The NCAA Tournament is here and there’s more news, commentary and analysis than any of us can possibly keep up with. To make things a little easier, we’ll bring you a list of daily links gathered about teams in each of the four regions all the way through the Final Four.

South Region

Midwest Region

• Fans and media aren’t the only ones caught up in great performances by major talent among the mid-major ranks. It was recently revealed that in 2010, Baylor coach Scott Drew and then-Tennessee head coach Bruce Pearl allegedly contacted Ohio‘s D.J. Cooper about transferring, which would constitute NCAA violations if the allegations are true. It will be interesting to see whether the subject is raised during Baylor’s media session this week.
• Yahoo! Sports’ Pat Forde opines that even if North Carolina guard Kendall Marshall returns to the fold for a potential regional final, the odds are stacked heavily against the Heels.
• The Tar Heels’ aren’t the only team from the state recovering from some health concerns. N.C. State will face Kansas Friday, and C.J. Williams and C.J. Leslie are recovering from fatigue. The severity isn’t even comparable to North Carolina’s situation, but a few days of rest will be especially helpful to the Wolfpack.
• Basketball Prospectus’ C.J. Moore breaks down how Kansas topped Purdue on Sunday, from Elijah Johnson‘s fortitude to Bill Self‘s halftime adjustments.
• There are already two coaching vacancies in the Big Ten, and Ohio coach John Groce could fit the bill at either Nebraska or Illinois after the season. Groce’s Big Ten connections, when combined with his team’s head-turning performance this postseason, make him appealing to the Cornhuskers. Nebraska is a tough job, but with a heavy commitment to hoops, Athletic Director Tom Osborne could find a catch.

Zach Hayes is an editor, contributor and bracketologist for Rush the Court.

The last four days I’ve successfully slipped into a hoops coma, watching every game from Murray State-Colorado State on Thursday afternoon to Cincinnati closing out Florida State to finalize this season’s Sweet 16. In between the thrilling last-second finishes, the shocking upsets and the blowout snooze-fests, stars were born and flaws were exposed. Finishing with the Midwest and South regions (East and West found here), here’s one prevailing lesson learned from each remaining team as I somehow try to survive without hoops until Thursday:

Kendall Marshall's importance cannot be overstated

North Carolina: No Marshall means no title. Anthony Davis and Draymond Green are in the conversation, but Kendall Marshall is the most indispensable player in this tournament. His impact goes much further than the remarkable 9.8 assists per game or better than 3:1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Marshall is an absolute maestro conducting Roy Williams’ patented fast break, high octane offensive attack. The sophomore point guard finds Tyler Zeller sprinting from rim to rim for layups and always delivers the ball on time to Harrison Barnes or Reggie Bullock off screens. His broken wrist is doubly devastating because of the lack of options at the position behind Marshall. Guards Leslie McDonald and Dexter Strickland are both on the shelf with torn ACL’s, leaving unheralded Stillman White as the Heels top option if Marshall is sidelined. That may be sufficient to beat Ohio, but Kansas or even NC State is a different story.

Ohio: I now understand why teams tried to poach D.J. Cooper. A New York Times report indicated that Baylor coach Scott Drew attempted to convince Cooper to leave Athens and transfer to Baylor following his team’s monumental upset of Georgetown in the 2010 NCAA Tournament. Cooper dismissed the overtures, opting to remain loyal to John Groce and Ohio rather than jump ship. His patience has been rewarded to the tune of a Sweet 16 berth after upsetting Michigan and South Florida, an effort led by Cooper’s combined 40 points and 12 assists. Cooper and his brilliant backcourt mates Walter Offutt and Nick Kellogg now prepare for their VCU over Kansas or George Mason over Connecticut moment when the Bobcats face with North Carolina on Thursday.

