College basketball fans are looking forward to the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 64 which begins on Thursday. (Gray Bender/CU Independent)
The NCAA Tournament’s Round of 64 starts Thursday. With 16 games each of the first two days, there is much to be excited about for college basketball fans. The CUI Sports crew takes you through each region, highlighting important things to look out for.
Midwest (Tommy Wood)
Jared, our sports editor, asked me to keep this regional preview around 400 words. I told him I could do it in four: Kentucky will win everything. It’s unfathomable to think the Wildcats could lose prior to the Final Four barring multiple catastrophic injuries.
There are six teams that could conceivably beat Kentucky — Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Arizona, Duke, Gonzaga and Iowa State. Arizona is the only squad that can match Kentucky’s size and athleticism. The rest have remarkably efficient offenses that move the ball and shoot the three very well. Of those, three-seed Notre Dame is the only team in the Midwest.
Kentucky could play Arizona or Wisconsin in the Final Four- those teams are on a collision course to repeat last year’s Elite Eight classic. If the Wildcats play Duke, Gonzaga or Iowa State, it would be in the national title game.
In the Midwest, a Notre Dame-Kentucky Elite Eight seems all but inevitable. The matchup of the nation’s best offense and best defense could be scintillating — could be. The Irish can bomb it from deep and they have one player, Jerian Grant, who can single-handedly beat any team in the country. They also start a 6-foot-4 minor-league baseball pitcher at power forward. The Wildcats have 10 players who are at least 6-foot-6.
Notre Dame could give Kentucky a game if it makes its threes. If it doesn’t, things will get ugly. Other than the Irish, it’s hard to see any team in the Midwest playing with the Wildcats.
11-seed Texas could match Kentucky’s size, but it’s unlikely to get past 6-seed Butler in the first round. The Longhorns really should not have even made the tournament. 10-seed Indiana shouldn’t have either.
Kansas is the most overrated two-seed in the bracket. The Jayhawks won the Big 12 but at times looked like the fourth-best team in that conference- they’re without Cliff Alexander, their top freshman, and they have a history of choking when seeded highly. I have them losing to Wichita State in the second round, which is literally their worst nightmare.
Four-seed Maryland is dangerous because Dez Wells, Melo Trimble and Jake Layman can each drop 25-plus points on a given night, and five-seed West Virginia forces more turnovers than any team in the country.
But who are we kidding? Literally every team in the Midwest, other than Kentucky, is irrelevant. There is nothing else to say about the Wildcats. Their greatness speaks for itself. We might as well crown them now.
West (Alissa Noe)
For the most part, the second round of the West Regional should be pretty straightforward with seven of the higher seeds making it onto round three. Ohio State may stir an early upset, though. With a higher BPI rank of 17 (opposed to VCU’s 27), the Buckeyes boast a 23-10 record with nine of their losses coming against fellow tournament teams. Though VCU technically holds the better record at 26-9, its loss category is a bit less impressive with only four against tourney teams.
Moving onto round three, my picks include Wisconsin vs. Oregon, North Carolina vs. Arkansas, Xavier vs. Baylor and Ohio State vs. Arizona. This round of 32 will more than likely be straightforward, with all of the higher seeds moving on to the Sweet 16, and how sweet it will be.
As Wisconsin takes on North Carolina and Arizona faces off against Baylor, there shouldn’t be a dull moment in the west regional quarterfinals. In fact, I predict that a No. 1 seed will see its tournament run come to an end during this round. Though Wisconsin is by far the better team in this matchup, North Carolina has been on somewhat of a hot streak coming off a nice run in the highly competitive ACC tournament, where it upset No. 14 Louisville before taking down the third-ranked Virginia Cavaliers. The Tar Heels did, however, lose to No. 11 Notre Dame in the championship game, so you can bet they’ll be hungry for some redemption.
Arizona and Baylor should be easier to predict. Throughout the entire season, the Wildcats have proven their dominance on the court time and time again as they currently sit at 31-3. Each loss was decided by four points or less, not to mention they haven’t lost a game since Feb 7. This team has the potential to create the biggest upset of the tournament by beating perfect Kentucky in the Final Four and ultimately claiming the title.
East (Sean Kelly)
This East region is one of the tougher brackets to pick. Coming into the tournament I had several teams I would put on upset alert, and most of them are in this bracket. I don’t trust anyone. Villanova finds a way to lose every year, Virginia’s best player’s health is in serious question, Oklahoma has a lot of losses, I don’t believe in Louisville because while its defense is solid it doesn’t have an offense and Northern Iowa is largely unknown and hasn’t played the type of competition it’ll face in the tournament.
