At Milwaukee

* Oklahoma (21-10) vs. North Carolina Charlotte (23-10): No. 13-seeded Oklahoma hadn’t won a tournament game since 1990, including an 0-4 record under Coach Kelvin Sampson, until a 61-60 upset of Arizona Friday. Eduardo Najera led the way with 17 points and Oklahoma won despite attempting only nine free throws and making three. Now the Sooners hope to avoid another little bit of history. The last time they played a second-round game, they lost to a team from North Carolina. But that was the Tar Heels. This time they play the team from up the road from Chapel Hill. UNC Charlotte needed overtime to beat Rhode Island in the first round.

* Michigan State (30-4) vs. Mississippi (20-12): Michigan State is the only team left in Milwaukee that everyone expected to be there. Although not considered an overpowering top-seeded team, the Spartans’ path to the Final Four got easier with the loss by Arizona. The Spartans hope they got their tournament jitters out of their system during a sloppy start in the 76-53 victory over Mount St. Mary’s. Mississippi needs to avoid that happy-to-be-here feeling after earning the first NCAA tournament victory in school history Friday against Villanova. Marcus Hicks, Jason Smith and Keith Carter combined to score 56 points.

At New Orleans

* Utah (28-4) vs. Miami of Ohio (23-7): This is an intriguing matchup because it pits No. 2-seeded Utah’s defensive toughness and the tactical skills of Coach Rick Majerus against the offensive talent of No. 10-seeded Miami’s Wally Szczerbiak. Szczerbiak scored 43 points in a 59-58 victory over Washington, and Majerus said, “Anybody who scores 43 points gets my attention.” Look for the Utes to utilize some special defensive scheme against Szczerbiak, with Alex Jensen given the task of guarding him most of the time. Washington’s strategy apparently was to let Szczerbiak shoot until he wore himself out. The Huskies barely even stayed close enough to foul him. In what might have been the most remarkable part of his performance and a telling indicator of Washington’s softness, Szczerbiak only went to the free-throw line three times despite playing all but 49 seconds of the game and taking 33 shots. Utah guard Andre Miller injured his left hand in the first round, but Majerus said he should be fine.

* Kentucky (26-8) vs. Kansas (23-9): When you think New Orleans, naturally gumbo, jazz and the Bayou come to mind. (Okay, so maybe New Orleans isn’t the most geographically logical sight for a Midwest Region game). And when you think of traditional college basketball powers, it doesn’t take long to get to Kentucky and Kansas. They are two of the three winningest schools of all time, with nine national championships, 3,434 victories and 23 Final Four appearances between them. Amazingly, the two schools have never met in the NCAA tournament. Kentucky has an 18-3 advantage in their regular-season meetings, including a 63-45 victory on Dec. 1. The two teams have had trouble living up to the lofty standards set by their predecessors, but as Kansas center Eric Chenowith said, “If 20 wins and winning your conference tournament is a down year, that’s pretty tough.” Both teams looked more like some of the teams of the past in the first round, when No. 6-seeded Kansas controlled the backboards and beat Evansville, 95-74, and No. 3-seeded Kentucky shot 61% in defeating New Mexico State, 82-60.