Breaking Down the Bracket: East Region

Xavier looked like a great team at the start of the season. They beat Missouri at home and beat Virginia Tech and Memphis on a neutral court in their first five games. They were later handled on a neutral court against Duke and lost at home by nine to Butler.

The Musketeers also won at LSU by 10.

Lately they’ve been losing to everyone on the road. They lost at Duquesne, at Dayton, at Charlotte, at Richmond, and then to Temple in the conference tournament. They easily have the talent to win multiple games in the field but could also find the upset bug early on.

Portland State is a run-and-gun team which hasn’t played many good teams out of conference. They’ve fared surprisingly well when they have though, beating Gonzaga on the road by seven and losing by just a point to Washington at Washington.

Later on in the year, they were dropped at Baylor.

They also dropped a bunch of games in conference but have won six in a row heading into this game.

The reason the Vikings can pull this off is their three point shooting. They make more threes then almost anyone in the nation and Xavier will allow you to shoot the three in order to protect the paint.

Xavier is dedicated to the boards and doesn’t like to give up offensive rebounds so they sacrifice defending behind the arc.

This is one of the toughest early-round games to evaluate since Xavier played Missouri and Memphis so early in the year. Both of those teams are markedly better than they were at the start of the year.

In the end, the Vikings have righted the ship while Xavier is sliding into the tournament. The double digit seed upsets have to show up somewhere and I’ve thought for a while Xavier is ripe for a first round shocker.

Portland State’s performances early on against the Huskies and Bulldogs show they aren’t going to be outmatched by Xavier.

It’s a risky pick but not with too much risk, since neither team can beat the Seminoles in the next round.

First round winners: (1) Pittsburgh, (9) Tennessee, (5) Florida State, (13) Portland State, (6) UCLA, (3) Villanova, (7) Texas, (2) Duke

Second Round

Tennessee can give Pitt plenty of trouble, but their inconsistency and lack of desire at times will come back to bite them against the grittiest team in the field.

Florida State has the defense and size to ward off Portland State.

Texas has some players who can trouble Duke, but they’ve played way too inconsistent and are a lot like the Vols in their complacency throughout the year. Duke survives.

UCLA is a team which has fallen off from recent years but still has plenty of talent as a six seed. PG Darren Collison and F Josh Shipp give them two solid scorers when they’re on their game. They have a good supporting cast which could help them bust up the bracket.

Villanova will go as far as F Dante Cunningham takes them.

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