NCAA Tournament Open Thread: The Elite Eight

It's official. Any weak argument we could have made about Vanderbilt being the No. 2 team in the country died on Thursday night when Texas A&M was bounced out of the NCAA Tournament.

The Aggies were the last team in the bracket that had beaten the Commodores during the season. [Whoops. Forgot about Kansas. Go Jayhawks.] Of all the rest of the Vanderbilt-defeaters, they had the deepest run in the tournament. The rest of that group -- Wichita State, Baylor, Texas, Dayton, Purdue, and Kentucky -- went a combined 2-6 at the Big Dance.

So while it wasn't a great year to have thrashed Vanderbilt, it was a pretty great season to be in the ACC. The traditional hardwood powerhouse has filled up half the bracket at the Elite Eight, and ACC teams are guaranteed to take a pair of the available slots at next week's Final Four. 10th-seeded Syracuse, somehow, is the closest thing we've got to a Cinderella this year. I don't know about you, but that bums me out.

Well, at least we can celebrate one last Saturday without any ACC influences. Today's games feature Buddy Hield battling Oregon's bid for its first Final Four since World War II and Villanova's quest to keep the phrase "VU Basketball" relevant. Join us in the comments to talk shop.

Sat., March 26 (all times Eastern)

West Region Regional Final: (Honda Center, Anaheim, Calif.)
No. 1 Oregon vs. No. 2 Oklahoma, 6:09 p.m., CBS

South Region Regional Final (KFC Yum! Center, Louisville, Ky.)
No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 2 Villanova: 8:49 p.m., CBS