One man’s view of March Madness
It may have been a Pitt-thetic college basketball season for the Panthers, but Pittsburgh will have plenty of talent coming to town this week from outside the area when March Madness returns to PPG Paints arena with an eight-team pod that includes powerhouses Duke and Villanova.
Is there a chance if you buy a couple tickets you might get to see half of the Final Four that will be headed to San Antonio in a few weeks?
Here蘑菇视频 one view on what to expect when filling out this year蘑菇视频 NCAA basketball brackets:
South Region
Top seed: Virginia.
Overrated: The Wildcats. 鈥� OK, I鈥檓 only saying that because that gives me three shots to be right with Arizona, Kentucky and Kansas State all in the South. But, seriously, a lot of people are jumping on No. 4 Arizona蘑菇视频 bandwagon because of what Sean Miller has gone through, but don鈥檛 buy into that angle. Miller has failed to reach the Final Four with much better teams that this.
Underrated: The Wildcats. Alright, sorry. I mean No. 7 Nevada, if it can shake off two losses to San Diego State in its last four games, can be a handful for No. 2 Cincinnati if the Wolf Pack can get by Texas, and they should.
Onto San Antonio: The Wildcats. Oh, I should specify, No. 5 Kentucky. John Calipari蘑菇视频 team is always dangerous and its play in winning the SEC tournament means these Wildcats are peaking at just the right time.
East Region
Top seed: Villanova.
Overrated: Purdue. The No. 2 Boilermakers played three ranked teams in their last nine games and lost all three of them. Not a good sign heading into the big dance.
Underrated: Florida. After stumbling through a 3-6 skid the No. 6 Gators closed the season with wins over Auburn, Alabama and Kentucky before falling to Arkansas in the SEC tournament. All four of those teams are in the dance. Despite 12 losses, they seem like a dangerous, battle-tested team to me.
Onto San Antonio: I want to say No. 5 West Virginia, the team that handed Virginia one of its two losses, but coach Bob Huggins鈥� squad has just been too inconsistent and has folded up down the stretch in some big games. So I just can鈥檛 pull the trigger on the Mountaineers despite that outstanding backcourt of Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles Jr. and that harassing Press Virginia defense. Instead I鈥檓 going with the chalk and yet another team called the Wildcats. Besides, I owe Villanova a positive nod because I dissed them two years ago in this space and they won it all.
West Region
Top seed: Xavier.
Overrated: No. 5 Ohio State. I mean, come on, Penn State isn鈥檛 that bad this year, but it蘑菇视频 hard for me to believe a team that lost to the Nittany Lions THREE times is going to make a deep run in this tournament.
Underrated: No. 10 Providence. The Friars took two No. 1 seeds 鈥� Xavier and Villanova 鈥� to overtime in the Big East tournament, beating the Musketeers and losing to the Wildcats. They can play some mean defense.
Onto San Antonio: Michigan. The No. 3 Wolverines were on fire down the stretch, winning their last nine, including all four in the Big Ten tournament. John Beilein has been to the Final Four before and he鈥檒l get by an up-and-down North Carolina team in the Sweet 16 to end the Tar Heels run of two consecutive trips to the championship game.
Midwest Region
Top seed: Kansas.
Overrated: Kansas. This is a good but not remarkable Jayhawks team. Their three wins over WVU have padded their reputation. A close-up look at them at the Coliseum didn鈥檛 really impress me despite a late rally to win that game. It seemed to be more that the Mountaineers collapsed than Kansas doing anything outstanding. With No. 2 Duke, No. 3 Michigan State and even No. 4 Auburn, this bracket is too loaded for the Jayhawks to get out of it.
Underrated: Rhode Island. The No. 7 Rams were 21-3 before losing four of their last eight but they open in Pittsburgh against a team that was on an even worse slide in No. 10 Oklahoma, which has gone 4-11 since mid-January. Pitt is interested in URI coach Dan Hurley and his team will give Coach K蘑菇视频 Blue Devils all they can handle in the second round.
Onto San Antonio: Duke. Mike Krzyzewski is 11-1 against MSU蘑菇视频 Tom Izzo, whose Spartans will be the Blue Devils鈥� biggest threat in this region.
Final Four
That蘑菇视频 right, I鈥檓 saying half of the Final Four will have gone through Pittsburgh to get there.
In the Kentucky-Michigan match-up, I鈥檒l take the Wolverines.
Villanova will upend Duke in the other semifinal. Jay Wright makes it back to the final for the second time in three years.
That sets up a great final between Nova and the Wolverines, who just missed winning it all five years ago.
Michigan lost to Louisville in the 2013 final, although the NCAA has recently vacated that title, so I guess the Wolverines can sort of claim that crown now.
It鈥檇 be better if Beilein just wins one on the basketball court, however, and that蘑菇视频 what he鈥檒l do against the Wildcats in the 2018 championship game.
Rob Burchianti can be reached at rburchianti@heraldstandard.com, or on Twitter at @rvburch.