The Weekend That Was: "They Are Who We Thought They Were," Fighting Snyders, Willed to Win

We only get 13 Saturdays like this a year -- including your team's bye week and excluding bowl season. This one was one of the more boring ones I can remember. Every team in the top ten won (except for South Carolina who played No. 2 Florida), and there were hardly any nail-biters as they all do so easily. But enjoy them. The number of these precious Saturdays are down to four after this week.

Tough day for Connor Shaw and his Gamecocks

"THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE": As the season goes along, this phrase becomes more aprapos by the week. South Carolina made its way into the top 5 a couple of weeks on the road in some of the toughest SEC stadiums, their flaws were unmasked. Did anyone actually believe they were this good?

Their home win over Georgia was one of the most impressive of the year, but USC's inability to find a consistent run --or pass-- game with quarterback Connor Shaw leaves them with two losses in the league and a long-shot to get back to Atlanta. However, UGA, thanks to its weak schedule, has an opportunity to get back to the SEC Championship for the second year in a row with a win over Florida.

Florida, on the other hand, is a little better than we thought they were, as they have manhandled every team since their fighting out a win over Bowling Green in week two of the season. They have no aerial attack to speak of, but if the Gators can put together just a little bit of offense, their defense will do the rest.

Thanks to poor planning the SEC East race will be decided in this Saturday in the World's Largest Cocktail Party.

Sleep-depived Bill Snyder after Saturday's win.

 FIGHTING SNYDERS CONTINUE TO IMPRESS: Bill Snyder is 73 and coaching at Kansas State. He will win the national coach of the year because at the beginning of the season his squad was projected to win 7-8 games. Through seven weeks he is already there and ranked No. 3 in the BCS poll.

Kansas State rolled into Morgantown, West Virginia and layed a smackdown on the Moutnaineers, dominating in every phase of the game. They did everything right except for getting coach Snyder in bed before 9 p.m. Word is he was cranky all day Sunday. This was a team that was owned by Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl last year, but instead of letting their entire program go awry, as the Razorbacks have, they have responded and put together the season many thought the Hogs could have pre-April motorcycle ride.

"Seriously, I owe you for the Heisman."

Also of interest, Kansas State's Arthur Brown became the first player to intercept West Virginia's Geno Smith since December 1, 2010. Brown was also the first player to pick off former Baylor quarterback and Heisman trophy winner, Robert Griffin III.

While their schedule lines up nicely for an undefeated finish, the Wildcats must be careful to not become this years' 2011 Oklahoma State, who lost their next-to-last game at Iowa State and were kept them out of the BCS title game.

A WILL TO WIN: Notre Dame, Oregon State, and Texas Tech are what Skip Bayless would call "Tebowing" their way through this season. They are never overly impressive in their victories (minus TTU over WVU), but they just keep winning.

The Irish and the Beavers used fourth quarter touchdowns to secure wins this week, while the Red Raiders took No. 23 TCU to triple overtime before leaving Fort Worth as winners. At some point for these teams the luck has to run out.

One would think the Irish will have to have more than 17 points to defeat Oklahoma this week, Texas Tech will not be able to keep up with Kansas State's offense and defense, and Oregon State will have to get it together before traveling to Stanford in two weeks. Of course, those sorts of things have been said all season and these teams have delivered in unlikely situations over and over again.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

-Tennessee linebacker, and one of my favorites in all of college football, scored his sixth rushing touchdown of the year from the Volunteers' "Beast Package." While it was impressive, it is not the sort of performance you  want to see from your offense, seeing that it was the only touchdown on the night and the defense gave up 44 to Alabama.

The Ducks are flying high (too easy).

-Oregon could have literally named the number of points they wanted to score this week versus Arizona State. The Ducks offense has done this all year and luckily -- but unfortunately for fans outside the Pac-12 -- coach Chip Kelly has called off the dogs and not embarrassed too many opponents more than they should have been.

- Arkansas didn't lose this week. Sure, they didn't play but with the way the Hogs have played this year, you never know. They also opened as a 4.5-point favorite for Saturday's game against Ole Miss.

- Are you ready for a  Orange Bowl featuring Louisville and Duke? It is a possibility. What a great way for the BCS to say "goodbye" on its way out.

-Duke is bowl eligible after beating hated rival North Carolina in some pretty heinous jerseys. This came a day after their Midnight Madness for the basketball team. What a weekend for Duke fans.

Tonight in Houston

Tonight at Reliant Stadium in  Houston the culmination of March Madness will begin its ending with two games tonight and the National Championship Monday night. Tonight's matchups include two powerhouse programs and two Cinderella teams, if you can call a Butler team that has been to back-to-back Final Fours a Cinderella.

The first of the two games will feature the Cinderellas, where someone's carriage that has brought them thus far will become a pumpkin again. The Butler Bulldogs and the Virginia Commonwealth Rams will fight for a spot in the title game, where Butler lost last year to the Duke Blue Devils. The game will be decided by which team can impose more of their style on the other team, a sign of two impressive, young coaches. VCU, who has beaten opponents from every major conference (minus the SEC), has had success by making opponents try to run and shooting lights out from three. They have made 12 3-pointers in 3 of their 5 tournament games, a number they did not reach but three times the entire regular season. Butler, on the other hand, will try and slow the game down and play stifling defense. The Bulldogs allowed 71 points in an overtime win last weekend against Florida. They hadn't allowed that many points since January.

The late game will pit two elite programs, with elite players, and elite coaches. Speaking of the coaches, both have had their share of problems with recruiting in the eyes of the NCAA. Connecticut Huskies Head Coach Jim Calhoun was banned from coaching the Huskies first three games of the Big East season and Kentucky Wildcats Head Coach John Callipari has had two previous Final Fours vacated at former schools because of recruiting violations. UCONN  and Kentucky met earlier this year at the Maui Tournament, a game and tournament UCONN won. The Wildcats and the Huskies have morphed tremendously over the season and tonight the two will try will renew an old coaching rivalry that dates back more than 20 years.

Who wins?

In the early game I have too much faith in Brad Stevens and believe that surely VCU can not be as hot this weekend as they have been the the last two. Also, it is easier to slow a game down than to speed it up. Butler wins with tough defense and a big game from Guard Shelvin Mack.

The one team in this year's Final Four I picked, Kentucky, will win the second game and "March" on to the program's 11th championship game.