March Madness Do-Over: Re-seeding the 2010 NCAA Tournament

I like the tournament exactly the way it is. But for the purposes of identifying who's playing the best ball, let’s try an experiment and see how things would look if we reseeded based on the performances of the remaining Sweet 16 teams in the first two rounds.

Here they are in order:

Number One Seeds

Kentucky
My number one seed overall is Kentucky. They’re playing frighteningly dominant basketball that sort of reminds you of North Carolina last season. The Wildcats are so deep and so athletic they’ll wear you down until they go on a patented 20-4 run and then voila, you’re out of the game.

Duke
My second number one seed is Duke. The Blue Devils are playing the best basketball they’ve played all year, and besides Kentucky, there hasn’t been a more impressive team in the tournament. Physicality on the interior, which has been an historic weakness for the Devils, has turned into an obvious strength on this club with the emergence of Brian Zoubek and the Plumlee brothers inside.

Zoubek gives the Blue Devils a true banger in the paint, while Miles and Mason Plumlee have the type of athleticism in the front court that Duke hasn’t had in a while. That’s bad news for a depleted Purdue club with little size or depth inside.

Syracuse
Syracuse gets the third one seed. The Orange haven’t missed a beat with Onuaku out and they rate to get even stronger once Arinze joins the lineup to help out fellow post player Rick Jackson. This would be horrible news for Butler, a team that lacks size and depth inside.

Ohio State
The Buckeyes get the fourth number one seed after Kansas’ shocking loss on Saturday. Evan Turner and company just seem to be going through the motions right now, seemingly turning it on with a flip of the switch when they need a spark. Dangerous? Sure, but impressive nonetheless. With Tennessee on the horizon, the Buckeyes better bring their A game from the tip, because the Vols guard the perimeter like few teams in college basketball can.

The Two Seeds

West Virginia
Another team that really hasn’t dominated, the Mountaineers just put in workmanlike efforts to survive and advance. Da'Sean Butler combined with sick glass work has been the recipe for victories thus far, but with an athletic Washington squad up next for WVU, Kevin Jones or Devin Ebanks better step up as another scoring option. I’d also expect a lot of zone from WVU because I don’t know if they can stay in front of UW’s water bug guards Venoy Overton and Isaiah Thomas.

Kansas State
Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente have played well, along with the role players in the front court like Dominique Sutton, Curtis Kelly, and Luis Colon, which is why the Wildcats are my second best two seed.

They’ll face Xavier and perhaps the best guard in the tournament, Jordan Crawford, this Thursday in what should be an incredible matchup of guard play and front court athletes. It’ll be interesting to see if Dominique Sutton, KSU’s lock-down defender, can do what no else has done all season: slow down Crawford.

Baylor 
My third-rated two seed is the Baylor Bears. Baylor has been playing with fire these last two tournament games, and that can bite the Bears against a team like Saint Mary’s who doesn’t make mistakes.

Unfortunately for the Gaels, their comfort zone on offense is to pound Omar Samhan inside, which plays right into the strength of Baylor’s defense: their zone. Even worse news is that the Bears can really go big on the back line with seven-foot horse Josh Lomers, 6′10″ jumping jack Ekpe Udoh, and 6′10″ plastic-man Anthony Jones.

Look for the Bears to sandwich Samhan with Lomers playing behind and the shot blocking force of Udoh, Jones, and Quincy Acy over the top. Samhan doesn’t get much lift on his shots, so Udoh should have multiple swats.

Washington
Washington is the weakest two seed but that’s a pretty big jump considering they started out as an 11 seed. Quincy Pondexter and Isaiah Thomas are playing fantastic basketball while Venoy Overton is running the show surrounded by a deep collection of athletes. The Huskies will give West Virginia fits this weekend because the Mountaineers won’t be able to dominate the glass like they’re accustomed to.

The Three Seeds

Tennessee
Tennessee is my strongest three seed because they’ve been impressive by quietly going about their business. With Prince and Chism hitting their stride offensively and the way the Volunteers have athletes that can just shut down perimeter players, UT is a tough matchup for Evan Turner and the guard oriented Buckeyes.

