Happy Selection Sunday to those who celebrate! I’m no college basketball expert. I’m no bracketology expert. But guess what, it’s March — and the NCAA Tournament doesn’t care about how many games you watch, how long you’ve been watching the sport, or how many tears ran down your face after seeing Long Beach State win the Big West after firing their coach a week earlier. So as a part of my one bracket a day series, here’s my first draft bracket. Nothing special, just getting a feel for the teams in the Big Dance. There won’t be a lot of facts or statistics in here — just vibes.
East:
Picking the East region felt too easy. I wanted to pick more upsets, but the draw was not great for some of these mid majors. Washington St./Drake will be an interesting game, but Washington St. has proven they can hang with the best teams in the nation. UConn won’t have an easy path, but I think they are the best team in the country and will be able to hang on. As much as I want to pick Iowa State over Illinois, I love Terrence Shannon. Either way, the winner of that Sweet 16 game will lose to UConn.
West:
The game I would be most excited for in this region is Saint Mary’s vs. Alabama. That game would be a fun stylistic clash that we don’t get to see too often. Last year, Alabama lost a similar battle to San Diego State, so we’ll see how they fare this time around. I’m mostly going for revenge principles here. For example, Arizona is not losing to a 15 seed again. That would be pretty funny though. Richard Pitino’s Lobos are my choice to make a surprise run from this region, but I think Arizona is just too talented. UNC-Arizona is a coin flip for me, but I’ll take Caleb Love’s new team.
South:
The sheer unlikability of this Duke team (and all Duke teams, as a matter of fact) have me leaning towards them winning the south region. I know it doesn’t make much sense, but the more I hate Duke, the better they seem to do. It’s a shame, really. I was also frustrated at the lack of quality upset choices in the region. Oakland over Kentucky would have been fun, but that Oakland team… It would just be a little bit outlandish for me. Texas Tech shows up in tournament time, so they’re a team to keep an eye on.
Midwest:
This might be the least likeable bracket I have ever made. I truly think the mid-major schools got screwed on the draw. It’s unfortunate, and the upsets will still be there, but just not to the same degree as previous years. Tennessee is a team I really like, but I’m partial to Max Abmas. Creighton is too good for Texas though, that would be a fun game. Even though the draw was weird, it seems like it has set up some pretty good RO32/S16 potential matchups! I don’t even want to talk about Purdue basketball honestly. I just hope this is the year that they figure it out. They’re still worse than Creighton though.
Final Four:
I’m already excited for this UConn-Zona matchup that definitely is not going to happen. It would be electric though. I think UConn is too deep for Arizona to handle, and the Wildcats will run out of gas. On the other side of the bracket, Duke has been running a small rotation all year long. They’ll be ready, but the fatigue will get to them. UConn vs. Creighton in the national title game would be ELECTRIC. Each team has defeated the other this year, but the natty will stay in Connecticut.
There’s my very brief, initial reaction to the NCAA Tournament bracket. Remember, that even if my wording seems harsh/definite, I know my bracket is not “better” than anybody else’s, and of course upsets will happen that I don’t predict.
Thanks for reading! And here’s the clickbait photo I’m using as the display image for this article:
