2018 NCAA Basketball Tournament: West Region Capsule
By Mike Marteny
2018 NCAA Basketball Tournament: West 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!
More from College Basketball Odds
- Updated College Baseball World Series odds (Wake Forest remains favorite to win in Omaha)
- Updated National Championship odds following Hunter Dickinson transfer to Kansas
- Best March Madness prop bets for FAU vs. San Diego State in NCAA Tournament Final Four
- Final Four Most Outstanding Player odds, prediction (Which long shots are worth a bet?)
- Bettor places massive wager on Creighton vs. San Diego State in Elite 8
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 west region!
Favorite: Xavier. I use the term favorite loosely here. Xavier is the weakest of the one seeds. They did win the regular season Big East title despite losing to Villanova twice. They marquee non conference win over Baylor no longer looks so big. I love watching Trevon Bluiett, but I’m still not sure that Xaiver deserves to be the favorite here.
Watch out for: North Carolina The Tarheels couldn’t oust Virginia, but they did beat Duke twice and have a strong out of conference win over Tennessee. That isn’t the as strong as North Carolina’s resume usually is, but in this wide open region, the Tarheels have as good a shot as anyone.
Dark Horse: Gonzaga. The Bulldogs are the only higher seeded team in the west region that is actually west of the Mississippi river. That alone makes Gonzaga a team that can make a run through this toss-up of a bracket.
Begging To Be Upset: Ohio State. The win over Michigan State was nice, but how in the world did they lose to Penn State. Once I can understand. But twice? That’s bad. Three times though! Proof positive that Ohio State can lose to anyone. South Dakota State is a good team. Even if Ohio State makes it out of that, they get a Gonzaga team that blew them out in Portland earlier this year.
Overseeded: Xavier. North Carolina could easily be the one seed in this bracket. Michigan, the three seed, has won nine in a row. This isn’t as stacked as the Midwest, but this bracket is a minefield for Xavier. The Musketeers would have likely been better off as a two seed somewhere else.
Underseeded: Houston. First off, Houston got an awful draw. San Diego State is a really good team. They may be underseeded as well. The Cougars finished second in the AAC and are seeded two slots lower than Wichita State. Houston owns one win against the two other tournament teams in this conference. They could easily be a five seed. Easily.
Cinderella: South Dakota State. The Jackrabbits are in their third straight NCAA tournament, so they own the experience advantage over Ohio State. This is likely the better of the three straight teams for the Jackrabbits that made the tournament. Mike Daum is a really good player, and he has the supporting cast around him this year to beat an inconsistent team.
Come back for all of the regional capsules, the picks for the First Four, and of course, the bracket picks!