MIDWEST REGION BREAKDOWN

#1 KANSAS JAYHAWKS

Many experts are saying KU is more like a 3 seed than 1, which is just bonkers. When a team wins the regular season title and conference tourney title of the toughest conference in the nation deserves a 1 seed! Can I get a Rock Chalk!?!?! KU has Devonte Graham at guard. Svi’s gonna have to be a consistent scorer. And the Bigs gotta stay healthy and outta foul trouble. Mitch Lightfoot has grabbed the attention of the Insanity Report Staff.

#2 DUKE BLUE DEVILS

By far the most talented team in the nation. Period. But high highschool rankings does no good in the madness. Duke had down right atrocious defense early in the season with their bigs having absolute tunnel vision on the helpside to go with slow reaction time on the helpside defending the dribble penetration. The guards couldn’t contain dribble penetration, which forced Coach K to run zone the entire game now. This bolted Duke up to #7 ranked in the nation defensively. Kudos for this quick turnaround, but despite this tactical adjustment, the defensive weakness of each player will likely get exposed. Marvin Bagley is just so dominant on offense that he can cover many Duke defensive deficiencies.

#3 MICHIGAN STATE SPARTANS

Izzo man!!! Sparty has boat loads of depth in the front court. Miles Bridges has to step up even more as a primary scorer hitting the opportune open jumper that won’t come too often. The x-factor is with PG Cassius Winston. He was a liability on the court with bad decisions that didn’t lead to personal turnover stats for himself, but many non scoring possessions. He’s improved drastically and leave it to Izzo to hide a weakness while highlighting a strength in Winston’s length on D getting many deflections and steals for transition opportunities. If Cassius has good decision-making then Sparty goes deep into the Madness

#4 AUBURN TIGERS

Bruce Pearl has down right over achieved with loss of players from the FBI investigation and the whole shadow from it all. Have they peaked? Pearl is not historically a 2^nd weekend coach in the Madness.

#5 CLEMSON TIGERS

Limping in with too many injuries

#6 TCU HORNED FROGS

Jamie Dixon has turned this program around, but they too have injuries with huge loss of Jaylen Fisher back in January. He’s not a game changer but they lacked depth with Fisher.

#7 RHODE ISLAND RAMS

D$ says A10 is trash. I tend to agree

#8 SETON HALL PIRATES

Senior laden team that many say don’t sleep on Angel Delgado as one of the top rebounders in the nation and a bonafide NBA draft pick. This has been said for past 3 seasons now and what does Seton Hall have to show for it? Another first weekend exit most likely

#9 NC STATE WOLFPACK

Amazing turnaround by Kevin Keatts in his first season at the helm. There’s some glaring weakness on the metrics but NC State are gamers! 7-0 Center Omer Yurtseven will burst on the scene. He’s a 50% 3 point shooter than can bang in the paint. Omer, remember that name!

#10  OKLAHOMA SOONERS

Shouldn’t be in the tourney. Period. There’s no justification for this other than the ratings to be had for watching Trae Young. That’s the only reason for the at-large berth, and it makes complete financial sense, just not basketball sense.

#11 SYRACUSE ORANGEMEN

Terry McKaig is licking his chops for the ‘Cuse! They have their regular 2-3 zone that gives teams fits. ACC teams have caught up to it, but will TCU?

#12 NEW MEXICO STATE AGGIES

Chris Jans has improved the Aggies since the departure of Chris Beard to Texas Tech and that was some huge shoes to fill. This is a great pick for the 12-5 upset

#13 CHARLESTON

Got nothing.

#14 BUCKNELL

Some experts are saying they are a live dog, but against Izzo and Sparty? Nah, Izzo won’t let another upset like Middle Tennessee State happen again. Bucknell, buck off says Carlton!

#15 IONA

A MAAC regular in the tourney. They have an up tempo offense that could give Duke fits. But an outright win? Nah.

#16 PENN QUAKERS

This is an odd seeding for an Ivy League Champion that usually has solid rebounding in the front court and high basketball IQ guards which Penn has. They could be the first 16 seed to win a game, but Bill Self won’t let that happen.

EAST REGION BREAKDOWN

Oh boy, this region may be the Anarchy Bracket Busting Bracket!!!

