Are you ready for this?

At one end, we have the powerhouse Duke Blue Devils trying to reclaim their spot on top of college basketball. At the other end, we have the Butler Bulldogs who are looking to conclude their Cinderella run with the national title.

That is what we’re looking at heading to the 2010 NCAA college basketball national championship game between no.1 seed Duke and no.5 seed Butler. After the very exciting roller coaster ride we’ve been through this March, it all comes down to this one game for all the marbles.

As of this writing, the Duke Blue Devils are favored to win by seven points over the Butler Bulldogs. It’s not surprising really as Duke just cruised to a 78-57 win over no.2 seed West Virginia Mountaineers before punching in their ticket for the national championship game. Oh, the Eagles were just 2.5 – point favorites then.

The Blue Devils are in search for their fourth national championship in the history of their program while the Butler Bulldogs are looking for their very first title this Monday night.

And in case you haven’t noticed, yeah, Butler will have the odds stacked against them when they play Duke. Hell, they just barely edged the Michigan State Spartans, 52-50, to get to play for the 2010 national title and on Monday night, things won’t get any easier.

The good thing about all this is, the Bulldogs will get to play for the national title in their hometown in Indianapolis.

”We’ve been talking about the next game all year, and…”

The Butler Bulldogs, you may not hear much about them but as of press time, they are ranked no.17 in the nation.

Of course, like other bracket-bound teams, the Bulldogs can use all sorts of momentum heading to the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament. Thankfully, they have Gordon Howard to make things easier for them.

Gordon Hayward is a top candidate for Horizon League player of the year. All seven of the 6-foot-8 freshman swingman’s best games had him scoring 19 or more points, ironically, all of them have come on the road, including a career-best 27 points in the Bulldogs’ 75-63 victory at Davidson.

He is shooting 52.5 percent from 3-point distance and 85.9 percent at the free-throw line in 14 road games. Hayward said he enjoys playing in hostile environments like Davidson’s sold-out Belk Arena, which holds 5,223. The Butler Bulldogs improved to 11-3 on the road with their 75-63 victory at Davidson. No team in Division I has more road wins.

The last time the Bulldogs met up with the Cleveland State Vikings, Butler edged Cleveland State 50-48 on Dec. 4 on a 3-pointer by Zach Hahn with one second remaining, capping a wild finish that featured three lead changes in the…

On Friday, the final four spots in the NCAA Elite Eight will be decided as the march towards the national title continues.

So, how’s your 2007 March Madness bracket doing so far? Were you counting on an early exit for the Duke Blue Devils? How about Kevin Durant getting booted out by USC? Well, guess what, the Aggies fell a point short from getting to the Elite Eight so I guess more upsets are coming eh?

At 7:10 pm, the defending NCAA College Basketball champions, the No.1 Florida Gators, will meet the No.5 Butler Bulldogs, for a chance to reach the NCAA Elite Eight. The last time these two teams met, Mike Miller broke Butler down with a game-winning shot that gave the Florida Gators its first championship game.

There would be no miracle game-winning shots on Friday though. The Gators won’t need it. Hell, after watching Butler’s LaVall Jordan, an 83 percent free throw shooter, miss TWO FREE THROWS in that fateful game to set up Miller’s game-winner, it is apparent that Butler can’t beat Florida. Heck, they’ll miss free throws just to let it stay that way.

Pick the Florida Gators to pound on the Butler Bulldogs. They won’t need any last second heroics this time.

At 7:27 pm, the No.2 Georgetown Hoyas will meet the No.6 Vanderbilt Commodores in the East regional semi finals. The Hoyas are just playing excellent defense these days and you just know that the Commodores are prepared to break it. Hell, the Commodores waited for three long disappointing seasons to make it this far. Maybe that’s why Derrick Byars is becoming quite the…

It will be one wild Western shootout as the West and the Midwest prepare their share of the coming Elite Eight wars.

First, the Florida Gators will meet the Butler Bulldogs for a spot in the Elite Eight. Need I say more about this match-up? We’re talking about the Gators here, the 2006 NCAA champions. If their basketball program fails to impress you, look at their entire athletics department and you’ll see that Florida won both national titles of college football AND basketball. Scary huh? This is a program built to win a championship, the Bulldogs won’t even stand a chance. Hell, they were only lucky to get pass Maryland anyway.

Next, we have the No.3 seed Oregon Ducks going up against the No.7 seed UNLV Rebels. Now this will just be unfair for UNLV. The Ducks are playting some of their best basketball at the right time, having won FOUR straight games that started during the regular season before blowing out their second round opponents, Winthrop. UNLV shouldn’t have beaten Wisconsin and the Ducks will show ‘em why on Friday.

Midwest bracket: Florida Gators and the Oregon Ducks

As for the West division of the 2007 March Madness bracket, this is the ONLY bracket in the tournament with its top four teams making it to the Sweet 16. Kansas, UCLA, Pittsburgh and Southern Illinois are still here, making these West divisional games on Thursday probably the most competitive games of the Sweet 16 wars.

The Kansas Jayhawks will meet the Southern Illinois Salukis (Salu… what?) as both ball clubs got this far with impressive performances. The only difference between the Jayhawks and the Salukis is that Kansas was expected to do just that whereas Souther Illinois is just glad to be in the Sweet 16. If the Jayhawks can’t get to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament this season, Bill Self is really going to catch heat. While extremely young, the Jayhawks are very talented. They are eighth nationally in field-goal percentage and fourth in defensive field-goal percentage. Oh yeah, Kansas was the first team to beat defending national champion Florida this season so I guess you really have to get to the…

Okay, so who’s in and who’s out?

With the final Field of 65 getting ready to be finalized Sunday, this 2007 season’s March Madness bracket picture is finally clear… ALMOST. With only FOUR at-large bids left, here are the NCAA College Basketball teams you’ll more likely STILL see when the entire field is finalized.

Tuesday night was BIG for this 2007 NCAA College Basketball season’s March Madness bracket. Butler lost at Wright State in the Horizon League championship game, giving the Bulldogs a spot in the at-large pool.

You just know that these guys will take away a March Madness bracket spot and join the likes of the Sun Belt conference champions, North Texas and Oral Roberts, your 2007 Mid-Con champions.

NCAA College Basketball teams in the ACC Conference like the North Carolina Tar Heels and the Duke Blue Devils seem destined to continue their ongoing rivalry in the 2007 March Madness bracket battles.

Oh yeah, North Carolina Tar Heels sophomore sensation Tyler Hansbrough will definitely be out for blood after Duke left him with a bloody nose in their last encounter. I will definitely watch out for…