In the 1965 movie, “The Fight of the Phoenix,” after their plane goes down, survivors of an airplane crash must escape the desert and reach civilization.
In the 2004 Phoenix Bracket, after the No. 1 seed goes down, four teams must try to escape the desert to survive March Madness and reach the Final Four in San Antonio.
No. 2 Connecticut vs. No. 6 Vanderbilt — Thursday 6:10 p.m., Central Time
The Connecticut Huskies coasted into the Sweet 16 with big wins over Vermont and DePaul. Emeka Okafor’s back did not slow him down at all, as he scored 25 points and pulled down 26 rebounds in the first two games.
The Huskies’ greatest asset so far in the tournament has been the offensive contributions of nearly everyone behind Okafor. Against Vermont, Rashad Anderson scored 22 points and went six-of-nine from behind the 3-point line. Ben Gordon has carried over his outstanding play from the Big East Tournament into the NCAAs, with 32 points and eight assists in the first two games. Even struggling sophomore Denham Brown scored 12 points in the win over DePaul.
With their biggest obstacle, No. 1 seed Stanford, now eliminated, and the Huskies playing some of their best basketball of the season, UConn’s eyes are fixed on San Antonio.
Before the Huskies can dream of Final Four glory, they will first have to get by the Vanderbilt Commodores, who come into the game fresh off an upset win over No. 3 seed North Carolina State.
If Vanderbilt is going to beat the Huskies, the Commodores must find a way to stop UConn’s powerful inside game. The Huskies complement Okafor with freshmen Josh Boone and Charlie Villanueva, who are both effective at scoring and rebounding in the post.
No. 6 seed Vanderbilt will try to counter the Huskies with junior center David Przybyszewski, but the 7-foot-2 native of Poland has not played well against the Huskies in the past. Last season he struggled defensively against Okafor as the UConn center dominated the Huskies’ 76-70 win with 25 points and 11 rebounds.
Przybyszewski is effective shooting the three and, with forward Matt Freije, will try to create a perimeter game and draw Okafor away from the basket. This would create more room for sophomore guard Mario Moore to get to the hoop.
Freije and Moore have both played well thus far in the tournament. Moore scored 26 in Vanderbilt’s opening-round victory over Western Michigan, while Freije had 31 in the win over North Carolina State.
No. 5 Syracuse vs. No. 8 Alabama — Thursday 8:40 p.m., Central Time
Syracuse and Alabama meet in the Sweet 16 after each sent their fans’ blood pressure skyrocketing in their last-second wins
Alabama pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the season thus far when it defeated No. 1 seed Stanford 70-67. The Cardinal nearly made their third buzzer-beater of the year, but Dan Grunfeld’s 3-pointer clanged off the rim as time expired to give the Crimson Tide the upset.
With 7:40 remaining and Alabama down by 13, it looked like Stanford would cruise into the Sweet 16. Instead, the Crimson Tide went on a 16-0 run to take the lead. Kennedy Winston led Alabama with 21 points, outshining Pac-10 Player of the Year Josh Childress, who scored 12 points before fouling out with 3:18 left to play.
Syracuse’s run to the Sweet 16 was no less dramatic. In the second round, the Orangemen survived two last-second shots by Maryland freshman D.J. Strawberry to defeat the Terrapins 72-70.
“It was the longest couple seconds I’ve had in a long time,” said Syracuse forward Hakim Warrick. “We didn’t want to foul and I think we did a good job of contesting shots and not letting them get easy baskets. That’s what it came down to.”
Syracuse’s win was nearly the opposite of Alabama’s — the Orangemen had a 16-point lead with just over 13 minutes to go, but could not put Maryland away.
Whether the Orangemen can put the Crimson Tide away Thursday will largely depend on what kind of performance they get from sophomore guard Gerry McNamara. In Syracuse’s first-round victory over Brigham Young, McNamara was on fire from the field, scoring 43 points and hitting on nine 3-pointers. Against Maryland, McNamara struggled shooting only two-of-11 from the field.
“It’s not like I didn’t have it,” McNamara told the Associated Press after the game. “They played tough defense. When you come off a big game, I expected to get pounded.”
Regardless of which version of McNamara shows up, the Orangemen know they can count on a strong performance from Warrick. The junior forward is quickly drawing comparisons to former teammate Carmelo Anthony, following back-to-back 20-point games in this season’s tournament.
Alabama will counter McNamara and Warrick with a talented duo of their own in the form of forward Kennedy Winston and guard Earnest Shelton. The pair averaged a combined 32 points per game this season and have been helped in the tournament by the excellent play of guard Antoine Pettway.
Alabama has so far been one of the Cinderellas of this year’s tournament, but don’t be surprised if their run comes to an end against Syracuse. If the Orangemen can pull off the win and UConn also advances, it would set up a rematch of Syracuse’s 67-56 win over the Huskies two weeks ago. This time, with a healthy Okafor, UConn should pull off the win and advance to San Antonio.