The Kentucky Wildcats captured their eighth national championship Monday night, defeating the The Kansas Jayhawks 67-59 to furnish head coach John Calipari with his first national title. The matchup featured a showdown between the two winningest programs in college basketball.

Four teams booked trips to the Elite Eight Thursday night as March Madness resumed with Sweet Sixteen action. Tonight’s games featured matchups from the East and West Regions.

The first game on the slate featured top seed Syracuse and the feisty four seed Wisconsin Badgers. The game was hotly contested throughout and came down to the wire. Syracuse held on to win 64-63 after Badgers guard Jordan Taylor’s long jumper fell short in the waning moments. The Orange advance to the East Regional Final on Saturday.

The UCLA Bruins basketball team shrugged off the recent controversy surrounding the state of the program to defeat the conference leading Washington Huskies 75-69 at Pauley Pavilion last Saturday. Amid the media storm, head coach Ben Howland’s job security has never been more tenuous. Rest assured, if the Bruins were making Final Fours like they used to under Howland, there would be no controversy.

It’s almost Spring and March Madness is about to take the country by storm. Office pools, brackets and riveting winner take all basketball will be in full force. For high school senior basketball stars, it’s a window to the future and their college aspirations. At this time next year, many of them will be leading their teams to the NCAA tournament and competing for the ultimate prize.

Las Vegas, Nevada is more than just casinos and conventions. Just ask Bishop Gorman High School senior tight end Xavier Grimble (TE, USC) and the rest of his squad. Sin city produced some of the top prep football talent in the class of 2010, and is still looking to unleash a handful of student-athletes onto the scene in 2011. If Las Vegas is going to become known for it's prep football prowess, this is the program to make it happen.