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2015 NCAA Tournament: West Region Capsule

By Mike Marteny

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The brackets are unveiled! Let the games begin!

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For those of you that do the bracket games, I will unveil all of my picks by Wednesday night. For those of you that play the round by round games, I will also put my picks out there after every round as well. There will be something for everyone!

In the preview, I will give you a favorite, and dark horse team, which would be a four seed or higher than could win the region. A team to watch for, overseeded and underseeded teams, and of course, a double digit seed most likely to win one or more games.

We move on the the West region in this installment.

Favorite: Wisconsin moved up to the one seed by winning the Big Ten conference tournament, but should they have? Many experts are picking Arizona to win this region, and it’s partially because the final is in Los Angeles. I still think Wisconsin is the favorite, but just barely.

Watch out for: Arizona. The Wildcats destroyed the Pac 12 all season long. Oregon is an eight seed. Arizona beat them three times by an average of 30 points! The Wildcats are one of the more complete teams this year, but maybe didn’t get as much respect because of the relative weakness of the Pac 12.

Dark Horse: North Carolina. They beat Virginia and Louisville twice this year. They also beat Davidson and Ohio State out of conference this season, but they didn’t play a team quite like Wisconsin, who they could tangle with in the regional semifinals.

Begging To Be Upset: Xavier. Their signature wins are Providence, Butler, and Georgetown three times. Those aren’t bad teams, but I would wager that Ole Miss has played a tougher schedule. They took Kentucky to overtime and beat Oregon. This is not a good matchup for the Musketeers.

Overseeded: Xavier. They gained a seed by making the Big East final, but should they have? They were 9-9 in the conference during the regular season.

Underseeded: Oregon. They made the Pac 12 final, and yes they got smoked by Arizona – again – but that shouldn’t take away from what they did. If you are going to reward UCLA for playing in the Pac 12, why penalize Oregon for making the tourney final? UCLA didn’t get out of the first round!

Cinderella: Wofford. None of the lower seeds have a particularly good matchup in this region besides Ole Miss, but their matchup with Baylor in the second round is a bad one. Wofford has bad matchups with Arkansas and North Carolina, but they are not a mistake-prone team. That could keep them alive.

Come back for the rest of the regional capsules, the picks for the First Four, and of course, the bracket picks!

Next: Meet The 12-16 Seeds

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