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1. The Gators’ Achilles’ heel all season has been defense, and now it is that side of the ball that has Florida advancing deeper into the tournament. “A lot of people think we aren’t as good of a defensive team that we’re more of an offensive team that’s predicated on the 3-point shot,” center Patric Young said. “But we proved that the last two games against Virginia and tonight that we can play really great defense.” Perhaps with Florida, the issue on defense is more about effort and desire then skill or ability.
2. Florida has battled illness and injuries all season, so why would March be any different? Forward Casey Prather battled the flu against Norfolk State on Sunday, just two days after a career game against Virginia. “It’s crazy,” Prather said. “I just wanted to provide energy for the team.” With a 101-degree fever, all Prather was able to muster was two points, one rebound, two blocks, and one assist. Luckily for the Gators, Billy Donovan’s club really didn’t need Prather in the 84-50 blowout. Now the question is can Florida finally get 100 percent healthy for this weekend?
3. Kentucky was always the favorite to win the  NCAA Tournament, but with injuries limiting Syracuse and North Carolina, the Wildcats now must win the title to squelch the critics, according to ESPN’s Myron Medcalf. Many have argued that a team with a core of freshmen players will never win a title, but with the aforementioned powerhouses on the ropes which team can keep the Cats from cutting down the nets? The path to the championship has opened up for Kentucky to win its first title under John Calipari, and if Calipari and his young Cats can’t win the big one this year, then maybe the critics are right.
4. Dick Vitale thinks Baylor could be a major issue for Kentucky in a potential Elite Eight matchup. “They’re better than Baylor,” Vitale said of the Cats. “I think they’ll beat Baylor. But Baylor has the athletes to match them athletically.” But what about Indiana, a team that already beat the Cats in December? “On a neutral floor in Round II, with a chip on (UK’s) shoulder and payback, Kentucky wins and advances,” Vitale said. One has to assume that Kentucky fans will do everything they can to aid in that process since the Cats struggled in the hostile environment in Bloomington. It should be a great atmosphere in Catlanta this weekend.
5. Tennessee fell short in the NIT against Middle Tennessee State, leaving only Florida and Kentucky alive to represent the conference. The Vols struggled to explain what went wrong against the Blue Raiders. “I wish I knew,” point guard Trae Golden said. “We didn’t capitalize from the free-throw line, we didn’t defend well down the stretch; there’s a lot of things we could have done better.” There is a renewed sense of excitement around this program after the job done by first year coach Cuonzo Martin this season. After a season full of exceeding expectations, it is fun to think about what the Vols can do next season with Martin’s system and philosophy fully in place.

Thanks to a few defensive stands and some late-game mismanagement by its opponent and an injury on the other side of the bracket, Kansas‘ path to New Orleans looks about as wide as the parting of the Red Sea. And thanks to a magical upset by a team from the Patriot League, only Kentucky stands as a major roadblock on Baylor‘s path to New Orleans. (Ok, maybe major is an understatement.) Missouri may have choked away a two-seed, and Iowa State, Texas, and Kansas State may not have been able to make any sort of Cinderella charge, but the Big 12 isn’t dead yet with Kansas and Baylor headed to their respective regional semifinals.

Brady Heslip Threw Up Three Fingers A Lot This Weekend (AP Photo/Matt York)

The Jayhawks are in a particularly encouraging situation. Forget the fact they shot 32 percent from the field and missed 19 three-point attempts against Purdue. Bill Self‘s mixing and matching of defenses helped shut down Robbie Hummel in the second half, and a few clutch shots from Elijah Johnson and team defensive stops helped Kansas rattle the Boilermakers with the game on the line. The Jayhawks could not have possibly played any worse, and yet they’ll now head to St. Louis as the heavy favorites against North Carolina State. The better news for the Jayhawks? Top-seeded North Carolina may play next weekend without its heart-and-soul point guard Kendall Marshall, who broke his wrist after dishing out 11 assists against Creighton. Kansas was headed to another early exit in the NCAA Tournament, trailing in the final minutes to a double-digit seed. Now, in an instant, the Jayhawks are perhaps the favorite to reach the Final Four out of the Midwest.

