2018 NCAA Basketball Tournament: South Region Capsule
By Mike Marteny
2018 NCAA Basketball Tournament: South 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 south region!
Favorite: Virginia. This was a magical season for the Cavs. The only games that they lost were rivalry games against West Virginia and Virginia Tech, both teams that play good defense in their own right. The Cavaliers have been to the elite eight three times since their last Final Four berth in 1984. That was the year after Ralph Sampson graduated. This might be Virginia’s best chance to make it back since then.
Watch out for: Cincinnati. The Bearcats won the regular season and American tournament titles this year. Cincy doesn’t really have that huge out of conference win, but the 30 wins speak for themselves and all four losses were to tournament teams seeded six or higher. Those are all quality losses. This is the best Cincinnati team since the 2000 squad that lost Kenyon Martin before the tournament. Well, this year Gary Clark is healthy. Cincinnati wont have to wonder what might have been this year.
Dark Horse: Arizona. Deandre Ayton has been a monster down the stretch. He carried Arizona to the Pac 12 tournament title almost by himself. Of course, the FBI probe has been all that anyone has talked about. Lost in that is the fact that Ayton is the best player in the country and the likely first pick in the NBA draft. And his supporting cast isn’t too shabby either. This is a team that has won eight of nine. Arizona is peaking right now, and has enough talent to run through this region.
Begging To Be Upset: Miami. It’s not their fault. The loss of Bruce Brown Jr. leaves Miami vulnerable. The loss of Brown is unfortunate, because this was one team that I could see making a run. Now they will be lucky to get out of the first round.
Overseeded: Kentucky. The Wildcats finished fourth in a conference lacking a great team. Their one marquee win was against West Virginia when Kevin Knox had easily the best game of his career. This team has the talent to make a run, and are playing arguably their best basketball of the season after ousting Tennessee in the SEC tournament. That isn’t enough to make it out of this region. I think Kentucky got a little too much credit for winning the SEC tournament. However, their matchup did them no favors.
Underseeded: Arizona. The Wildcats won the Pac 12 tournament, which obviously was a conference that the committee held in pretty high regard considering they let bubble teams UCLA and Arizona State in. Yet Arizona only got a four seed. If the last ten are so important, then Arizona definitely should have been higher, winning eight of the last nine.
Cinderella: Davidson. Picking Loyola-Illinois would be too easy. Besides, I already strongly hinted at that one. Instead, I am going with Davidson. Kentucky may be overseeded, but they got a terrible draw here. This team is a little more balanced and just as disciplined as the one that Stephen Curry made a run with. Davidson would have a tough draw in the second game, but they are capable of beating a Kentucky team that often beats themselves.
Come back for all of the regional capsules, the picks for the First Four, and of course, the bracket picks!