Disclaimer: I am a Virginia fan
The moment all college basketball fans have been waiting for is finally here: the beginning of the fittingly titled March Madness. The craziest, most upset filled tournament of any sport for the entire year has arrived, and with it, thousands of people who are devastated by one team that may not even have any business being in the tournament at all. Although I certainly have no special level of knowledge that allows me to create a better bracket than anyone else, I gave it my best shot, and here are some of my notable picks.
Final Four and Beyond
As seen in the picture above, my final four is as follows: in the south region, Virginia; in the east region, Villanova; in the west region, Gonzaga; and in the midwest region, Michigan State. With that, my championship game is Virginia vs Michigan State, with MSU pulling it out 67-62.
Although I really wanted to pick Virginia to win (see above disclaimer), with the recent injury to guard/forward Deandre Hunter, I just couldn’t see them overcoming the size of Michigan State in the final. MSU has had an up and down season, but I think that their size and star power will carry them through the tournament.
Potential Upsets
As all March Madness participants know, upsets are bound to happen, the only problem is knowing which ones to pick. I went relatively heavy with upsets in my bracket, given all the parity that has taken place in the college basketball season this year. I have two double digit seeds making it to the sweet 16, 11 seeded St. Bonaventure and 12 seeded New Mexico State. Both teams have relatively easy paths to the sweet 16 with their toughest potential match-ups being 3 seeded Texas Tech and 4 seeded Auburn, respectively. Once there though, they both face tough match-ups with 2 seeded Purdue and 1 seeded Kansas, respectively.
As for high seeded teams losing early, the first 1 seed that I have losing is Xavier out of the west to 8 seeded Missouri. Missouri is just now getting back future NBA lottery pick Michael Porter Jr., who I feel will really change their team and carry them to a victory over the musketeers. I have all of the 2 seeds reaching at least the sweet 16, so nothing too special there. The first 3 seed that I have losing is the aforementioned Texas Tech.
Tough Calls
As in all brackets, I had to make a few tough calls when filling mine out. I was very tempted to have 15 seeded Georgia State beating 2 seeded Cincinnati in the first round, thinking back to their memorable run in the 2015 tournament. However, I felt that Cincinnati’s stifling defense would be enough to hold off the panthers. Another match-up that I really struggled with was 1 Virginia vs. 4 Arizona in the sweet 16. In my mind, Arizona was way under-seeded as a 4, given how much talent they have on their team. 7 foot, 1 inch center Deandre Ayton is a dominating force for Arizona, and I think he gives them a chance against Virginia, but once again, I have to go with the defense of UVa in this one.
Once again, there are so many different experts out there making their own picks, and I am certainly not an expert, but I gave it my best shot here, and we will soon see how well I did.