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Tonight’s Lede. After one of the craziest nights in recent Big Dance history on Friday, perhaps we all needed a bit of a break from the chaos this weekend. Fortunately, that didn’t exactly happen. Most of the higher seeds advanced in the round of 32, but the Midwest Region led the way with some crazy results. Almost every season, we see a double-digit seed reach the Sweet Sixteen; this year, we have three, and it easily could have been five. Of the 16 teams remaining, four come from the Big East, four are of the Big Ten, and four represent the state of Ohio, including both of the guilty parties from the Crosstown Shootout Brawl back in December. It’s the first time ever that one single state sends four teams to the Sweet Sixteen. Let’s go over the great moments from the weekend…

Your Watercooler Moment. #13 Ohio University is This Year’s Cinderella Story

D.J. Cooper Hasn't Allowed #13 Ohio to Lose (AP Photo/B. Rucker)

What would the NCAA Tournament be without a mid-major, double-digit seed in the Sweet Sixteen? This year it’s Ohio, the #13 seed of the Midwest Region that had a fairly favorable draw in terms of matchups but still had to defeat two power conference teams on the way. A victory over #12 seed South Florida on Sunday sent the Bobcats to the second weekend of the Big Dance, pretty amazing considering they finished third in the MAC conference this season. But Ohio is no joke, as D.J. Cooper continues to prove himself as one of the best lead guards in the entire tourney. Cooper outplayed USF’s Anthony Collins in the round of 32 and tallied 19 points, six rebounds, and seven assists with several big shots late in the game to help his team advance. The other recognizable name from this squad is Nick Kellogg, the sophomore guard who is the son of CBS analyst and former collegiate star Clark Kellogg. Clark’s son is a terrific shooter at 41.8% from three and 89.2% from the foul line, giving the Bobcats a nice one-two punch from the perimeter. Interestingly enough, Ohio now draws #1 North Carolina in the Regional Semifinal in what most would expect to be a blowout, but the Tar Heels just lost their indispensible point guard to a wrist injury, which will make things interesting next weekend. Could Ohio’s perimeter attack lead to a truly incredible Cinderella story with a win over UNC? Stay tuned.

Also Worth Chatting About. Kendall Marshall Suffers Broken Wrist for #1 Seed North Carolina

The single biggest storyline from the past weekend was not anything that happened in the box score or even in between the lines on the court. But when North Carolina’s star point guard and the nation’s leader in assists, Kendall Marshall, got fouled and pushed on a layup and landed on his right wrist in the out-of-bounds baseline, the entire dynamic of this NCAA Tournament changed. Marshall suffered a fractured wrist on this play with 10:55 remaining in the second half of Carolina’s game against #8 seed Creighton. Marshall continued to play in this game for a few minutes and wasn’t immediately in so much pain that he had to leave. It’s also an injury to his non-shooting hand, so it could have been worse. In addition, the sophomore is set for surgery on Monday which will leave him in a position to play shortly thereafter if he is able to tolerate the pain. Unfortunately, it’s a huge long shot to think that Marshall will be back and effective going forward. The injury he suffered usually requires three-plus weeks of a cast and rest, and even bracing the hand and tolerating pain to play will make for a huge liability on the floor. Already a weak defender, Marshall would be even less effective on that end and he would surely be forced to his right hand on offense by opposing teams. There’s just as strong of a chance that he’d be a detriment to UNC by being on the court than he would be a benefit, depending on the true impact of the injury. As things stand, Carolina needs to start preparing for a Championship run without its point guard, leaving that position to be filled by either unused backup Stilman White (4.2 minutes per game) or by a player like P.J. Hairston or Harrison Barnes in some sort of point-forward role. One of the most irreplaceable players in the country, Marshall’s injury leaves a giant question mark surrounding the Tar Heels’ title hopes.

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The NCAA Tournament is here and there’s more news, commentary and analysis than any of us can possibly keep up with. To make things a little easier, we’ll bring you a list of daily links gathered about teams in each of the four regions all the way through the Final Four.

West Region

• As if his play wasn’t enough to win fans over, everyone seems to cling to Draymond Green‘s outgoing personality. Green’s leadership has been one of the keys to Michigan State‘s terrific season.
• Saint Louis’ Brian Conklin has learned to keep his confidence up even when he turns the ball over.
• Louisville is riding high, now having won six straight games after a sluggish finish to the regular season.
• As Marquette advances, the Golden Eagles will need more consistent contributions from Junior Cadougan and Todd Mayo.
• All it took from Kyle O’Quinn to embrace basketball was a little motivation from his high school coach before his senior season.

