Ill be releasing my entire bracket on Wednesday or Thursday so there wont be a ton of revealing here.
South Region
Storylines
1.
Alabama as the No.
1 overall seed -We know the Brandon Miller situation so we won’t use that as the headline here.
But now Alabama as the No.
1 overall seed pressure on them too.
Nate Oats needs to make a Final Four.
He’s already put winning above decency so you better win the whole fucking thing.
Baylor’s defense -I thought Baylor would be the best team in the country this year.
I love their backcourt because it’s elite with a top-5 pick in George.
Well their defense blows.
It’s why I’m out on them.
Their offense is fine, they hunt ISOs and take advantage of it.
But the defense gets torched by like Iowa State.
Furman is also good, so that helps.
But then you have Charleston and SDSU in the 5/12 game.
We also know about the Mountain West sucking in the NCAA Tournament lately.
SDSU is good, but that’ll be talked about non stop.
There could be mayhem in that bracket and can see any 4 coming out of the pod.
Arizona underrated -I actually think Arizona is a bit underrated because of the Pac-12.
That league sucks outside of them and UCLA, which they took 2 of 3 from.
Kerr Kriisa is battling a shoulder injury but as a 2 seed they can easily win the title.
They have an All-American in Tubelis.
They have the ability to go big with Tubelis and Ballo or run small.
The Creighton dilemma -Creighton was the ‘it’ team before the season started.
Now here they are as a 6 seed, which just feels right.
They made the jump from a year ago and it was fine.
I don’t know what to do with Creighton.
I could see them in the Elite 8, I could see them losing round 1.
I’ll make a run at avoid the obvious like Zach Edey or Jalen Wilson.
Could have taken Courtney Ramey here or Kylan Boswell, but Larsson is the guy.
Want him to get a bucket?
Need him to make a play and set someone up?
He’s good at that too.
He’s a unique matchup and sneaky the x-factor for Arizona to make a run.
Mark Sears (Alabama) -The Ohio transfer is an important piece for Alabama.
He can get a little turnover happy but that’s just the way he plays.
But Pegues, a sophomore guard, is really the missing piece.
He’s third on the team in scoring.
He was hot during the SoCon Tournament scoring 17 in every game.
Teams will plan around Slawson and Bothwell so you need Pegues to attack.
Jonathan Tchamwa-Tchatchoua (Baylor) -I mentioned the guards so we’ll go with JTT here.
He came back from injury in the middle of the season and started hitting threes.
But more importantly he’s the one guy that can make the Baylor defense close to average.
He doesn’t block a ton of shots, but he can bother people at the rim.
Teams want to put Baylor in ball screens so you need JTT to be able to adjust.
Kobe Brown (Missouri) -That 7/10 game is fascinating and should be high scoring.
But Brown is Mizzou’s best player and the way they play he becomes even more important.
They are frantic defensively, trying to force turnovers.
But on offense they have the freedom to do whatever.
That’s where Brown comes in.
Alabama at under 2/1 isn’t something I want to touch even if they are the heavy favorites.
Matchup You Most Want To See: No.
1 Alabama vs No.
2 Arizona in the Elite Eight.
The two best teams by a wide margin.
Don’t overthink it.
The first reason I’m taking WVU?
Maryland hasn’t been great away from home.
I like the matchup and I think the Big 12 is loaded so WVU is a little undervalued.
