Bracket Reaction: Potential Upsets, Path To The Final Four For Michigan & MSU

The March Madness bracket has arrived, it’s time to look through and find upsets, and create the perfect bracket. 

Upset Potential:

The east region is being called the “blue blood region” with Duke, UConn, Michigan State, Kansas as the top 4 seeds, UCLA and St. Johns are also quality teams to watch at the top of this region. With the region being this top heavy, I think the only chance for a first round upset will be 11 seed South Florida taking down 6 seed Louisville. USF is 25-8 and coming off a championship run through the American conference, and they face a Louisville team who dropped to Miami in the conference tourney and is facing some injuries, look for the Bulls to give the Cardinals a run.

At first glance the South region appears to be Floridas region to lose, the Gators have been the hottest team in college basketball for the last month and will carry that momentum into the tournament, the rest of the region has lots of upset potential. Nebraska is a team that relies heavily on the three point shot, if Troy can catch Nebraska on an average shooting night, the Trojans are alive for an upset here. Troy is led by Thomas Dowd, averaging 14 points and 10 rebounds per game and has 17 double doubles on the season. Another game to watch is 11 seed VCU vs 6 seed North Carolina. North Carolina will be missing their star Freshman Caleb Wilson and VCU is coming off an Atlantic 10 tournament championship. The Rams are 27-7 and are battle tested, having played multiple power 4 teams early on, and just went on a run to win the A-10.

The story of the west region is a potential Wisconsin vs Arkansas in the 2nd round, I think the winner of that game has a real shot to make the final four. The upset spots in this region is 10 seed Missouri over 7 seed Miami FL. Miami travels to St. Louis in what will essentially be a home game for the Tigers. Another game to watch will be BYU vs the winner of Texas and NC State. BYU suffered an injury to their 2nd best player Richie Saunders late in the season, AJ Dybantsa is a lottery pick for the Cougars but they don’t have much help for him, BYU is a prime team to drop early.

The popular upset pick in the Midwest region will be 12 seed Akron over 5 seed Texas Tech. Texas Tech will be without first team all American JT Toppin, the Red Raiders still have a good team with Christian Anderson who averages almost 19 points per game. Miami OH has been the talk of the MAC this season but Akron is 29-5 and Tavari Johnson is a lethal guard who averages almost 21 points per game. 

Michigan States Path:

Death, taxes, and the NCAA tournament committee putting the Spartans in the same region as Duke. This region will be a gauntlet for the Spartans if they want to make the final four. Assuming they handle their first two games, there is a strong chance MSU could see UConn in the sweet 16, and then potentially play the winner of St. Johns and top overall seed Duke. Obviously the Spartans will need their big 3 of Fears, Cooper, and Kohler to play well to advance in this tournament. The play of Fears supporting cast will determine the ceiling for this march for Sparty, guys like Jordan Scott and Kur Teng need to be able to knock down shots for them to beat teams like UConn or Duke.

Michigans Path:

Although Michigan fans were frustrated with the Big Ten Championship loss to Purdue, on paper the draw for Michigan may be the most favorable path for a 1 seed. 5 seed Texas Tech has an injury to their best player, Alabama is one of the more inconsistent teams offensively in the country, and Virginia as a 3 seed feels like a great initial draw. The LJ Cason injury has had the Wolverines a little sluggish and they will look to get back on track against UMBC, with their sights set on an elite 8 matchup against Iowa State down the road.