South Region

• Kentucky head coach John Calipari has never won a national championship. After the Wildcats thrashed Iowa State 87-71 on Saturday night, speculation continued that this might be the year Calipari earns his first title.
• There are many reasons for Indiana‘s rebirth to relevancy in college basketball. However, there might not be a reason bigger than having the services of freshman forward Cody Zeller.
• With VCU‘s loss to Indiana on Saturday night, the clock has begun to tick on the Shaka Smart watch, as schools such as Illinois will be looking to acquire his services.
• Loaded with talent and potential first round NBA selections, Baylor got a lift from an unlikely source in guard Brady Heslip in the Bears’ 80-63 victory over Colorado on Saturday night. Heslip nailed nine three-pointers en route to finishing with 27 points.
• Xavier forward Andre Walker is expected to play against Lehigh on Sunday. Walker missed the last six minutes of the Musketeers’ victory over Notre Dame on Friday after taking an inadvertent elbow to the face.

Three Key Takeaways.

1. Brady Heslip. Quick scouting report: guard him. He doesn’t make it easy for the opposition, running full steam off screen after screen, but when he gets the ball in his mitts with a clean look from deep, it’s as good as in. On Thursday night, he hit five threes from deep in helping the Bears over South Dakota State, but on Saturday he took it to a whole new level, drilling nine-of-twelve from deep against a variety of defenders, almost all of them coming off a screen and knocking down a catch-and-shoot jumper. The Bears don’t beat South Dakota State on Thursday without Heslip, and they probably don’t get out of this round without him either.
2. Breaking open a tight one. With 11:12 remaining in the second half, Colorado was up 54-51 and the Bears looked flustered, tentative and about ready to cave in. But, following a missed free throw, Quincy Acy kicked ahead a pass to Heslip for a game-tying three to jumpstart what would turn into a 24-6 run. There were a couple more Heslip threes mixed in there, a nasty Acy dunk, and countless heady plays by junior point guard Pierre Jackson. A game that once looked like a battle to the finish turned into a laugher awful quick.
3. Size kills. While Heslip is the big story, and rightly so, it was Baylor’s dominance on the boards that kept the Bears around. While the rest of the team save Heslip combined to shoot a 38.5 eFG%, they put in their time doing work, grabbing 44.7% of offensive rebound opportunities and 77.4% on the defensive end. The most well-known of the Baylor bigs continued to struggle, as Perry Jones registered a quiet seven points and four rebounds, but Acy, Quincy Miller, Anthony Jones and even guard Deuce Bello picked up the slack.

Star of the Game. Brady Heslip. It’s a no-brainer. He led all scorers with 27 points, all on three-pointers. There’s very little else on the stat sheet for Heslip, but when you knock down nine threes, often barely even disturbing the net, there’s little need to do things like pass the ball or grab rebounds.

Sights & Sounds. Of the fans in The Pit who came to support one of these two teams, it is probably not an overestimate to say that 90% of them were supporting Colorado. Baylor came close to filling up their one section they were awarded, but the rest of the place was either CU fans, New Mexico fans or neutral observers. Speaking of Lobo fans, when the game ended and the place cleared out, they turned on the end of the UNM/Louisville game on the big screens and the Lobo fans in attendance stuck around to try to cheer their team back from an 11-point deficit.

What’s Next? Baylor moves on to the Sweet 16 in the Atlanta regional, awaiting a date with either Lehigh or Xavier on Friday. They could be on a collision course with Kentucky, and they may be one of the few teams in the country that matches up athletically with the Wildcats, although Kentucky still has to get by Indiana, one of the two teams to beat them this year, first.

Three Key Takeaways.

1. When Kentucky shoots like that, forget it. The Wildcats shot 48% in the first half and led by 11. They shot 16-25 (that is not a typo, 64%) in the second half. Listen, you don’t need to be some kind of genius to know that when this UK team shoots like that, the only thing you can do is hand them the trophy. If you saw the game, you’d agree that Iowa State didn’t play that badly. They did a super job of battling back on the boards compared to their effort there in the first half. They kept Michael Kidd-Gilchrist to a single late bucket. Terrence Jones only managed three scores. Iowa State’s downfall was that the threes just weren’t falling (3-22, 13.6%). Didn’t matter if they were open looks or not; they just didn’t go down. And Kentucky hits 10-20? Simple math.
2. Marquis Teague can kill you many ways. He’s quick enough to go by you when he drives to the goal (he showed Scott Christopherson and Bubu Palo that tonight, both very game defenders, and he fouled the latter out in just 11 minutes), but he also noticed that it was his man who was leaving to double the post most of the night. That left him open for jumpers, and he went 10-14 on the night by both hitting open shots as well as driving into the space the ISU defense gave him.
3. Did we mention the shooting? One of the compelling things about this shooting display by Kentucky was that so many of the shots were NOT from close range. Iowa state WON the points-in-the-paint battle. The Wildcats shot that percentage by hitting a lot of jump shots. Yeesh.

