they put on the floor is pretty much just ridiculous; it’s a hard team to game plan for.

7. Davidson

When I look at Davidson I’d love to talk about guys like Lovedale and Richards and say that this is a real quality team that is more than just Curry. In fact, I have said that. And it’s true that Davidson played great defense against Wisconsin. But really watching them again tonight it’s tough to deny that this is just Curry’s team and his brilliance gives them a shot against everyone left in the field (even if I think Kansas will be a battle they probably cannot overcome). On a side note, Curry should do well in the NBA and it’s crazy when I hear people suggest that he’ll need to learn the point. His ability to move without the ball is one of his strengths. I understand he’s undersized but why would you put him in a situation to take away from his strengths. There are enough NBA teams that can play with good sized points that can handle the prototypical twos that Curry can defend a point. But even if Curry ends up giving some away defensively his offensive ability is so great that you can live with it.

8. UCLA

Well, this is obviously my most controversial pick. Sure the UCLA backcourt is strong and sure Love is terrific. Well, I don’t see a lot on the UCLA front line beyond Love. And Love has this odd compulsion to occasionally venture out to the perimeter when he is a force inside so he sometimes takes himself out of the game. On the perimeter I question their ability to handle real quick guards and that was played out with Brazelton’s second half. (I don’t know how they can contain Lavender.) Collison did nothing to inspire a lot of confidence with his play against Western Kentucky with four turnovers and a handful more that the refs just missed. It was nice of Shipp to show up Thursday but why should I believe that Shipp and Westbrook are going to excel, or even play adequately, with their play of late? Right now UCLA is not passing my “eye test.” Of course it goes without saying that the good news for the Bruins is that my “eye test” means nothing.