2023 NCAA Tournament: Elite 8 FULL PREVIEW: FAU vs Kansas State & UConn vs Gonzaga I CBS Sports

We now get an FAU K state matchup in the East chip. Give us your pick for this one. Oh, Kansas State all day. I will lay that short number on the betting line. FAU is actually, according to some of the predictive metric models, supposed to be the favorite. But you know what computers can't figure out? Computers can't figure out that Marquis Noel is absolutely on one right now. And the way that he is playing in New York City, the way he is playing in Madison Square Garden, the world's most famous arena, that cannot be factored into an algorithm.

And I start to think about the way that this Kansas State team has played all day. The two-man game that you get between Marquis Noel and Keontae Johnson has been picking apart Big 12 teams throughout the season. I mean, they finished third place in the Big 12 standings after being predicted to be at the very bottom with first-year coach Jerome Tang and a completely flipped roster, just two scholarship players left over from last year's team. And so I think that we look at what Kansas State has done all through the season, the fact that they've been able to replicate it against a very solid Michigan State team, and not to knock FAU. OK, Owls, you won 34 games. Now, you did a great job of taking care of business in some of your quad-one opportunities. But in this tournament run, FAU got past Memphis.

That was great. But then you didn't have to play the one seed per do. You played Fairleigh Dickinson. And you played a Tennessee team that couldn't score. Kansas State can score better than Tennessee. Kansas State can score better than Fairleigh Dickinson. And yes, Kansas State can score better than Memphis.

I think FAU is not going to be able to keep up in that battle. Yeah, Marquis Noelle, what is he? 5A? Just crazy to watch him just fall out like that. All right, let's talk about the West. You got the four-seed Yukon, three-seed Gonzaga, Drew Timmy, Adamasinogo. What do you like in this match-up chip? I like Yukon here. And you mentioned the battle of the Bigs, because I think we might have a situation where Adamasinogo and Klingon as well are able to maybe limit some of what Drew Timmy is able to do down low, even wearing him out on the defensive side with Sonogo's range of post-moves around the basket. I think that that's going to limit what Timmy does offensively.

And this is going to be a spot where, if those two Bigs, Adamasinogo and Drew Timmy, do neutralize each other, the other pieces that Yukon has are better than Gonzaga's other pieces. Because whether it's Tristan Newton, whether it's Jordan Hawkins, whether it's Andre Jackson, you just have so much length. You've got good three-point shooting. You've got the ability to really heat up offensively. And I go back to Eric Musselman, the head coach of Arkansas, fresh after getting pasted by the Huskies in the sweet 16. He said the pieces all fit together. And I think that this team, which by the way, started 14-0 with 13 double-digit wins, including a 15-point win over Alabama, I think it is recapturing that magic, some of the best basketball in the entire country.

I like Yukon to be able to advance and really threaten to win the national championship in Houston. All right, that is Chip Patterson joining us here on CBS Sports HQ, giving us his best bets for the Elite 8. Thank you so much, Chip. Good stuff, as always. We appreciate it. And of course, you don't want to miss out on any of the action for the Elite 8. Make sure you download the March Madness Live app to watch all of those games.

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