Star of the Game. Tough call here between Teague (24/7 assists on 10-14 shooting) and Darius Miller (19/6 boards on 7-11). Teague was brilliant at taking what the defense gave him while still finding a way to get his teammates involved with seven dimes, but it was Miller who hit some extremely tough shots (and a couple of threes) that keyed the late first-half run that helped UK put some space between themselves and the Cyclones.

Sights & Sounds. In the post-game press conference, ISU head coach Fred Hoiberg said, “We’re going to leave Lexington…I mean, [resigned laugh] Louisville with our heads held high.” It was an HONEST mistake. This undoubtedly felt like Rupp Arena, given the blue-clad fans who packed the KFC Yum! Center. There were a few times early in both halves where Kentucky needed an emotional lift. The crowd helped provide it.

Quotable. Asked about playing Indiana and good friend Tom Crean in the Sweet 16, Calipari noted, “I don’t like playing friends. When they win, I’m sick about it. When I win, I enjoy it for a bit, but then I don’t, because I know what they’re going through.” He then added, “And I know he’s gonna watch every single piece of film anyone has on us, so [looking into TV cameras] Tommy, if you’re watching, I’m putting in two new out-of-bounds plays, some new side-outs, and two new offenses.”

What’s Next? A rematch between two of the seminal programs of our sport. A rematch between friends, Crean and Calipari. A rematch between an overall #1-seed who is rolling, and one of the two teams to draw blood from them this season. Indiana versus Kentucky in the second week of the Tournament. We can’t wait.

Three Key Takeaways.

1. Pardon Our Cliches… If you watched this game, you saw exactly what we did, in terms of the most important takeaway from this game. Connecticut’s roster oozed with talent. Kentucky fans stuck around for this game because they feared seeing UConn again, and for good reason. UConn had enough NBA talent on that roster to frustrate Kentucky. Both Kentucky- and non-Kentucky fans knew it. It was evident in the Big East tournament last week, even in the close loss to Syracuse. All they needed to play like that is motivation. You would think that, this being the NCAA Tournament and all, motivation would be the last of a talented roster’s problems. So here it comes: Connecticut had more talented individuals. Iowa State, from tip to buzzer, was the better team.
   
2. Whither Jim Calhoun? Given his health problems and frequent absences from games this season, will it be back to Storrs next year, or will that loss be how he departs the scene? Twitter buzzed with this question in the dying moments of this game, and the speculation will continue until he puts paid to the question with a definitive statement. And we wouldn’t expect that until after the tournament is over. He would not address the issue in the post-game.
3. Royce White Won the Key Battle. You would never have thought such a sentence would have ever been written a while back when White made that strange exit from Tubby Smith’s Minnesota squad, but the matchup everyone was watching tonight was White versus (sometimes) whiz-kid Andre Drummond. The latter was virtually non-existent (two points, three rebounds) save for four blocks, and his head was clearly elsewhere all night. White wasn’t exactly himself for the first 30 minutes or so, but took over on both ends of the floor late, just like a leader should. He ended with 15/11 on 6-10 shooting, and a new legion of  believers, we’d say.

Star of the Game. White impressed us with his leadership late in the proceedings, especially when Ryan Boatright shrank the ISU lead down to six with a 5-0 run of his own making. Aside from that, though, the most important part of this game was the opening punch landed by Cyclone guards Scott Christopherson and Chris Allen, outhustling the Huskies’ backcourt, getting into the lane easily, and propelling ISU out to an early 20-point lead. Connecticut never really recovered except for the small run in the second half that amounted to little. Those guards deserve some of the SOTG credit.

