No. 1 Memphis finally lets it loose; Duke slugs its way into Sweet 16

Seth Davis: Yeah, they did. They attacked and they were playing a team that was a much better matchup for them. Memphis is not a good shooting team, they have to create offense off their defense and get points off of their transition. When they make threes, they're impossible to beat Doneal Mack was 5 for 7 from three today and Roburt Sallie matched his previous career high with 13 points. You know who was great was Antonio Anderson, who had 11 assists and two turnovers, which is a great ratio.

When you get in the tournament, getting off to a good start is so important because the psychology goes both ways, so they have to feel really good about what they did. In their next game, Marquette or Missouri -- whichever they play -- like to get out and run, so both those teams are going to try to out-Memphis Memphis and that's hard to do.

SI.com: What about Gonzaga's close win over our Cinderella candidate, Western Kentucky?

SD: Well I'll tell ya, both Western Kentucky and Texas are going home thinking a lot about the foul line. Western Kentucky, after going 12 for 22 in Round 1, was 12 for 25 tonight -- and when you lose a game by two and shoot that from the foul line, that's got to stick in your thoughts. Texas shot what they were shooting all year, 64 percent (3 percent below their season average), while Duke goes 21 for 27 from the foul line. In the end, Duke scored five more points than Texas from the foul line and they won by five points just proves: It all comes down to free throws.

SI.com: Is Purdue a darkhorse Final Four team?

SD: They are really, really good defensively. JaJuan Johnson has had a really good year. Way back at the beginning of the year, I thought he was an X-factor and he started out well and just showed you he could be a great player. I kept waiting for him to have a back step, but he never did. He was the best player on the court today with 22 points, four blocks and, statistically, was the difference in the game. As for the Final Four, I mean he gets Hasheem Thabeet next ,so we don't know how well that will go for him.

SI.com: What'd you think about the bar fight that was the Duke-Texas game?

SD: Very physical game, it's exactly the kind of game that Duke would have lost the last two years. The fact they won with Kyle Singler out for the last three minutes said a lot; and the fact that they sealed the game with an offensive rebound was huge.

SI.com: Is this the end of criticism on Duke's inside game?

SD: They don't have an inside game that you can beat them on everyone rags on Brian Zoubek, but he played 13 minutes and he gave them nothing. They're not going to kill you inside, but as long as you don't kill them inside, their guards can take over. Gerald Henderson has turned into an elite player, and combined with Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer, they are as good a threesome that you can find. It's the mental toughness, though, that they didn't have their last two years.

SI.com: Who's in your Final Four now?

SD: Well, my Demon Deacons fell fantastically, but I'll stick with my other three (I'm less confident about Pitt; I'm curious to see how they play tomorrow -- Pitt needs like a game that Memphis had today) ... so I'll go with my original: North Carolina, Pitt, Memphis and I'll go chalk and add in Louisville.