NCAA Tournament 2019: Predicting the perfect March Madness bracket

East Region – Columbia, SC (Friday, March 22)

1 Duke vs. 16 North Dakota State

If there’s a recipe for a 16-over-1 upset in the matchup between North Dakota State and the Duke Blue Devils, it’s obviously going to include the Bison shooting absolutely lights out from 3-point range and Mike Krzyzewski’s team doing the exact opposite of that. That lines up for this game with Duke hitting only 30.2 percent of their shots from deep this season and NDSU hitting 36.6 percent of their attempts.

Of course, that’s only going to matter so much. From Zion Williamson to RJ Barret, Duke is just far too overwhelming in terms of their talent and athleticism for the Bison to be able to keep up in this game. These guys can simply just use the physical gifts to outclass their opponents and run them off the floor for 40 minutes.

Pick: Duke

8 VCU vs. 9 UCF

In case you were unaware, the 8-9 matchup is always an absolute toss-up — and that’s not just a figure of speech. Picking these games is literally a 50-50 proposition historically, and that has never felt more applicable than this mathchup between the VCU Rams and the UCF Knights. This is going to be an ugly game between two of the best defensive teams in the country.

UCF’s 7-foot-6 center Tacko Fall has developed into a true force as a big man with his rim-protection and efficient scoring, but VCU has a group of veteran players that all average double-digit scoring, even if they aren’t a powerful offensive team. Put simply, the Rams just look like they have more guys that can pick apart the opposing defense in this matchup, which gives them the edge and allows them to advance, robbing us of Zion Williamson potentially dunking on Fall.

Pick: VCU