And finally we have arrived — it is March Madness time!
Another year and another exciting race in early March to see what teams earned their spot in the most exciting sporting event of the year.
The official bracket has been announced and now the fun has truly begun. At this time people are filling out their brackets hoping to win their pool.
And now that the bracket is official, it is time to break down my Final Four teams and make some early predictions on how the tournament will play out.
Let’s start in the South, where the favorite has to be Kentucky. The Wildcats only had two losses on the season. Once to Indiana on a buzzer beater early in the season and then they fell to Vandy in the SEC Championship game this past week.
But Kentucky’s resume was still good enough to get them the top seed in the tournament. The Wildcats didn’t lose a regular season conference game and they pretty much dominated the conference throughout the season.
Other good teams in this region are Duke, Baylor, and Indiana. It will be interesting to see if Indiana and Kentucky match up again sometime in the bracket.
Ultimately, Kentucky will defeat Duke in the Elite Eight to advance to the Final Four.
Now to the West Region where the Spartans of Michigan State are atop. Michigan State is actually the only No. 1 seed that won their conference tournament.
But the Spartans don’t have an easy road to the Final Four. They have a few good teams in their way before they can make it there. The No. 2 seed in the West is Missouri, a tough Big 12 school that has beaten Kansas this season.
They also have a couple really good Big East schools in their region with Marquette and Louisville, and who knows what the one-loss Murray State will be able to do this year.
The Elite Eight matchup from this region will see Michigan State falling to Marquette, sending the Golden Eagles to the Final Four.
Next is the East region, the top dog in this region is Syracuse. The Orange only had one loss all season before they fell to Cincinnati in the Big East tournament. Syracuse usually under achieves in the tournament, but it looks like this year they might be poised to make a run for the Final Four.
And they are in the right region. The No. 2 is Ohio State and the No. 3 is Florida State, two teams that aren’t very consistent at all.
The Orange will take advantage of their weak region and beat Ohio State in the Elite Eight to earn their Final Four bid.
And finally we have the Midwest region, Where the Tar Heels of North Carolina sit atop. North Carolina is coming off a tough loss to Florida State in the ACC Championship game, but fortunately for them their regular season resume was good enough to still earn them a No. 1 seed.
Carolina should have an easy ride to the Elite Eight — that is unless Creighton decides to play spoiler in the second round.
Georgetown and Michigan could cause some problems in this region, but it is pretty clear who Carolina’s biggest threat is.
This region sets up a dream matchup of North Carolina and Kansas in the Elite Eight. I see Kansas prevailing over the Tar Heels to earn the final bid for the Final Four.
Quick Recap of the Final Four: Kentucky, Marquette, Syracuse and Kansas.
Good luck on your brackets!
Tyler Rollason is a Winder-Barrow High School graduate and mass communications major at the University of West Georgia. You can e-mail comments about this column to tyrollason@yahoo.com.
