by Matty O'Shea - Pregame.com

Three regional finals went to overtime for the first time in NCAA Tournament history this past weekend, making for a wild roller coaster ride for everybody who had action on them.  Even the one game that didn’t go to OT had its exciting moments, as the Wisconsin Badgers helped underdogs go 3-1 by keeping it close against the heavily favored North Carolina Tar Heels in an 88-82 loss.

The Badgers surprisingly kept pace for the entire game with the Tar Heels, who fell to 16-9 when favored by double digits.  North Carolina made 7-of-8 free throws in the final 51 seconds, including 6-of-6 from Raymond Felton to hold off Wisconsin’s charge.

The craziest ending of the weekend came when the Louisville Cardinals rallied from 20 points down to force OT and beat the West Virginia Mountaineers 93-85 on Saturday.  The Cardinals could have covered the 8 1/2-point spread by either hitting one more free throw or making an uncontested dunk with 18 seconds left, neither of which happened.  Ellis Myles missed 3 of 4 free throws in the last 49 seconds and then Larry O’Bannon split a pair with 30 seconds remaining before Brandon Jenkins finished off the frustrations for Louisville backers by blowing the breakaway jam.  The Cardinals even got the rebound off the missed dunk but held the ball the rest of the game and took the win.

The Illinois Fighting Illini later became the first top seed to advance to the Final Four by rallying from a 15-point deficit with four minutes in regulation and then outscored the Arizona Wildcats 10-9 in OT for an improbable 90-89 victory.  While the Illini pulled off the win, it also wasn’t enough for bettors who laid five points on them.  Illinois pulled ahead by 6 with 2:16 left in OT - but Arizona’s Hassan Adams scored the game’s last five points of the game to get the ‘Cats a cover.

The Michigan State Spartans used strong free-throw shooting in the second OT to stave off the Kentucky Wildcats 94-88 after they gave up an unbelievable 3-pointer by Patrick Sparks to end regulation on Sunday.  Sparks’ shot had to be reviewed by replay before it was deemed good.  The Wildcats were the only team whose comeback failed to end with a victory after they rallied from eight points down with 5:25 left and forced the first of two extra sessions.  The Spartans – the third-best free-throw shooting team in the country at 77 percent – were a perfect 8-for-8 in the final 1:46 of the second OT to knock out Kentucky.