NCAA: Remaining regional finals to be set from mixture of favorites (Duke) and surprises (UNI)

NCAA: Buckeyes, Vols get the action going again

Baylor and Saint Mary’s will be the second game to get going Friday night, one of the most intriguing matchups in the regional semifinals.

The Bears are only about seven years removed from a scandalous summer in which one player shot another, former coach Dave Bliss got tangled in a series of lies and financial misdeeds, and the program very nearly got hit with the same kind of NCAA sanctions that sunk the once-proud SMU football program in the 1980s.

Coach Scott Drew has rebuilt the program and the hopes of all its fans behind some stellar recruiting and a couple of high-profile stars in LaceDarius Dunn and Tweety Carter.

The Gaels, on the other hand, finally grew tired of playing second-best to Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference. Behind the inspired play of Omar Samhan, the big guy with the big crush on Taylor Swift, the tiny school from Moraga, Calif., beat the Zags in its league tournament and knocked out No. 2 seed Villanova to reach the round of 16.

No. 2 seed Ohio State and sixth-seeded Tennessee are about to tip off in the semifinals of the Midwest Regional, where the winner will face Northern Iowa or Michigan State on Sunday.

The last time these two teams met in the NCAA tournament, the Buckeyes had a couple guys named Greg Oden and Mike Conley leading the way to the national title game. Although almost everyone from that team is gone, Evan Turner and Co. certainly have proven their mettle.

The Vols, meanwhile, have weathered a rocky season on Rocky Top after Brian Williams and Cameron Tatum were arrested during a Jan. 1 traffic stop. Williams pleaded guilty to drug possession after marijuana was found in the car, and Tatum pleaded guilty to speeding.

Since then, all the attention has been on basketball, where Tennessee has beaten teams such as Kansas and Kentucky.

Also Friday night, No. 1 seed Duke will face Purdue in the South Regional, while Baylor will try to reach its first Final Four when it faces Saint Mary’s, the only double-digit seed left in a tournament that has been anything but short on longshots.

Already in the round of eight: Kansas State, Butler, Kentucky and West Virginia.

Let the games begin again.