North Carolina, Florida Gulf Coast/Fairleigh Dickinson, USC, Providence, Indiana, Chattanooga, Kentucky, Stony Brook, Notre Dame, Michigan/Tulsa, West Virginia, Stephen F. Austin, Wisconsin, Pitt, Xavier, Weber State
Blue Bloods Bracket
The East region is absolutely stacked, though slightly top heavy. I don't see a lot of upsets happening in this region, which should create some excellent Round of 32 matchups. Kentucky-Indiana will pit two traditional powerhouses against each other, North Carolina-Providence could be a lot closer than people think with Kris Dunn leading the Friars, and a prove-it kind of game for Xavier against a deep, slow, but methodical Wisconsin squad. The fan bases for the teams in this region travel well, so expect to see large and loud crowds with great atmospheres.
Wild Card: West Virginia
WVU is the wild card for this region because of their press style of play. For those that haven't seen them play, they will full court press and trap for essentially the entire game, hoping to force opponents into bad turnovers and easy buckets. The downside is that when they don't get those easy buckets, they can be fairly easy to beat as they are not a great shooting team. They only have one "bad" loss (88-71 at Florida), but lost two out of three to Kansas with the lone win coming at home, and were swept by Texas during the season. Their road is relatively easy compared to the top half of the bracket, and they have the system to go deep in the tournament. If their press fails, however, I wouldn't be shocked to see them go out in the first round to Stephen F. Austin.
Potential Party Crasher: Providence
As I mentioned before, and as you'll see with my picks below, it is going to be hard for any low seed to make noise in this region. Providence in particular has a daunting draw with potential matchups against North Carolina and/or Kentucky looming. What the Friars do have, however, is a great player in Kris Dunn, who is shaping up to be a first round NBA draft pick. He is the floor general for Providence and led them through a difficult Big East conference, defeating Butler three times this season, and winning at Villanova. While it is hard to see them advancing farther than the round of 32 in this region, crazier things have happened.
Winner of Region: North Carolina
The Tar Heels have easily the most difficult road to the Final Four of any of the one seeds, but I think they can handle it. They go eight deep, can score with anyone, and are solid defensively. They won the regular season ACC Championship as well as the ACC tournament Championship. That's an ACC that has seven teams in the tournament, and should have eight if Louisville were not banned from postseason play this year. UNC should be rooting this butts off for Chattanooga and Stony Brook to pull the early round upsets, but the Tar Heels should still represent this region even if they see Indiana, Kentucky, or Xavier.
Matty O
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