Sweet 16 preview - Day 1

The West is the one bracket where I picked all Sweet 16 teams correctly, so clearly I didn't see any surprises emerging from that region. Looking into the next round, I'd have to stick with the favorites, Syracuse and Kansas St. However, I really like Butler (as I've noted before) and Onuaku continues to be out, so I give the Bulldogs a decent shot. In the other game, I think Kansas St. is a good bit better than Xavier, but I'm still not sure how much I trust the Wildcats. In a head to head matchup between Kansas St. and Syracuse I'd have to call it a toss up. Since this bracket produced 4 solid, talented teams, it may be the most wide open bracket at this point. It's hard to pick a favorite and hard to dismiss any of the four teams. If I had to pick a team, I'm going to go with my Big East bias and give Syracuse a very slight edge. Here are my odds of a Final 4 trip:

Syracuse 34%
Kansas St. 33%
Butler 17%
Xavier 16%


The East still has its top 2 seeds, but an 11 and a 12 join them. Cornell isn't a huge shock to me. If they are hitting their threes they can be a very dangerous team. They didn't play particularly well down the stretch in the regular season, so I was surprised at how easily they won each of their first two tournament games. These were not down to the wire buzzer beater type games. The Big Red had it sown up early and did so in dominating fashion. They have their 7 footer inside to go with the Ivy League 3's and I think he differentiates this team from most pesky Ivy League teams. I haven't seen Washington play and gave the Pac 10 no respect coming into the tournament. However, the Left Coast has performed well and Washington keeps on rolling. After pulling out a close one against Marquette, the Huskies did surprise me by blowing out the Lobos. In the games today, Cornell has to be considered a fairly big underdog. Kentucky has looked very impressive and my have too much talent for the Big Red. West Virginia is actually the smallest favorite on the day. I think this is because most people, including me, don't know what to expect from Washington. Are they really that good? We will also see how the injury to Bryant affects the Mountaineers. Mazzulla is the more confident and better player at this point, so some would argue that this is a good thing. I wouldn't go that far. Mazzulla often gets into foul trouble in 20 minutes of playing time and he is now going to need to play 30+. Also, Washington's best player is their point guard, Isaiah Tomas. I think the Mountaineers will need Mazzulla on the floor most of the game, so hopefully he stays out of foul trouble. I'll go chalk in this bracket. If the Mountaineers and Wildcats do meet, I think Kentucky would have the edge, but don't count the Mountaineers out. They will fight their opponent all the way.

Kentucky 53%
WV 27%
Washington 13%
Cornell 7%