2018 NCAA Basketball Tournament: Midwest Region Capsule
By Mike Marteny
2018 NCAA Basketball Tournament: Midwest Region Capsule
The 2018 NCAA Tournament brackets are out! The brackets are out! The NCAA tournament is the single greatest spectacle in American Sports. Yeah, the World Series is fun to watch, but it rarely has the chaos involved in the NCAA tournament. Daytona 500? Yeah, it’s a historic event, but they are still driving in a circle. The Super Bowl? Don’t even get me started on what a farce that is. The first four days of the NCAA tournament are better than any drama anywhere for the rest of the year! Enjoy it!
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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 will move on to the midwest region!
Favorite: Kansas. Ho hum, another conference title and conference tournament title for the Jayhawks. What’s their reward? One of the best brackets in recent memory. College basketball royalty is going to converge on Omaha if chalk holds. Of course, there are several teams there that could dismantle this bracket.
Watch out for: Michigan State. The Spartans got hosed here. Not only are they a three seed (ranked fifth in the country, by the way), but the two seed is a Duke team that beat them earlier this year. Michigan State won 13 in a row prior to being bounced by Michigan in the Big Ten(14) tournament. This team is fully capable of going on a run through this tournament.
Dark Horse: Duke. Yes, I know Duke is the higher seed. I also know that they beat Michigan State already this year. However, Duke doesn’t have much of a bench, nor do they have a lot of size inside. There are a couple of teams in this bracket that could knock them out. Duke is also good enough to beat anyone in this region. The recent tournament struggles have to be weighing on this team, especially Grayson Allen. Can they overcome that?
Begging To Be Upset: TCU. The Horned Frogs didn’t close the season on a high note, and they are going to get a tough team no matter who wins the Arizona State/Syracuse game. TCU matches up better against Syracuse, but it doesn’t really matter. I see TCU losing this one regardless.
Overseeded: Auburn. The Tigers didn’t beat a ranked team out of conference. They also lost three of the last five games in a conference that really isn’t all that tough. I understand that Auburn split the regular season title, but the early exit from the SEC tournament should have landed them lower.
Underseeded: Michigan State. I covered most of this already, but the Spartans are ranked fifth in the country and get a three seed. This is just ridiculous. Michigan got a three seed on the merit of beating Sparty alone! Michigan State has a legit claim to a two seed, and you could make an argument that they are better than Xavier.
Cinderella: Oklahoma. The wheels started to come off with a loss to Alabama in a game that they were in control of in the SEC/Big 12(10) Challenge. Oklahoma proceeded to lose nine of their last 12 starting with that one. This team was bordering on great after beating fifth ranked Kansas the week before imploding against Alabama. This team is capable of beating anyone, but the horrid February makes them hard to trust, and quite honestly, Oklahoma State was more deserving of this berth. But hey, Trae Young could get hot, and Oklahoma has the size inside to beat Duke. They could also get blown out by Rhode Island, so take it as you will.
Come back for all of the regional capsules, the picks for the First Four, and of course, the bracket picks!