Finally, after a year long hiatus, the highly touted March Madness is back! What a year this has been, and it is no different in the college basketball world. Basketball power houses who have dominated the past decade such as Duke and Kentucky aren’t in the Big Dance and other strong teams like Michigan State and UCLA barely made the cut. In March Madness, anything can happen. In a March Madness taking place in the middle of a pandemic, even more is possible.
West Bracket
We’ll start with the west bracket, home of the overall 1 seed and presumptive favorites Gonzaga (26-0). Gonzaga boasts four potential first round draft picks in this upcoming NBA draft and is led by two potential top 10 picks. Rivaling Gonzaga in the west is the 2 seed, Iowa, 3 seed Kansas, and reigning champion, 4 seed Virginia. The former is home to two-time All American Luka Garza, looking to carry the Hawkeyes on a run this March. The latter two schools are consistent, well coached teams who should not be overlooked to make some noise. However, the west region holds a few teams receiving plenty of buzz of a potential Cinderella story, including 12 seed University of California Santa Barbara and 13 seed Ohio University. Don’t be surprised if either of those teams win a few games and make a run but also be fully prepared for the boring, with Gonzaga advancing to the Final Four from the west region.
East Bracket
Next is the east region, a tricky one for sure, without a true favorite. Michigan is the 1 seed, but they are without one of their starters and senior leaders, forcing them to lose in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament. The 2 seed Alabama and 3 seed Texas are both conference champions of the SEC and Big 12 respectively, so they can’t be overlooked. The east region is also full of teams who could potentially make runs in this year’s dance. 7 seed Connecticut is getting healthy at the right time, 8 seed LSU was a last second tip in away from being the SEC champions, and 12 seed Georgetown is hitting its stride at the right time, coming off of their first Big East title since 2007. Of course, you also can’t count out the winner of Michigan State vs. UCLA, who will play in the play in game this Thursday (March 18), to shock some people and win a few games. This is a tough pick, but I think Alabama has the best shot at making it out of the east region, but if it isn’t clear enough already, nothing would surprise me in this one.
South Region
To the south region: home of the one time favorite 1 seed Baylor Bears, who were unfortunately shut down for a few weeks in the middle of the season due to a positive COVID test, has not looked the same since coming back on February 23. However, it is hard to forget how good they looked before they got shut down. Rivaling them is Big Ten runner up 2 seed Ohio State and 3 seed Arkansas. Ohio State has a few game changers and they just seem to find ways to win. A lot. Arkansas is led by a potential top 10 pick and has won 12 of its last 14 games, so a sleeper pick to come out of the south? Maybe. The south region is also full of teams who are on upset watch (notice a pattern?). Never count out 8 seed North Carolina. 12 seed Winthrop plays 5 seed Villanova, who has been plagued by injuries, in the first round and 14 seed Colgate has lost one game all year. I am very interested to see how this region plays out, but no team strikes me as one that would be able to top 1 seed Baylor so I’m not going to pick against them.
Midwest Region
Last, but not least, is the midwest region. The 1 seed here is Big Ten champ, Illinois, and while they are definitely great, they are far from unstoppable. 2 seed Houston has lost 3 games all year and looks scary. 3 seed West Virginia always finds a way to end the season as a top seed in the dance. Oklahoma State is currently appealing a 1 year postseason band and found itself in the Big 12 championship and now a 4 seed in the big dance. The Cowboys are led by probable number 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham and are winning games at the right time. Outside of those 4 teams I can’t really see much happening in the midwest. In a crazy year, though, I can’t stress enough how anything is possible. Anyway, I would pick Cade Cunningham leading Oklahoma State past Illinois and out of the midwest into the Final Four.
Final Four
Now, to the Final Four. On one side of this (probably) far from the perfect bracket, we would see 1. Gonzaga vs. 2. Alabama and on the other side we’d see a rematch of 1. Baylor and 4. Oklahoma State, with Baylor winning the season series 2-1. I think Gonzaga’s star power will be too much and they will advance to the finals, facing Baylor, who wins the season series against rival Oklahoma State. The stage is set. The top 2 overall seeds, Gonzaga and Baylor, face off in the national championship. The last time we saw an undefeated March Madness champion was 1976, and I don’t think that streak is ending here. I think Baylor gets hot at the right time and is too much for Gonzaga and will be crowned the 2021 March Madness champion.