Our Friday Sweet Sixteen Picks

The first weekend of the NCAA Tournament is about either surviving or upsetting. The second weekend though is about exerting power.

You might get a Cinderella or two, but for the most part, the field is already down to brass tacks and facts.

Thursday's games were not particularly close. Kansas beat Maryland by 16, Villanova beat Miami by 23 (we thought it would be much closer), Oklahoma took out Texas A&M by 14 and of course Oregon knocked off Duke by the same margin.

Here's our predictions for Friday.

We'll take Virginia over Iowa State, but if the Cyclones do manage to win, they'll have to play at Bennett Speed.

Wisconsin is mentally tougher than Notre Dame so we'll take the Badgers.

Gonzaga's forwards can shoot over Jim Boeheim's 2-3 zone and Syracuse is still awfully thin.

We should say UNC over Indiana. It's the logical pick. There are a couple of wild cards here though.

First: IU's backcourt is highly athletic. Unusually so in fact.

On the downside, Juwan Morgan is questionable, which hurts IU up front.

But here's the really interesting wildcard to us.

When we saw Indiana in Cameron, Og Anunoby made no impression on us. Late in the season though, he emerged as a superb defender. He's 6-8 but has a 7-6 wingspan. Brandon Ingram's is 7-3 for reference.

Unlike Ingram, he's very solidly built at 243 lbs.

Could he defend Brice Johnson?

Maybe. He's long enough.

Isaiah Hicks?

Possibly. He's thick enough.

Justin Jackson?

Could be. He's fast enough.

He's a guy to keep an eye on.

Unlike UNC, Indiana at times can absolutely rain threes. Both teams are going to run.

We'll take Indiana in a very tight upset.