"First things first, to the death - No. To the pain."

(Note - Teejay got out of the blocks quickly on today's post, but was distracted by a shiny object and the smell of some Alaskan Sense and wound up muttering to himself in a corner about ketchup and Kenny Rogers songs. I'm his Sparky Lyle, Rolaids relief man. His input is in black, mine in red.)

Rob tackled Thursday's Sweet 16 games, I thought I'd give Friday's games a shot. On with the show, as they say...on with the show, indeed.

7:10 PM ET - Detroit Rock City (10)Davidson (28-6, 20-0 Southern) vs. (3)Wisconsin (31-4, 16-2 Big Ten)
For the record, his name is pronounced like this guy (Edberg), though mom and pop Curry went with the traditional spelling. I think Teej wanted a picture of Swedish tennis great Stefan Edberg here, but I'm too lazy to go find one. G:TB is really torn, given our concomitant love for both Bo Ryan specifically and the underdog generally. We didn't give Curry a chance against Georgetown and that worked out poorly for us, but recent history has shown that reversal of opinion tends to lead to bad juju, so the pick here is Wisconsin by a healthy margin - lay the 4.5, Danny.

7:27 PM ET - Houston (3)Stanford (28-7, 13-5 Pac-10) vs. (2)Texas (30-6, 13-3 Big 12)
I hear the Lopez boys are dumb as bricks. But Connor Atchley is the love great-grandchild of Albert Einstein and Marie Curie. G:TB loves Cardinal(s) of all kinds - Stanford rolls and doesn't stop until they get to San Antonio.

9:40 PM ET - Detroit (12)Villanova (22-12, 9-9 Big East) vs. (1)Kansas (33-3, 13-3 Big 12)
This is like Lion-O vs. Snarf. Or Joey Dorsey vs. long division, a complete mismatch. After running Nova out of the gym, Lion-O is celebrating with a Cheetarah/She-Ra threesome. I don't have the first fucking clue what any of that means, but it sounds awesome - especially the part about the threesome. I think Teej likes Kansas here, but I'm confused about the Joey Dorsey inclusion. Also, this would make more sense if it were linked to the Memphis Tigers, what with all the big cat cartoon references. I like the Jayhawks to win, but unlike my oft-addled compadre, my Big East bias says the Wildcats beat the 12.5-point number.

9:57 PM ET - Houston (5)Michigan State (27-8, 12-6 Big Ten) vs. (1)Memphis (35-1, 16-0 C-USA)
Make. your. fucking. free throws. Indeed. There's just no way Drew Neitzel and Goran Suton can hang with CDR, Derrick Rose, the aforementioned Joey Dorsey, and the rest of Memphis' talented cast. Or is there? The relevant aspect of this game for those that think MSU has a chance: Tom Izzo > John Calipari by quite a wide margin. I don't know who has the broadcast of this one, but expect Dick Vitale to burst a capillary in the pregame sputtering on about Italian delicacies. I'd give a month's salary to see Bob Knight pull a Neil Reed on Dickie V mid-rant. G:TB is taking Sparty to win, with full knowledge that we'll regret it.