NCAA Bracket Predictions: East Region
Mar 20, 2019, 3:45 PM | Updated: 8:39 pm
Zion Williamson (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
(Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
The NCAA men’s basketball tournament is perhaps the most thrilling, excruciating time on the sports calendar. It’s certainly the time college basketball is its most relevant nationally, and it brings out the expert in everyone as brackets everywhere are filled in and submitted with varying levels of confidence.
I watch maybe 12 minutes of college basketball per year, and convince myself come bracket time that I’ve got this thing nailed. I never do.
So what we’re going to do is pick games and then give some (likely wrong) rationale for each one. Sometimes there’s a real reason for the pick. Other times there’s not. We don’t recommend filling out a bracket based on these selections, but feel free to do so if you need someone to blame.
We’ll start in the East region because that’s where No. 1 overall seed Duke resides.
Round 1
No. 1 Duke vs. No. 16 North Dakota State
It must be weird playing for NDSU or NCCU knowing that your game doesn’t matter because you’re going to get waxed in the first round. We didn’t even need to wait for the play-in game to finish. Duke won’t lose to NDSU. Probably.
Pick: Duke
No. 8 Virginia Commonwealth vs. No. 9 Central Florida
VCU is scorching hot with 12 consecutive wins to close their regular season slate. Being hot in March is better than being cold in March, FYI.
Pick: VCU
No. 5 Mississippi State vs. No. 12 Liberty
Liberty has the 279th-best strength of schedule in the country. Mississippi State’s defense isn’t great, but their offense should be enough to overwhelm the ASUN winners.
Pick: Mississippi State
No. 4 Virginia Tech vs. No. 13 St. Louis
Hokies vs. Billikens in a matchup of two First Team All-Weird mascots. St. Louis finished sixth in the Atlantic 10. That’s all we need to know about them.
Pick: VA. Tech
No. 6 Maryland vs. No. 11 Belmont
Belmont scored nearly 90 points per game. That’s fun. Let’s hope they get hot and swing an upset.
Pick: Belmont
No. 3 LSU vs. No. 14 Yale
LSU’s head coach Will Wade was caught on a wiretap trying to pay players to come play for him. That’s not great! Luckily for the Tigers, neither is Yale.
Pick: LSU
No. 7 Louisville vs. No. 10 Minnesota
Rick Pitino’s son, Richard, is the Golden Gophers’ head coach. It’d be neat if they knocked out the Cardinals.
Pick: Minnesota
No. 2 Michigan State vs. No. 15 Bradley
There’s not a lot of rules to picking brackets. One of them is to never sleep on Tom Izzo.
Pick: Michigan State
Round 2
No. 1 Duke vs. No. 2 VCU
Duke has Zion Williamson. VCU does not.
Pick: Zio-, er, Duke
No. 4 Virginia Tech vs. No. 5 Mississippi State
The Bulldogs went 1-5 against Top 25 teams this season. Virginia Tech is a top-25 team. Ipso facto, they win. Science.
Pick: VA. Tech
No. 3 LSU vs. No. 11 Belmont
It feels like the Wade story is one of those things that carries a team through to the tournament, where a talented group of players looks at one another and decides they’re going to go win some games to prove a point.
Pick: LSU
No. 2 Michigan State vs. No. 10 Minnesota
Remember the earlier rule about Tom Izzo? Yeah, it still applies.
Pick: Michigan State
Sweet 16
No. 1 Duke vs. No. 4 VA. Tech
Duke’s inability to shoot threes may come back to bite them eventually, but it won’t be against ACC foe Virginia Tech, who Duke lost to in their only meeting this season. It should be noted Williamson did not play in that one.
Pick: Duke
No. 2 Michigan State vs. No. 3 LSU
LSU might actually have more talent, but if they’re missing a head coach, this is the kind of game where Michigan State rolls.
Pick: Michigan State
Elite 8
No. 1 Duke vs. No. 2 Michigan State
Chalk is boring, but we’re here. These are the two best teams by a wide enough margin that they should be upset-proof. As enticing as it is to take the Spartans in this one, Duke’s talent (read: Zion) is just too overwhelming to pick against.
Pick: Duke
