Bracket Picks: 9-step guide to the East Region
The field for the 2016 NCAA Tournament is out, even if none of us ever thought we'd see the bracket during the two-hour megabonanza thing CBS tried to pull off Sunday night.
(At least teach Charles Barkley how to use the picks board before he goes on the air. Please?)
In an effort to help you pick your bracket, these nine-step guides for each region in the tournament are designed to give you some information that'll hopefully serve as some background for your predictions.
Other regional guides: Midwest | South | West
As the headline says, this guide is for the East Region, so let's break it down. The four regional semifinalists will play in the Sweet 16 in Philadelphia.
1. Team to beat: North Carolina. The top seed in the region, the Tar Heels won the regular-season and conference tournament titles in the ACC, which was the second-toughest league in college hoops this season, according to Ken Pomeroy. UNC has a combination of future (presumed) first-round picks (Brice Johnson, Justin Jackson) and tons of experience. Marcus Paige, at his best, is one of the top guards in the country, and he had two solid shooting efforts in the ACC Tournament to ease at least some of the concern about his jumper.
2. Contenders: Xavier, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana. It's a deep, talented region, with five teams that look as if they could make a run to the Final Four. Xavier was in and out of the top five all season, Kentucky was the preseason No. 1 team that is red hot right now, Indiana won the regular-season Big Ten title, and West Virginia might be the most underrated team in the nation. Spread anywhere else, these four teams would be solid Elite 8 picks, but Kentucky and Indiana could play in the second round, and Xavier-West Virginia has great potential as a Sweet 16 matchup.
3. Dark horse: Providence. Remember the Friars? The team that was 17-3, with wins over Arizona, Butler (twice) and Villanova? That team was ranked as high as eighth in the nation at one point in January. Well, now PC is a No. 9 seed, a team that went 6-7 down the stretch and constantly battled depth and health issues. But the NCAA Tournament is all about timeout-to-timeout runs, and if Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil get going, they could be a very tough out.
4. Cinderella: Stephen F. Austin. So many choices in this region, with Chattanooga, Stony Brook and Stephen F. Austin all actually being pretty solid teams in those 12-14 slots. But Stephen F. Austin, believe it or not, is ranked 33rd in KenPom's algorithm, better than VCU, Notre Dame, Dayton and 34 other NCAA Tournament teams. The Lumberjacks have won 88 games over the past three years, and Brad Underwood guided them to the second round in the 2014 tournament. I really like West Virginia, and I think the Mountaineers win, but that first-round game has great potential.
5. The upset to pick: Providence over USC. Yes, it's a 9 over an 8, but I don't see the other top seeds losing in first-round upsets in this region. It's a really solid group, 1-6.
6. Best first-round matchup: West Virginia vs. Stephen F. Austin. There's a reason this game is No. 2 on KenPom's FanMatch "thrill score" for Friday's matchups.
7. Best potential matchup: Indiana vs. Kentucky. Obviously the potential for UNC vs. Indiana or UNC vs. Kentucky is not only high but also something that has a lot of people excited. But the potential for Indiana-UK, with a Sweet 16 spot on the line, is awfully fun to think about if you live in the Kentucky-Indiana area. Call it regional bias on my part.
8. Best player: Tyler Ulis, Kentucky. In a stacked region, with so, so many good players - Paige and Brice Johnson (UNC), Dunn and Bentil (PC), Yogi Ferrell (IU), Jamal Murray (UK), Demetrius Jackson (Notre Dame), Nigel Hayes (Wisconsin), etc. - Ulis is the best. He controls the game on offense and is a menace on defense.
9. Best coach: Three-way tie. I couldn't decide between Roy Williams at UNC, John Calipari at UK and Bob Huggins at West Virginia. Yes, the first two have won national titles and they are both Hall of Famers. Combined, Williams and Calipari have been to 13 Final Fours. Huggins has won 786 games as a coach - more than Williams or Calipari - and he's been to two Final Fours, but he also has to be one of the best coaches to never win a national title.
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