2018 NCAA Tournament: Midwest Region Second Round Predictions
The question most heard this morning around the water cooler? How’s your brackets? Arizona destroyed a lot of them. Even more went up in smoke with a historic upset last night. Let’s face it: this is the year that someone who just picked mascots likely has the best chance of winning. I mean, who doesn’t love a Retriever?
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That’s why we still have the round by round going, right? I hit six out of eight in the Midwest. It would have been seven if I didn’t still believe in that dog of an Oklahoma team that probably shouldn’t have been here in the first place.
Syracuse may have hurt some of you, but I did pick that upset. TCU hasn’t been the same since Fischer went down.
That’s the good part of the round by round. It’s a clean slate! Let’s get to the midwest region picks!
(1)Kansas vs. (8)Seton Hall:
Kansas found themselves down double digits to Penn, but eventually woke up to win by 16. Devonte Graham once again led the way with 29 points. Lightfoot was a load inside, and will need to be throughout the tournament. Kansas wasn’t really tested here. That isn’t always a good thing.
The Pirates survived 36 points from Allerik Freeman to win a fast paced game against the Wolfpack. Khadeen Carrington poured in 26 for the Hall and Desi Rodriguez scored 20 off the bench.
Kansas can get out and run with you. Just ask Oklahoma. Seton Hall is going to push the tempo in this game, but that isn’t necessarily in their best interests. Kansas is a deeper team, but they are going to need Azibuike to contribute at some point. They may be able to do without him again here, but I don’t know that Lightfoot can handle Delgado.
This game is going to be too close for comfort for Kansas fans. Ultimately, Graham will be too much for Seton Hall, but it’s going to be close.
Pick: Kansas
(4)Clemson vs. (5)Auburn:
Zach Lofton dropped 29 on Clemson, but a season high 23 from Shelton Mitchell helped Clemson get out of the first round. New Mexico State hung strong the whole game, but they had no answer for the Clemson guards. The Tigers shot an amazing 56% from the floor to win this.
Auburn was quite the opposite. They survived despite shooting 35.6% from the floor against Charleston. Mustapha Heron and DeSean Murray are the only starting Tigers that shot 40% or better from the floor.
This was a defensive battle in football this year, so it would make sense that it would be in basketball as well. I will say this though. If Auburn can’t hit shots, they are going to get blown off the court. They also need to double their free throw shooting percentage. Auburn hit just 44% of their free throws!
We have a hot team against a really cold team. I gave Clemson the edge anyway, but this could get ugly if Auburn doesn’t shoot at least 45%.
Pick: Clemson
(3)Michigan State vs. (11)Syracuse:
Zach Thomas and Stephen Brown both scored more than 20 to keep Bucknell close agianst the Spartans. Michigan State looked like they were going to run off with this game a couple of different times. It ended up being too close for comfort for Spartans fans. A monster game from Miles Bridges kept the Spartans in.
Syracuse won an ugly game. That’s the only way to put it. Marek Dolezaj is the reason the Orange are still in this. Oshae Brissett couldn’t buy a bucket for Syracuse, but the physical defense held TCU under 40% from the floor and just 3-17 from beyond the arc.
Syracuse is going to try and ugly this game up as well. They can’t run with the Spartans, so they are going to try and push them around and frustrate them. The key to this will be how well Syracuse can guard Bridges. This Boeheim zone is still as frustrating as it was 30 years ago, but this Michigan State offense is a lot better than people think.
Pick: Michigan State
(2)Duke vs. (7)Rhode Island:
Duke dominated Iona with their size and great outside shooting from all of the guards. Iona really had no chance in this one. It was, however, a solid warmup for the Blue Devils.
Rhode Island let Trae Young get his, but the rest of the Sooners were just 1-11 from beyond the arc and 20-51 from the field as a whole. It was the same old story for Oklahoma since the end of January. No one stepped up to help Young.
The real story of the game was Oklahoma’s awful defense. They had a couple of chances to pull away, but their inability to guard anyone let Rhode Island back in the game and allowed them to take over in overtime.
Rhode Island is going to need their balanced attack again to have a chance against Duke. THe South Carolina team that knocked out Duke last year had good perimeter defense. Rhode Island does not. This is another game that Duke will dominate inside with Bagley and Carter.
Pick: Duke
Stay tuned for the rest of the second round picks! We also have our daily NBA and NHL picks for you DFS players! Our David Gate also shares his EPL wisdom for those of you who just can’t get enough of DFS sports!