Sweet 16 Bracket: What South Region Teams Must Do To Keep UK from Final Four

The Kentucky Wildcats are the best team in the country, but they aren't a lock to make the Final Four. No, any one of the other three remaining teams in the South has what it takes to pull the upset, but they will need to follow these formulas. They are all easier said than done, but if not executed, Kentucky will cruise to the Final Four. 

No. 4 Indiana

It would be too simple to say that the Hoosiers just need to follow the same plan that they did when they beat Kentucky the first time this season, but there are a few little parts of that that need to be followed. 

In that game, Indiana had five players score 10 or more points. That needs to happen this time—and then some. As nice as that was, only one of those players had more than 13 points. That needs to change this time around, as this game is not being played in Indiana.

Specifically, Cody Zeller will need to do more on the offensive end. He is the team's leading scorer and had only 11 points in the first meeting. That will not get it done this time. 

On the other side of the floor, Anthony Davis can have a good game, but the Hoosiers can't let anyone else go crazy. If more than two Wildcats have 15 or more points, it will be a long day for the Hoosiers. The best way to do that is really focus the defense on the rest of the squad, basically letting Davis do his thing. 

No. 3 Baylor

Shoot the three, and don't stop shooting the three. While nine three-pointers from Brady Heslip in the Round of 32 seems excessive, the Bears will need to bomb it against the Wildcats. Look at their first two tournament games and you'll get the full story. 

In the first game, they made a respectable eight threes, but scored only 68 points. Scoring 68 against Kentucky will result in a pretty uneventful finish. In the second game, they shot 11 and scored 80. If Baylor scores 80 against Kentucky, they'll be in business. 

So, they need to look for the three ball and can't be afraid to shoot it. If they don't make at least 10 three-point shots, it's not going to happen. That would require a possession for possession game, and Kentucky isn't going to lose many of those. 

No. 10 Xavier

Of all the possible upsets, this is the least likely. The fact is that everything Xavier does well, Kentucky does better, which doesn't lead to many upsets. What the Musketeers need to do in this one is to dominate with their top players.

They will never match the Wildcats' depth, but they need to turn it into a three man game on offense. Part of this assumes that Dezmine Wells plays, as he's currently listed as questionable (per USA Today). Assuming he does, Wells, Tu Halloway and Mark Lyons need to score 50 combined points. 

Breaking that down realistically, you're probably looking at about 25 from Halloway, 15 from Lyons and 10 from Wells. But either way, Xavier need to score about 75 to win this game and they can't expect anything more than about 20-25 points from the rest of their team. 

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