With the first weekend of the NCAA tournament come and gone, it's time to step back and evaluate what we've seen so far in the Big Dance. While I could go on forever with my thoughts from the opening two rounds, here are my five biggest observations heading into the Sweet Sixteen.

1. Survive and advance is the name of the game in this tournament, but Tennessee's play is concerning to me going forward. They did manage to improve their play greatly from round one to round two, but it will take another step like that to get past Louisville.

Much has been made of the point guard play, but to me Wayne Chism is the key to beating the Cardinals. The sophomore has shown signs of coming into his own lately, but he has to stay out of foul trouble and be on the floor. With Chism and Tyler Smith playing well inside the Vols can win this game.

I also believe Chris Lofton will play well against Louisville. Let's not forget how some of the senior's best games have come against another team from his home state, and this is his first shot at the Cardinals.

2. I said following Tennessee's loss at Vanderbilt that I was convinced the Commodores would be one and done in the NCAA tournament, and hoped they got a high seed so I could pick the huge upset. Some readers seemed to think I was crazy for believing that.

Turns out I was right after all. The ‘Dores were not a good team away from home the entire season. The were reliant on Shan Foster to lead the way to any postseason victory, and he wasn't close to enough.

My biggest regret is that it turned out I didn't have the guts to pick Siena in the first round. There's another lesson in why to follow your instincts when filling out brackets.

3. Free-throw shooting nearly did Memphis in against Mississippi State, but they were able to survive and advance. I think they'll be able to get past against Michigan State whether they knock down free throws or not. However, in the Elite Eight that won't be the case.

Stanford and Texas are too good for Memphis to beat without executing fundamentals like making free throws, and I think this is about to become the Tigers third straight year to bow out in the regional final.

4. UCLA has now become my favorite team to root against now that Duke is out of this tournament. The Bruins were bailed out by the officials yet again when an obvious foul was not called on Texas A&M's final possession while the Aggies trailed by one.

Don't believe there was a foul? Click here and scroll about a quarter of the way down the page.

It's a shame the Bruins were basically handed a yellow brick road to the Final Four, but they aren't going to be winning a National title. A team has to have more than three players contributing and some semblance of depth to accomplish that goal, and the Bruins have neither right now.

5. My final four picks of North Carolina, Wisconsin, Texas and UCLA with UNC over Texas in the title game remain possible and I see no reason to toy with those now.

Texas basically gets two home games to get to the Final Four, UCLA has to play nobody to get there, and Wisconsin plays better perimeter defense than any team I've seen in quite some time. That will allow the Badgers to beat Kansas as the Jayhawks come up short under Bill Self once again.

However, UNC is still the best team I've seen. That doesn't mean they're unbeatable, but they're obviously the team to beat in my eyes. I still believe Tennessee is the team with the best shot to beat the Tar Heels, and should those two teams meet in the Elite Eight that will become my national title game.

MLB Season Underway

The Major League Baseball season technically got underway early Monday morning with the Boston Red Sox and Oakland A's squaring off in Japan.

I think I'm more excited for this season in Major League Baseball than I've been for an MLB season in my lifetime. That could have something to do with a guy named Santana being traded to my favorite team, but this season should be an exciting one on many fronts.

The American League looks like it will be a six-team race to get to the World Series and each of the three divisions should have an exciting two-way race to take the crown.

Johan Santana makes the Mets the favorite in the National League, but they were also the favorite last year and we know how that worked out. Whoever emerges out of the stacked NL West will be a battle tested team by postseason play, and the Cubs appear to be in a good position to make some noise.

I'm not going to post my picks in this column, but those are coming later this week. My 2007 MLB picks column was one of the most commented stories in the history of the Tennessee Journalist, so I wanted to devote an entire column to this year's predictions and not just part of one.

Look for those to come out on Saturday. I'll give a little hint, though. My picks this season look a lot like my picks last season.