Cornell
Cornell is the second toughest three in my bracket and their first two rounds back it up. Big Red has simply dominated two of the best defensive teams in college basketball in Temple and Wisconsin like they were Loyola Marymount.

Can Cornell pull it off a third time in a row against Calipari’s Wildcats? It’s doubtful, because I think the Wildcats will try to create a faster tempo that puts a premium on athleticism and finishing at the rim. I don’t think Cornell has the guards to win the tempo battle, nor the athletes to finish over Cousins, Patterson, and Orton.

Northern Iowa
UNI might not be the most talented team remaining in the tournament, but no team understands how to play the game any better than the Panthers do. Plus, when you’re responsible for one of the greatest tournament upsets in college basketball history, you get a lot of street cred.

Kalin Lucas being out for the Spartans means that Northern Iowa continuing its Cinderella season is not only a possibility but a probability. I wouldn’t bet against them.

Saint Mary’s
Saint Mary’s is my last three seed and they’ll have their hands full in their sweet 16 matchup vs. Baylor. The Gaels obviously rely on the aforementioned star post man Omar Samhan, but the unheralded key for the West Coast Conference champs will likely be the other big man Ben Allen.

With the backline of Baylor’s zone paying so much attention to Samhan, Allen can have his way with the offside glass when Samhan has the ball and either a wing or a Baylor guard are assigned to block out the 6′11″ senior center.

Or if the Gaels have properly scouted the Bear zone, they’ll attack the high and mid-post where Baylor is most vulnerable, and more than likely they’ll do it with Ben Allen. The senior from Australia averages two assists per game, so don’t be surprised to see Saint Mary’s run offense through him to attack the zone.

The Four Seeds

Xavier
The strongest four seed appears to be Xavier mainly because they’re playing the best basketball and are the healthiest out of the remaining four seeds. It doesn’t hurt that they have the tournament’s best guard in Jordan Crawford as well as capable interior scorer Jason Love.

The Musketeers dominated a decent Minnesota team and then controlled the Pittsburgh Panthers with superior guard play for most of their second round game. Kansas State will be a tough test for Crawford because Dominique Sutton is a glove on defense. Will another Musketeer need to step up? It wouldn’t hurt.

Purdue
Purdue is the second four seed in my fantasy bracket. Why are the Boilers seeded so poorly? Right now it seems like Purdue is doing it with smoke and mirrors by struggling with a banged up Siena club and then winning ugly against Texas A&M.

More concerning for Boilermaker fans is how badly Texas A&M’s frontcourt dominated JaJuan Johnson, which is basically the only solid interior player Purdue’s roster. That’s bad news considering the Boilermakers get the new version of Duke…The Black and Blue Devils.

Not only that, but Duke shoots it much better than the Aggies, and their scoring balance between Singler, Scheyer, and Smith neutralizes Chris Kramer’s ability to impact the game defensively. Purdue’s only hope is to clone Chris Kramer twice so they can guard Duke’s three headed monster. But then, how would the Boilers score?

Michigan State
With Lucas likely out, MSU is now my third four seed. 15th best team left in the tournament is still better than Kansas, Mr. Spartan fan. I’ll be interested to see how Michigan State’s sets work against a very disciplined Panther club who’s big enough inside to control the backboards. Can Korie Lucious create offense when those sets break down as well as Lucas did? I’m betting no.

Butler
Of the remaining teams I’d have to say I’m least impressed by Butler. UTEP had them down big at halftime, and they should have lost to Murray State. I think the Bulldogs are too small and have zero depth in the front court.

One of the more interesting matchups will be Gordon Hayward, Butler’s star power forward trying to finish inside against Syracuse’s backline size. He struggled with the Racers athleticism inside at times, so that aspect of the game is certainly something to watch for especially if Onuaku is playing.

There will definitely be some great games regardless of seeding.

Kevin writes the leading college hoops blog March To March

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