The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board Because that's our custom

The Final Four plus one

Getty image

So we have our Final Four for the tournament and the Final 13 in our bracket challenge, that being the number of people with their champion still standing: 10 for North Carolina, three for Villanova and three for Oklahoma.

Ah, but of those 13, only Ryan Rinker (Oklahoma over UNC), Matthew Harvey (UNC over Villanova) and Mike Schultz (Villanova over UNC) can get three wins next weekend. There are other ways to win, of course, but those three have the best look at it.

We’re near the end, but it’s sort of interesting that West Virginia’s season has been over for a while and the Mountaineers remain relevant. Take the Kansas loss to Villanova Saturday night, when the Wildcats defended the full length and width of the floor with great results.

“They did a great job just kind of being everywhere,” forward Landen Lucas said. “It’s hard to simulate that, and I guess the closest thing to it would probably be West Virginia. But we just didn’t do a good job playing our basketball, and that’s what’s got us here and we kind of got away from that today.”

Villanova takes on Oklahoma Saturday, and in two games during the regular season, both wins, the Sooners did well as anyone against the WVU press. The third game in the Big 12 tournament? That was different, and now it’s up to the Wildcats to do the same, which would be terrible news for Mr. Rinker and great news for Messrs. Harvey and Shultz.