The bottom line, be careful and trust no one on this side of the bracket.
So who do I trust enough to go to the Final Four? It’s got to be Villanova. They are not the prettiest girl at the ball, just the prettiest one left. Nova doesn’t have many signature wins this year, but they’ve been consistent and haven’t lost since mid January.
Nova has always had the same strength: its guard play. This year is no different. Led by Darrun Hilliard and Ryan Arcidiacono the Wildcats have an experienced backcourt. These two can shoot the rock and really don’t make mistakes on the ball.
One thing has always plagued Villanova: not having a presence down low. This year is different in that respect. Daniel Ochefu has stepped up and become the player that Villanova needed. He’s 6 foot 11 inches averaging 9.3 points and 8.3 rebounds a game. His partner in the frontcourt is JayVaughn Pinkston. He is slightly undersized at 6 foot 7 but he gets the job done almost matching Ochefu’s stats exactly. With the ability to play down low and obviously shoot and take care of the ball, expect Nova to advance out of this treacherous region.
Virginia’s destiny depends entirely on the health of their star Justin Anderson. With him at 100 percent, they could make the finals. Without him healthy the Cavaliers could easily lose to Michigan State, who also knocked them out last year in the second round. If I have learned one thing in 14 years of making brackets, it’s not pick against Tom Izzo when he is hot coming into the tournament. If Anderson isn’t healthy, which I really think he won’t be, look for Sparty in the Sweet 16 and maybe the Elite 8.
Oklahoma and Providence (unless Dayton gets real hot coming off what should be a First Four victory) should play each other in the second round. Oklahoma is slightly better defensive team in a game where defense will come at a premium so look for the Sooners to square off against the Spartans. If you put a gun to my head, I’d pick Izzo over a shaky Big 12 team any day. Classic matchup in the Elite Eight with the Wildcats coming out victorious.
Looking back at my picks there is one thing missing: a crazy Cinderella. This region seems primed for it because, as I said, you really can’t trust anyone. Yeah, Michigan State going to the elite eight as a seven seed is a Cinderella, but I feel like this is the region that could completely bush everyone’s brackets. Maybe Wyoming, a team Colorado fans know too well, can get hot. Maybe Dayton goes on a VCU-esque ride from the First Four to the Final Four. Maybe LSU finally puts together a string of complete games to match their talent level. Who knows? All I know is be careful with this East Region.
South (Jared Funk-Breay)
If a lower seed is going to make it to the Final Four, the South looks like a good place for that to happen. The top two seeds, Duke and Gonzaga, have been known to stumble in the tournament in recent years. Two of the past three years Duke has been upset in the first round, and Gonzaga has bowed out in the round of 32 for five consecutive years.
That might make way for three-seed Iowa State and five-seed Utah.
The Cyclones are coming off their second consecutive Big-12 Tournament Championship over Kansas and have a ton of momentum. They lost a close game to eventual champions UConn last year in the Sweet 16 and have a solid group with six players averaging at least 9 points per game. The versatile Georges Niang leads the way with 15.5 and has solid handles for someone at 6-foot-8. He could be a player the nation gets to know in the coming weeks.
Utah might have challenged for the Pac-12 championship if it wasn’t for Oregon’s Joseph Young hitting a long three-pointer to defeat the Utes in the semifinals. They have a ton of talent for a five-seed, and the way the bracket worked out they might have a chance to make a run.
How many times have we seen a senior guard carry his team in the tournament? Delon Wright can be that guy. He averages 15 points, five rebounds and five assists—he’s a complete player.
Potential upsets might include Davison (10) over Iowa (7) and UCLA (11) over SMU (6).
Davidson finished first in the Atlantic 10 Conference standings, which features tournament teams Dayton and VCU. The Wildcats are having the best season since the Golden State Warrior’s Stephen Curry went there and took them to the Elite Eight. Look for Davidson to at least get past Iowa, who is coming off to a bad loss to the 13th ranked team in the Big-10, Penn State.
As for UCLA, the Bruins have a ton of talent, it just depends if they can put it all together.
Picking a team to come out of a region is super difficult before the tournament starts (maybe unless Kentucky is there). In my bracket I have the Cyclones taking down the Utes to make it to Indianapolis. But who knows I could be totally off. It wouldn’t be the first time a bracket was busted. I just don’t trust Duke and Gonzaga considering their history.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writers Tommy Wood at Thomas.c.wood@colorado.edu, Sean Kelly at Sean.d.kelly@colorado.edu, Alissa Noe at Alissa.noe@colorado.edu, and assistant sports editor Jared Funk-Breay at Jared.funkbreay@colorado.edu