Quotable. Jim Calhoun: “They played 40 minutes. We played sporadically.” Completely true. It would be interesting to put some of these Huskies on a polygraph and ask them if they’re just a little bit glad this season is over. We don’t think they totally mind this. Calhoun tried to dilute it by saying, “If Connecticut wins 20-25 games a year and goes to the NCAA Tournament, we’ll always be happy,” but that is not the Connecticut standard. It’s been a tough season, and Calhoun admitted as much, and we think it’s one the program is glad to see the back of.

Sights & Sounds. As mentioned, most Kentucky fans stayed for this one. No question the added fan support was appreciated by Iowa State. We, uh, wouldn’t count on that come Saturday. Great motivational tactic for the Cyclones, right? We can already hear Fred Hoiberg and the ISU coaches whispering in their players’ ears, “They stayed to root for you because they thought you were the weaker team. Make them regret they cheered for you.”

What’s Next? Obviously, Iowa State gets Kentucky in the marquee game on Saturday night. Royce White has the last word, speaking about Kentucky: “You see them every night on ESPN. They have a great team, they’re number one for a reason. Great coach, great tradition, great program there, Kentucky basketball. We’re gonna go back and watch some film, and we’re gonna try and figure out their strengths and weaknesses, just like every other team has tried. I’m sure our coaches will come up with a solid game plan just like they have all year long.” He does not sound intimidated.

Three Key Takeaways.

1.  All Business. Kentucky had this one wrapped up and in the mail by halftime. The specific play that did it was at the end of the half when the Wildcats put together an Anthony Davis dunk, a Doron Lamb three, and a block by Davis to lift the lead at 19 and bring the crowd to life. Western Kentucky walked off the floor and, frankly, didn’t provide much resistance upon coming out for the second half.
   
2. There Was a Little (One-Sided) Fun, Actually. Watch for two straight Davis alley-oop dunks on your favorite highlight show tonight if you didn’t see them live. He got a technical on the second one…for pulling his KNEES up to the rim. Deserved it for the knee maneuver, and probably would have broken his back if he had let go of the rim, but hey, it looked cool.
3. How Long Will the Wildcats’ Legs Hold Up? John Calipari has played seven guys, and almost EXCLUSIVELY seven guys, all year long. They’ve played such tough defense and quick, motion offense for a long, hard year. Even with a lead that got up to 30 at one point, Calipari still had his blue-chippers in there with less than ten minutes to go. He didn’t clear his bench until there was less than a minute left. There was a little bit of buzz along press row as to whether Cal’s affinity for leaving his big boys in to close out games even with big leads will eventually cause the legs to fail, given the minutes those seven guys have had to log all season — maybe against, say, a Connecticut or Iowa State? — a buzz not mitigated by the fact that Calipari’s boys let up on defense near the finish line, allowing the ‘Toppers to get the lead down to 15 by the final buzzer.

Star of the Game. Terrence Jones donated 22/10 to the UK cause and was rivaled only by Davis’ 16/9 and seven blocks. Let’s be fair, though. WKU has a couple of ballers, notably freshmen T. J. Price (21/4 on 6-11) and Derrick Gordon (12/5). Once the UK defense decided to take them out of the game (especially Price) at the start of the second half, the matter was decided, but safe to say those gents will have WKU back in the Tournament in short order — and not as a 16-seed.

Quotable. Calipari, who has remarked in the past about how he’s not really a fan of tournament-format basketball: “I’ve told my guys, just forget about the whole tournament. We’re just playing basketball. I told them tonight, I don’t care about offense, let’s just play defense. Let’s show everyone what kind of defensive team we can be.”

Sights & Sounds. Credit to the WKU band for the taunts during Kentucky’s free throws, referencing Davis’ unibrow, questions of Kentucky players’ gender, and other cleverness. They were doing what they could. UK finished 18-25 from the line for 72%.

What’s Next? Everyone knows what’s next. Not many UK fans will leave the KFC Yum! Center until they know who their team is playing on Saturday. There is a palpable fear of Connecticut in this building. UK fans know the Huskies have enough NBA talent on that team to challenge the ‘Cats, and of course UConn disposed of UK last year in the Final Four. A burnt child, indeed, shuns fire.