Prior to Round 1 of the on-going NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament we looked at the games involving teams with wild animal mascots and made predictions of the outcomes of the games and pondered what would happen if those wild animals took on the real-life versions of their counterparts in the wild. For the Sweet 16 round we’ll take a look at the four games featuring teams with wild animal mascots and have a look back at our predictions from Round 1.

Louisville Cardinals

Sweet 16 Opponent: Arizona Wildcats

Game Prediction: Louisville survived a couple scares in the first weekend, outlasting more-than-game Morehead State and Siena teams. Meanwhile, Arizona is the lowest-seeded team remaining in the tourney, having toppled 5-seed Utah and Cinderella wannabe Cleveland State with relative ease behind the heady play of point guard Nic Wise. I guarantee Coach Rick Pitino has run a tight ship during this weeks’ practices and expect the Cardinals to revert to dominant form and move on.

Real-Life Prediction: As ornery as that Cardinal might appear, when it comes to cat vs. bird, cat always succeeds…unless his name in Sylvester.