My NCAAT thoughts & predictions for MU, KU, and each region:

Posted on: March 12, 2018 at 16:10:39 CT

Just completed a couple of brackets for the pool at my office (which I won a couple years ago). I'll share my thoughts for anyone who's interested. Let me know if you agree/disagree...

Mizzou's region, The West, is by far the easiest. Teams with the best chance of winning it (in order):

• (3 seed) Michigan (28-7)
• (4 seed) Gonzaga (30-4)
• (2 seed) North Carolina (25-10)
• (1 seed) Xavier (22-5)
• (6 seed) Houston (26-7)
• (5 seed) Ohio State (24-8)
• (8 seed) Missouri (20-12)

The next easiest region to win is The East. I basically went with the chalk in this region. Teams with the best chance of winning it (in order):

• (1 seed) Villanova (30-4)
• (2 seed) Purdue (28-6)
• (5 seed) West Virginia (24-10)
• (3 seed) Texas Tech (24-9)
• (4 seed) Wichita State (25-7)
• (7 seed) Arkansas (23-11)
• (9 seed) Alabama (19-15)

The next region in terms of difficulty is The Midwest. Teams with the best chance of winning it (in order):

• (2 seed) Duke
• (3 seed) Michigan State
• (1 seed) Kansas
• (4 seed) Auburn
• (5 seed) Clemson
• (6 seed) TCU

The toughest region, in my opinion, is The South. Teams with the best chance of winning it (in order):

• (1 seed) Virginia
• (5 seed) Kentucky
• (2 seed) Cincy
• (3 seed) Tennessee
• (4 seed) Arizona
• (6 seed) Miami

Final Four picks in my two brackets:
• (3) Michigan, (4) Gonzaga
• (1) Villanova (in both brackets)
• (1) Virginia, (5) Kentucky
• (2) Duke, (3) Michigan State

I have (1) Virginia beating (1) Villanova in one bracket, and (2) Duke beating (5) Kentucky in the other.

KU has an easy path to the Elite 8 in my opinion (Penn, NC State, Auburn), but a nearly impossible path to winning it all. They would have to potentially face Duke/MSU in the E8, Nova/Purdue in the F4, UVA/UK/Mich/Cincy/Zags/UNC in the title game. That means potentially having to face the current #1-3 Kenpom teams: #3 Duke, followed by #2 Villanova, followed by #1 Virginia. I put KU's chances of pulling that off at about 20:1. My prediction is that they lose in the E8 to Duke.

Mizzou has a realistic chance of winning its region. I would NOT be saying this if Mizzou were in any other region, but every team in the The West is beatable and we got a very favorable draw IMO. I have the Tigers advancing to the Sweet 16 in one of my brackets, and round of 32 in the other, but I think our chances of winning the region are at least 5%.

Those are my predictions for the 2018 tourney. Go Mizzou!