West Far From Best: Who Wins Weakest NCAA Tournament Region?

Namely, the Buckeyes have a great coach in Chris Holtmann and a dominant inside presence in Keita Bates-Diop. But were those stats built against a Big 10 that was down this year?

Best Player: F – Keita Bates-Diop, Jr. That’ll happen when a team reaches the NCAA tournament 20 consecutive times, as the Bulldogs have, and when it holds the nation’s longest streak for advancing past the tournament’s opening round.

Fans across the United States get in on March Madness like no other set of playoffs in sports, filling out brackets and joining office pools that challenge them to pick the victor of all the games. “Holding them to the standard of last year’s team, it was probably very unfair for a couple of months there”. Barnett averages 13.1 points and 5.9 rebounds per game, both second on the team, and shoots 41.4 percent from 3-point range.

San Diego State is back in the tournament under Brian Dutcher, who’s in his first season in charge but is no stranger to this stage. And now they have more than two days to draw up a game plan.

Then, after Gonzaga’s redshirt freshman Zach Norvell, Jr. buried what proved to be the game-winning three-pointer with 20.8 seconds remaining, Alonso was called for a clear offensive foul on the ensuing possession. Ohio State is led by star junior Keita Bates-Diop, however, they had three addition players average 10+ points per game this season. The Musketeers are the #1 seed in the West. I mean, welcome to March.

Davidson beat Rhode Island in the A-10 tournament championship game Sunday to steal an at-large bid.

– GU has never played an NCAA Tournament game in Los Angeles, site of the West Regional semifinals and finals.

It’s somewhat hard to call MI a dark horse, but the Wolverines are fourth in terms of short odds in this region. Barnes coached just down the interstate at Texas from 1998-2015, and made the NCAA Tournament in all but one of his 17 seasons with the Longhorns. The Spartans lost a controversial game to Georgia Tech in the Southeast Region’s Sweet 16.

You may also remember the Zags destroyed the Musketeers 83-59 in last year’s Elite Eight.

Michigan State is staying home as the No. 3 seed in the Midwest Region, where the Spartans will open against 14th-seeded Bucknell at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. Those three have combined for 39 Final Four appearances.

Heart Says: Xavier’s Chris Mack finally breaks through to the Final 4, taking down mighty North Carolina and Roy Williams. But what’s important is that Kenpom.com has Gonzaga, which lost in last season’s title game, ranked higher than the No. 1 seed in its bracket Xavier (No. 14), the No. 3 seed Michigan (No. 10) and just one spot behind the No. 2 seed North Carolina.