The Madness Continues

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament rolls right through the weekend, and we’re rolling with it. And we’re rambling with it as well – with the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers.

Everybody’s tournament darling, seeded No. 11, found its way into the Elite Eight on Thursday night by beating Nevada 69-68. Next up (and our primo Six-Pack recommendation): another underdog, Kansas State, which upset Kentucky, on Saturday at 6:09 p.m. ET, televised by TBS. Do the Ramblers and Sister Jean have enough to move on to the Elite Eight? K-State, a No. 9 seed, had never before beaten Kentucky.

Before we get to this one, let’s have some Friday night fun. Heiner, meet recliner. At 7 p.m. on CBS we get Kansas-Clemson and at 7:15 p.m. we can flip over to West Virginia and its nasty pressing defense against Villanova.

We’ve got another No. 9 seed in Florida State moving on after its win over Gonzaga. The Seminoles draw the very hot Michigan Wolverines on Saturday at 8:49 p.m. on TBS, but remember they took out a No. 1 seed in Xavier. The Noles are in the Elite Eight for the first time since 1993.

You will have to track the other matchups after the rest of the Friday games (Syracuse-Duke, Texas Tech-Purdue) play out. You can do it. Then you will have further reason to remain immobile on Sunday as well.

We’d also like to give the women’s tournament a nod. Saturday at 1:30 p.m. on ESPN, Duke takes on Connecticut, which is 34-0. It might be a game … for a while.

It would be a pity to leave golf off the menu, especially when the format is match play. So tune in on Sunday for the final round of the WGC-Dell Technologies event on Sunday at 3 p.m. on NBC.

And our friends who go round and round at high speed are in Martinsville for the NASCAR Monster Energy Series STP 500 at 2 p.m. Sunday on FS1. As the singer Donovan put it: Happiness runs in a circular motion. We know better – sitting motionless in front of the television is truly the path to inner joy.

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman