Midwest and West Preview and Picks for today

On paper and in the opinion of many hoops fans, the Midwest Region looks to be the toughest region of all four. They have the best team in the country in 32-2 Kansas, a likely 1 seed if not for the injury to Evan Turner in number 2 Ohio State, perennial powerhouses in Georgetown, Maryland, Michigan State and Tennessee. They also have teams with frequent bids as of late with UNLV, Northern Iowa, Georgia Tech, San Diego State and New Mexico State. Obviously, the teams I expect to come out of this region are one of the top 3. If I had to bet, I'd pick Kansas, but nothing is a sure thing in this particular region and any of the top seeds are susceptible to an upset.

Midwest Region
Records/How they Got Here
1) Kansas 32-2/Big 12 Champion
2) Ohio State 27-7/Big Ten Champion
3) Georgetown 23-10/Big East at-large
4) Maryland 23-8/Atlantic Coast at-large
5) Michigan State 24-8/Big Ten at-large
6) Tennesee 25-8/Southeastern at-large
7) Oklahoma State 22-10/Big 12 at-large
8) UNLV 25-8/Mountain West at-large
9) Northern Iowa 28-4/Missouri Valley Champion
10) Georgia Tech 22-12/Atlantic Coast at-large
11) San Diego State 25-8/Mountain West Champion
12) New Mexico State 22-11/Western Athletic Champion
13) Houston 19-15/Conference USA Champion
14) Ohio 21-14/Mid-American Champion
15) Cal-Santa Barbara 20-9/Big West Champion
16) Lehigh 22-10/Patriot Champion


Favorites
To me, there's only two favorites in this bracket. The frontrunner, by far, are the Kansas Jayhawks. They are the most complete team in the country. They have everything an NCAA team needs in order to win the national championship. They have inside strength with double double threat Cole Aldrich, they have good shooters in Sherron Collins, Xavier Henry, the Morris Brothers, Tyshawn Taylor, etc. They have guys who can get to the hoop and perhaps most importantly, come this time of year, they have the experience and depth. On paper, I don't know if this team is as good as the Championship team in 2008 but it's close and personally I think this bracket's toughness is a little overrated, particularly in KU's section. I think they handle their second round and Sweet Sixteen opponents fairly easily while Georgetown and Ohio State could possibly get upset in the second round or Sweet Sixteen. Because of their seed and because they've become everyon'e favorite overnight, I have to put Ohio State here. I have no clue why everyone likes them to win the Championship. Sure they have four good scorers in National player of the year candidate Evan Turner (19.5 ppg), William Buford (14.3 ppg) Jon Diebler (12.6 ppg) and David Lighty (12.4 ppg), but they have absolutely no depth. Plus I have a feeling everyone's picking them just because they may have the best player in the nation. Many times the best player's team doesn't win the NCAA Tournament. Just thinking about St. Joe's, we didn't even win a state game with Andrew Bynum, so having one of the better players doesn't mean you're a great team and that's where I think a lot of people picking OSU get confused. They are also in a mediocre conference in the Big Ten. The conference isn't that good. Purdue's probably going to exit early. The furthest I see Michigan State going is Sweet 16. Wisconsin's probably gone early. It's just a weak conference year after year. They play solid defense agianst other teams in the conference and that's because neither team can score anything. Turner's a phenomonal player leading the conference in scoring and rebounding, but you can't do everything by yourself this time of year and that's why I expect them to get upset in the second round against the Oklahoma State-Georgia Tech winner.

Dark Horses
There's a few dark horses here. I like Georgetown but they have been inconsistent this year. Sometimes the combination of Greg Monroe, Chris Wright and Austin Freeman can totally click like they did against Syracuse last week, but at times can really struggle like in their loss to Old Dominion. Austin Freeman was also diagnosed with diabetes recently so it will be interesting to see if that affects his play. If those three do not play well, they could be headed for an early exit, but if they play like they did throughout last week, they could be headed for another deep run. All five shooters shoot above 46% and average more than 8 a game. They are limited on the bench so their starters, especially Greg Monroe, will have to stay out of foul trouble. I also like the Tennessee/San Diego State winner. Tennessee should never be seeded in a million years the 6 seed. They have beaten teams like Kansas, Kentucky and Florida ths season. I like them because they have a good balance of offense and defense. They shoot 46% overall. Scotty Hopson averages 13 points per game. Wayne Chism averages 12.5 points per game and 7 rebounds per game, Bobby Maze and J.P. Prince both average right around 9 points per game as well. They have allowed less than 40% shooting from the field and 29.1% from three-point range. I like San Diego State as well, because they have a good inside-outside combination of Kawhi Leonard and Malcolm Thomas. Leonard averages 12.6 points per game and nearly 10 rebounds per game. Malcom Thomas averages 11 points per game and 8 rebounds per game, so between them they average 24 points and 18 rebounds per game. If they rebound liek they did all season when they had one of the nation's highest rebounding margins, they are a team that could make some noise in this tournament. They have some scoring on the team besides those two as well. As usual, San Diego State shoots very well from the field, shooting 47.7% this season. What could do them in though, is their very low free throw shooting percentage. They made just about 3 out of every 5 free throws this season shooting 61.7%.

Upsets
At least in the First Round, this I think will be the least upset heavy. I only have one of the higher seeds (besides the 8) going out here.
#11 San Diego State over #6 Tennessee

Players to Watch-This is an expanded list because I think with a championship contending team like KU, it is more of a team effort here than on a team such as UK where it's basically Wall and Cousins. So I put all 5 starters on this list. In addition, I think the talent in the lower seeds is much more stacked in this bracket than perhaps others. There are studs like Aubrey Coleman from Houston, Leonard and Thomas from San Diego State who could surprise people. I think the lesser known talent here could provide some of the bigger names and moments when this year's tourney's all said and done.
Cole Aldrich KANSAS
Sherron Collins KANSAS
Xavier Henry KANSAS
Marcus Morris KANSAS
Tyshawn Taylor KANSAS
Evan Turner OHIO STATE
William Buford OHIO STATE
Austin Freeman GEORGETOWN
Greg Monroe GEORGETOWN
Chris Wright GEORGETOWN
Greivis Vasquez MARYLAND
Kalin Lucas MICHIGAN STATE
Raymar Morgan MICHIGAN STATE
Wayne Chism TENNESSEE
Scotty Hopson TENNESSEE
James Anderson OKLAHOMA STATE
Tre'von Willis UNLV
Jordan Eglseder NORTHERN IOWA
Derrick Favors GEORGIA TECH
Kawhi Leonard SAN DIEGO STATE
Malcolm Thomas SAN DIEGO STATE
Jahmar Young NEW MEXICO STATE
Jonathan Gibson NEW MEXICO STATE
Aubrey Coleman HOUSTON
Kelvin Lewis HOUSTON
Armon Bassett OHIO
Orlando Johnson CAL-SANTA BARBARA
James Nunnally CAL-SANTA BARBARA
CJ McCollum LEHIGH

Best Games
#4 Maryland vs. #13 Houston
#6 Tennessee vs. #11 San Diego State
#7 Oklahoma State vs. #10 Georgia Tech
#8 UNLV vs. #9 Northern Iowa

West Region
Records/How they Got Here
1) Syracuse 28-4/Big East at-large
2) Kansas State 26-7/Big 12 at-large
3) Pittsburgh 24-8/Big East at-large
4) Vanderbilt 24-8/Southeastern at-large
5) Butler 28-4/Horizon Champ
6) Xavier 24-8/Atlantic 10 at-large
7) BYU 29-5/Mountain West at-large
8) Gonzaga 26-6/West Coast at-large
9) Florida State 22-9/Atlantic Coast at-large
10) Florida 21-12/Southeastern at-large
11) Minnesota 21-13/Big Ten at-large
12) UTEP 26-6/Conference USA at-large
13) Murray State 30-4/Ohio Valley Champion
14) Oakland 26-8/Summit League Champion
15) North Texas 24-8/Sun Belt Champion
16) Vermont 25-9/America East Champion

Favorites
Syracuse and Kansas State are the favorites in the Western Regional. Syracuse took a bit of a blow last week losing theirstarting Center Arinze Onuaku who averages 11 points and 6 rebounds per game. Luckily, they probably won't need him in their first or second round game against Vermont and either Gonzaga or Florida State. But if he is still hurt going into next week, it could spell doom for the Orangemen. Syracuse has had a great (if unexpected season). They won 24 of their first 25 games which in a conference as tough as the Big East is virtually unheard of. They have an extremely high field goal percentage at nearly 52% and are the highest scoring team in the nation at 82 points per game. However, although they have had 7 players who have scored 20 points at some point this season, they are not particularly deep and their 67% ft shooting can be troublesome at times. Still Jim Boeheim has one of the better defensive teams he's ever coached and their 2-3 zone hold opponents to 39.9% shooting. The Orangemen this season went 11-2 in neutral an road court games. Wesley Johnson at 15.7 points per game and 8.5 rebounds per game and his teammates should be a little too tough to handle for their opponents this week and if they get back Onuaku, they will be a main contender for their second title in 7 years. I like Kansas State as well and actually am picking them for the final four although the more and more I think about it, I may regret not picking BYU over them because I like them a lot too. But Kansas State has one of the best guard combos in the country with Denis Clemente and Jacob Pullen. They average 35 points per game and 7 assists per game. They have a number of ood wins against teams such as Dayton, Xavier, UNLV, Texas A&M and Baylor. They play with a lot of toughness that helps come tournament time but at the same time the overagressiveness could hurt them too, because the refs tend to call more whistles during this time of year. They can be turnover prone and are another team that struggles at the line, but at their best they will be very tough to handle. I think whoever wins the BYU/FL vs. KSU game makes a run to the elite eight...I just hope its KSU although I have BYU in a couple brackets.

Dark Horses
It's become a common practice to say this as they have become a Midwestern Gonzaga, but Xavier being seeded lower than I can remember recently could definitely sneak up on some people. They are deep playing 9 players usually and have a good core of starting players with two sophomores, two juniors and one senior. One of the sophomores is Jordan Crawford who doesn't look or play like a sophomore at all with his 20 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal per game. At times, he can play a little selfishly which could elimiate Xavier, but they have enough around him that they should be able to get the job done in the first round and have the potential to make yet another deep run in this year's tourney. They get 9 points and 8 rebounds a game from Jamel McLean. They get close to a double double as well from Jason Love and Terrell Holloway also scores 11 points per game and was a big part of their Sweet 16 run last year. They are 12th nationally in scoring at 80 ponts but are another team who play solid defense as well only allowing 29.5% from three point range. BYU is another team who I think is capable of making a deep run in this year's tourney. This is a team who I pick every year who always seem to let me down. They've had winnable games the last couple year's but were outplayed by Texas A&M both years. I feel that they are a better team this year and Florida is weaker this year than Texas A&M's been the last 2 years. Plus the experience helps and expect them to be extra mtoivated this year and at the very least get a win in the matinee tomorrow which commences this year's tournament. They lead the nation in scoring margin at 18.5 points as well as free throw shooting at 78.4%. They ar second in scoring with 83.5 points per game. They are third in three point percentage at 42.1%> Jimmer Fredette might not be a household name now but if BYU has a decent tournament, he may be the Stephen Curry of the 2010 Tournament. He averages 20.6 points per game in addition to nearly 5 assists per game. His teammate Jackson Emery averages 13 points and is 4th in the country in steals. They are a relatively experienced team with a freshman, a sophomore, 2 juniors and a senior. Their best wins are UNLV, UTEP and San Diego State. I expect their scoring to be a big factor tomorrow against Florida who looks a little sluggish on offense at times and expect them to finally get their first win in NCAA Tournament play since 1993 and break a consecutive three year bad luck drought in the tournament.

Upsets
I'm not picking it but I could see this one.
#13 Murray State over #4 Vanderbilt
This one I am picking in my bracket.
#12 Texas-El Paso over #5 Butler

Players to Watch
Rick Jackson SYRACUSE
Wes Johnson SYRACUSE
Arize Onuaku SYRACUSE
Denis Clemente KANSAS STATE
Jacob Pullen KANSAS STATE
Ashton Gibbs PITTSBURGH
Jermaine Beal VANDERBILT
A.J. Ogilvy VANDERBILT
Jefferey Taylor VANDERBILT
Gordon Hayward BUTLER
Matt Howard BUTLER
Shelvin Mack BUTLER
Jordan Crawford XAVIER
Jason Love XAVIER
Jimmer Fredette BYU
Jackson Emery BYU
Matt Bouldin GONZAGA
Solomon Alabi FLORIDA STATE
Chris Singleton FLORIDA STATE
Erving Walker FLORIDA
Kenny Boynton FLORIDA
Ralph Sampson III MINNESOTA
Derrick Caracter UTEP
Randy Culpepper UTEP
Keith Benson OAKLAND

Best Games
#4 Vanderbilt vs. #13 Murray State
#5 Butler vs. #12 Texas-El Paso
#7 BYU vs. #10 Florida
#8 Gonzaga vs. #9 Florida State

Hope you enjoyed reading my preview. Sorry for the day delay. Was busy at the draft last night for the upcoming games. Now onto my picks for tomorrow. By the way I went 2-0 in my high school picks tonight so that puts me at 225-72 overall. Now for tomorrow's games.

Midwest Regional
#9 Northern Iowa over #8 UNLV-7:10PM
#3 Georgetown over #14 Ohio-7:25PM
#1 Kansas over #16 Lehigh-9:30PM
#11 San Diego State over #6 Tennessee-9:45PM

West Regional
#7 BYU over #10 Florida-12:20PM
#4 Vanderbilt over #13 Murray State-2:30PM
#2 Kansas State over #15 North Texas-2:40PM
#12 Texas-El Paso over #5 Butler-4:45PM

East Regional
#1 Kentucky over #16 East Tennessee State-7:15PM
#6 Marquette over #11 Washington-7:20PM
#9 Wake Forest over #8 Texas-9:35PM
#3 New Mexico over #14 Montana-9:40PM

South Regional
#11 Old Dominion over #6 Notre Dame-12:25PM
#2 Villanova over #15 Robert Morris-12:30PM
#3 Baylor over #14 Sam Houston State-2:45PM
#7 Richmond ovr #10 St. Mary's-2:50PM

So there's all my picks for today's games. I'll be back with my records tomorrow as well as my predictions for the 16 games going on tomorrow which leaves us with 32 teams going into the weekend. Enjoy the games everyone and let's hope for a 15 or 16 upset lol. Go RMU! lol