NCAA Tournament Madness: The WBN crew attempts to seed the regionals
By Paul Jordan
Here we go BBN. We are less than 24 hours from the start of the NCAA Tournament (my apologies to the “First Four” but my bracket excludes tour existence) and I decided to see what the great minds at the WBN thought about the opening round of games and see how good we are at projecting which 16 teams will be standing Monday morning.
The panel consisted of myself, Greg Edwards, Alan Smith, Tyler Cox, and Jonathan North. Don’t trust this crew with making investment decisions for you, OK? But let’s see how we did.
EAST REGIONAL
1. OHIO STATE
2. NORTH CAROLINA
3. SYRACUSE
4. KENTUCKY
As you can see, we played it super safe in this region. Of the 20 teams selected, 18 of the votes went to the teams you see above. I actually goat a bit risky and picked #6 seed Xavier as a darkhorse to make the sweet 16 and Jonathan North went a bit bolder and picked #7 Washington to supplant the Tar Heels. We are one quarter of the way through and no raised voices as everyone is pretty much in harmony.
WEST REGIONAL
1. DUKE
7. TEMPLE
3. UCONN
4. TEXAS
We lost the harmony in this region. Both Tyler Cox and Jonathan North picked Tennessee to upset Duke. I had to cast the deciding vote and picked Duke. I did not want to vote for anything that may save Bruce Pearl’s job, so I went with the Dookies. Then more debate on the number two seed, Greg and Alan both picked Temple and Jonathan North went with San Diego State. Tyler Cox did nothing to help, picking Penn State. So rather than force another tie, and to shake things up, I went with the Owls too. UConn was a clean sweep and Texas advanced with a 3-2 vote. Jonathan North and I picked Arizona.
SOUTHWEST REGIONAL
1. KANSAS
2. NOTRE DAME
6. GEORGETOWN
4. LOUISVILLE
Kansas was an unanimous pick to advance and Notre Dame was near unanimous, but Alan Smith opted for FSU in a big upset. I joined Alan and Tyler in picking Georgetown over the Boilermakers so we have another upset in the Sweet 16 thus far. Louisville was a 4-1 vote to advance. I took SEC loyalty over the Dirty Birds.
SOUTHEAST REGIONAL
1. PITT
10. MICHIGAN STATE
6. ST. JOHNS
4. WISCONSIN
This regional was probably the wildest to pick. Pitt was an unanimous pic to advance but then it got wild. Alan, Tyler, and Jonathan had already picked Michigan State to Izzo the Gators so I piled on, making it a 4-1 vote. I was actually the only person with a “Jimmer” tattoo on my lower back as it was a 4-1 vote for the Red Storm to blaze to the Swet 16. Wisconsin passed as a four seed with three votes, but Alan picked Kansas State to advance and I picked Utah State. Remember that one folks, Utah State. You heard it here first.
All in all, I think we did a pretty good job in the voting, passing along 12 of the 16 upper seeds. So apparently we don’t think it’s going to be an insanely wild tourney, but time will tell.
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