More On The West And Midwest

Today let's look at the Midwest and West brackets.

Midwest: Wichita State is a tough sell for a lot of people, but we'd like to make one point about Wichita State which is perhaps overlooked.

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The Shockers have played a minimally tough schedule, true, but consider who's coaching them and what his personality is like.

Gregg Marshall is a guy who thrives off of being disrespected, and between the NCAA stacking the region and pundits dismissing his 34-0 team, he's got plenty of fuel with which to stoke his team's fire (after we wrote that we read this).

Does that mean we think they're going all the way? Well, probably not. But we won't rule it out.

Remember what being undefeated did to UNLV in 1991? Did you watch the Georgetown-Vegas game that year? IF you did, you know what was coming. If it hadn't been Duke it would've been somebody.

Whatever happens to Wichita State, you can rest assured that team will not play scared. It is going to, in a word former President Bush might like, aggress.

So Cal Poly's joy ride - the 14-19 Mustangs defeated Texas Southern for the right to play Wichita - will end in short order.

Kentucky has been the subject of a lot of questions this season, and the fact that the Wildcats improved in the end stages of the final season does not mean everything is necessarily fine.

UK is not a great defensive team and it's new found unity may not stand up under pressure, which Wichita State can provide. Experience and a solid backcourt favor Wichita State.

Only Kansas State is a bad matchup for Kentucky, and we see an upset here.

We very much want State to advance but tired legs are going to catch State soon - actually that has happened once, in the Duke game.

State has played on the 13th, 14th, 15th, 18th and will play again on the 20th - after getting on the plane an hour after beating Xavier and getting into Orlando after 4:00 a.m.

On fresh legs, we'd take State, but right now, we have to go with a rested and tough St. Louis.

Anyone taking Manhattan over Louisville? No, we're not either.

We'll go with Tennessee over UMass and Duke over Mercer, though Mercer clearly isn't coming just for the sights. The Bears think they can win.

Texas A&M and Arizona State is a tough call, but on the premise that Herb Sendek is overly cautious, we'll go with Rick Barnes and the Longhorns.

Michigan should blow by Wofford.

Arizona and Oklahoma State are on target for a collision which Arizona should win.

West: Weber State has a long and underappreciated basketball tradition, but it won't help them to defeat Arizona.

Also we think Oklahoma State has figured it out and should handle Gonzaga. The second Stockton is an intriguing player though.

Oklahoma will roll past North Dakota State, but the San Diego State/New Mexico State game is...interesting.

Marvin Menzies is not a bad coach, and the Aggies are one of those under the radar teams with tradition, much like Wichita State (until recently) and Weber State.

We'll go with SDSU here though.

Nebraska should be toughened up enough for Baylor, a program which, shall we say, tends to defeat itself on a regular basis.

Creighton is still mad about losing the Big East title - sorry Ragin' Cajuns.

Those Western programs with great tradition? BYU is another one. Basketball is a really big deal there. But we like Oregon.

Wisconsin will certainly defeat American.

After that, San Diego State will take Oklahoma and face Arizona in the Sweet Sixteen with a lot of cultural undertones as Tucson (and Arizona) is not popular with many Southern Californians, who derisively call them 'Zonies.

In the Midwest, Duke will advance to the Sweet Sixteen, as will Louisville and Wichita.

Duke could make it, but everyone will have to step it up, and particularly the guards.

We like Louisville and Arizona to go to the Final Four, where they'll find Florida and Virginia.

Both teams are superb teams, and that should become very clear over the next few weekends. Florida will prevail though and win the tournament.

That's what we think, but by Thursday evening it'll all be blown apart.