NCAA Bracket 2015: Schedule, Title Picks and Predictions After Selection Sunday

You may need to sit down for this one—Kentucky is going to win the national championship. I know, shocking stuff.

The 2015 NCAA tournament is loaded with a number of talented teams and potential challengers for the dominant Wildcats, but all will eventually fall short. That doesn't mean there will be a shortness of Madness, though. After all, it wouldn't be March without a couple of Cinderella stories, tense moments and even a few No. 1 seeds losing earlier than expected.

With that in mind, here is a look at the bracket, schedule and some predictions for the 2015 NCAA tournament.

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Bracket

Schedule

Date	Event	Location	TV
March 17-18	First Round	Dayton	truTV
March 19, 21	Second and Third Rounds	Jacksonville, Louisville, Pittsburgh and Portland	CBS, TBS, TNT, truTV
March 20, 22	Second and Third Rounds	Columbus, Charlotte, Omaha and Seattle	CBS, TBS, TNT, truTV
March 26, 28	Midwest Regional (Sweet 16 and Elite Eight)	Cleveland	CBS and TBS
March 26, 28	West Regional (Sweet 16 and Elite Eight)	Los Angeles	CBS and TBS
March 27, 29	South Regional (Sweet 16 and Elite Eight)	Houston	CBS and TBS
March 27, 29	East Regional (Sweet 16 and Elite Eight)	Syracuse	CBS and TBS
April 4	National Semifinals	Indianapolis	TBS
April 6	Championship Game	Indianapolis	CBS

Predictions and Title Pick

Kentucky Will Take Home the National Title

Sometimes, we as college basketball fans and commentators have a way of overthinking things when filling out our brackets. Perhaps it is a desire to go against the grain or just the willingness to give ourselves another reason to cheer for the underdog.

That is perfectly understandable, but there is one team that is loaded with future NBA stars both on the court and on the bench at any given moment in this tournament. That team is Kentucky, and it is going to win the national championship, much to the chagrin of Cinderella fans everywhere.

It may be boring to predict the best team to take home the ultimate prize, but there is little reason to think the Wildcats are going to lose.

James Crisp/Associated Press

They have experience this season that they haven't had in years past with mostly freshmen. They have outside shooting in Devin Booker and someone who has hit monumentally important three-pointers in NCAA tournament games before in Aaron Harrison. They have a parade of future NBA bigs down low, including the physically imposing pairing of Willie Cauley-Stein and Karl-Anthony Towns.

There just isn't a team that can match up with John Calipari's squad even if multiple Wildcats are having poor nights.

Florida coach Billy Donovan discussed this Kentucky team that went undefeated in the regular season, via Nicole Auerbach of USA Today: "What they've done may not happen again for a long, long time. It's important that people reflect in a real positive way what they've accomplished this season. ... It's very, very easy to have a down game, a bad game or a poor night and someone (else) plays well." 

People will be doing a lot more reflecting when the Wildcats cut down the nets as national champions.

Duke Will Lose Before the Final Four

While Kentucky will win the national title, not all of the favorites will steamroll their way through the bracket.

Mike Krzyzewski's Duke squad will actually lose before the Final Four this year although it should have a better showing than last season, when it lost its first game to Mercer. There are plenty of reasons to like this Blue Devils team, not the least of which is the presence of potential No. 1 pick Jahlil Okafor, but there are also a couple of Achilles' heels that will be their undoing.

Duke just isn't quite good enough on the defensive side to win six games of one-and-done pressure in a row. There have been too many contests this season when the defense struggled, such as the one against Virginia Tech when it gave up 86 points and 12 made three-pointers or the one against North Carolina when it allowed 90 points and 19 offensive rebounds.

Gerry Broome/Associated Press

Laura Keeley of The News & Observer discussed the Duke defense earlier this season:

"

Duke's defense has been quite effective at times this season, but a game like Virginia Tech happens often enough to give pause when trying to label Duke a good defensive team. Right now, Ken Pomeroy has the Blue Devils ranked 69th nationally in defensive efficiency – not near what Duke teams of old did on that end of the floor, but a definite improvement on their defenses of the one-and-done era.

"

Krzyzewski has even played some zone this year as a way to counterbalance deficiencies in the man-to-man sets from his team. That would have been unheard of in Durham in years past.

A mediocre defense puts a lot of pressure on the Blue Devils offense to produce on a nightly basis, and all it would take in the tournament is one off night to send them home.

What's more, Duke simply doesn't have a lot of depth at its disposal heading into the tournament. Only six guys consistently get big minutes on this team (Okafor, Tyus Jones, Quinn Cook, Justise Winslow, Amile Jefferson and Matt Jones) while Marshall Plumlee and Grayson Allen have played some spot duty in the big games.

Tired legs could also catch up to the Blue Devils in the closing minutes of one of these tournament contests, especially when they are asked to play two nail-biters in three days. 

Ultimately, Duke is one of the teams on the short list with enough talent to potentially challenge Kentucky, but it won't get the chance because its defense will let it down before the Final Four.

Only One No. 1 Seed Will Reach the Final Four 

John Bazemore/Associated Press

Just take a look at recent history if you want to know why I think most of the No. 1 seeds will fail to reach the Final Four, via ESPN Stats & Info:

There are simply too many things that can go wrong in a one-and-done tournament to rely on the No. 1 seeds to all advance that deep in the tournament. Really, there isn't much difference between a No. 1 and Nos. 2 or 3 anyway, which means an Elite Eight loss wouldn't even be that much of an upset (unless it was Kentucky). 

Recent history will continue this year, as three of the No. 1 seeds fall short of college basketball's biggest stage.