Randy Smith
I stopped filling out an NCAA basketball bracket several years ago. I stopped when I had been soundly beaten three years in a row by girls in the office, who made their picks based upon school colors and mascots rather than knowledge of the teams p/laying. Since my seven year old grandson Coleman is filling out a bracket this year I decided to get back in. I won't bore you with individual picks on each game. Here are some interesting thoughts on some of the key match ups.
The Final Four.
The top four seeds are, Villanova in the East, Gonzaga in the West, Kansas in the Midwest and North Carolina in the South. Not all of these top seeds will make it to Glendale AZ for the championship round but two of them will. Look for North Carolina to advance along with Gonzaga. The Bulldogs are the only top seed to have never won a national title. This could be their year. Joining them in the Final Four will be Duke and Louisville, a couple of two seeds.
Best chances for first round upsets. We've heard a lot about #12 Middle Tennessee upsetting #5 seed Minnesota in the South Region opening round in Milwaukee. The Blue Raiders from Conference USA are a legitimate NCAA Tournament team.....one that is seeded too low. MTSU should have been at least a 10 seed, but the Big Blue Nation seems to be very happy to be where they are. They think the match up with the Gophers is a good one. The Blue Raiders are 30-4 on the year and they stormed their way through the Conference USA regular season and tournament. I like them to pull off the upset much as they did a year ago against Michigan State, Middle is still seeking some NCAA respect as just a few seasons ago they were 26-7 and made neither the NCAA field nor the NIT. To make the school's first ever trip to the Sweet 16, they must also pull off an upset of #4 Butler in round two but that is a very likely task. The Raiders are very good. I also think #4 Florida could be ripe for an upset at the hands of #13 ETSU and #12 Princeton could also knock off #5 Notre Dame.
SEC teams in the NCAA. There are five SEC teams in the mix with Kentucky easily being the best entry. I look for Vanderbilt to lose to Northwestern in round one. I look for South Carolina to gain a win over Marquette, then lose to Duke in round two. The Florida Gators are not playing very well as we start the Big Dance, and if they can escape ETSU in round one, they will lose to Virginia in the field of 32. Arkansas may surprise a few people. The Hogs are seeded 8th in the South. I pick them to win against Seton Hall but lose to North Carolina. Kentucky is a very talented team and they could really have a great run. In fact the Wildcats could win it all, but I believe they will stub their toe against 3rd seed UCLA in the Sweet 16.
Best player in the Big Dance. Kentucky freshman guard Malik Monk is as good as anybody in the country and will likely be another of John Calipari's "one and done" crew at Kentucky. He averages better than twenty points per contest and is deadly in the clutch.
Lower seeded teams with best chance to advance. Middle Tennessee hands down.
Bracket Profiling. Easily it's the West Region where all the academic schools are. Highly respected academic institutions Gonzaga, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, Princeton, Xavier and Bucknell make up almost half of the sixteen team bracket.
Team I would like to see do well, other than MTSU, my alma mater. Virginia Commonwealth because they're coached by former UTC head coach Will Wade who has former Moc Johnny Taylor on his staff.
The play in games start tonight with the field of 64 beginning play Thursday afternoon. Let's tip it up and get after 'em.
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Randy Smith has been covering sports on radio, television and print for the past 45 years. After leaving WRCB-TV in 2009, he has written two books, and has continued to free-lance as a play-by-play announcer. His career has included a 17-year stretch as host of the Kickoff Call In Show on the University of Tennessee’s prestigious Vol Network. He has been a member of the Vol Network staff for 30 years. He has done play-by-play on ESPN, ESPN II, CSS, and Fox SportSouth, totaling more than 500 games, and served as a well-known sports anchor on Chattanooga television for more than a quarter-century. In 2003, he became the first television broadcaster to be inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame. Randy and his wife Shelia reside in Hixson. They have two married children, Christi and Chris Perry; Davey and Alison Smith. They have five grandchildren, Coleman, Boone, Mattingly, DellaMae, and CoraLee.