#1 VILLANOVA WILDCATS

Other than Virginia, Nova has been the 2^nd most consistenct team in the nation with the most complete team in the nation led by Outhet Player of the Year candifate, Jalen Brunson. Nova can bang in the post and shoot from downtown with the versatility of RS Fr. Post Omari Spellman. Mikal Bridges has NBA-draft pick written all over him. Donte DiVincenzo comes off the bench and spot starts with a high assist total. Head Coach Jay Wright has the next highest organized team in the country next to Michigan’s John Beilein. Tough on both sides of court. Yet they didn’t win the regular season Big East title. They still aren’t Madness proof, but nobody is other than D$’s degenerate hashtags.

#2 PURDUE BOILERMAKERS

These guys wre a top 5 team all season. They rolled over a Big Ten conference that was top heavy and not as strong as years past. 7-1 man-child post Isaac Haas is a beast in the post, but he is susceptible to shot altering double teams. The Edward-zz-ezz in Carson and Vince are solid with Cah-harsen manning the point. Matt Painter has the Boilermakers run and solid defense, but Purdue lives and dies by the three a little too much for my liking. Flip a coin on their deep run into the Madness or early exit.

#3 TEXAS TECH RED RAIDERS

These guys had a 2 game lead in the Big 12 late in the season that would have ended KU’s 13 year Big 12 regular championship run and what do they do? They lose 4 of their last 5 games. Coming into the season, columnist Jon Rothstein said that Texas Tech may have the most talented team in the nation. They are chalk full of raw talent and Chris Beard is transforming Texas Tech into a legit powerhouse. But slight injuries to top player Keenan Evans and peaking a tad too early gives T Tech a possible early exit from the Madness.

#4 WICHITA STATE SHOCKERS

They bring back close to everyone back from last years solid Madness team. PG Landry Shamet was the best PG in the tourney last year, but he hasn’t parlayed this to being a top PG this season with some turnover issues. He’s still gaw damned dangerous though. Big man Marcus McDuffie is back from injury and has had plenty of time to establish his presence on the boards and in the paint. 5^th year Sr G Connor Frankamp is just not a consistent 3-Pt shooter. There I got it off my chest. The love for Frankamp as a good home town boy gives me the heebie jeebies. I felt like we were waiting for Wichita State to make that next step all season to be a bonafide top 8 team, but if never came. Finally, when Insanity Report Coach Correspondent mentions in an Insanity Report meeting that Wichita State looks awful on D and disorganized an is destined for a 1^st or 2^nd round exit, then you look harder at the Shockers

#5 WEST VIRGINIA MOUNTAINEERS

Press Virginia went of with a great start to the season, but hit a speed bump losing 7 out of 11 games. In those few wins, they still managed to beat Oklahoma who lost against everyone it seemed like. Head Coach, Bob “Huggy Bear” Huggins still runs the Press Virginia Full Court Press, but they are actually pretty lowly ranked this year defensively. 40^th ranked is pretty good but not up to Huggy’s usual standards being 4^th and 6^th best in the nation the previous 2 seasons. Sr. PG Jevon Carter is the straw that stirs West Virginia’s drink. Huggy Bear is lacking in the front court with pretty low rebounding metrics. For a team loved so much by many in previous years, West Virginia limping into the Madness could be the formula for their deep run into the Madness.

#6 FLORIDA GATORS

The jeckyl and hyde team of the whole season. They looked like the best team in country at the PK80 toutney in October with their 3 headed monster back court and lunch bucket front court bangin on the boards. After the PK80 tourney final loss to Duke the Gators lost 3 of their 4 games. All of these 5 games, including the Duke game were vs. tourney teams. I’m chalking this up to a PK80 hangover. Then they went on a 5-7 in the middle of the SEC sked. The Gators may be limping into the Madness but they are by far the lowest ranked good team of the Madness. Their capabilities can’t be overlooked.

#7 ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS

A sleeper team that can score in bunches and have defensive streaks. Don’t sleep on these guys. Oh and take the over!

#8 VIRGINIA TECH HOKIES

These guys are kinda limping into the Madness, but still have a recent home win vs. Duke. Buzz Williams has rebuilt this team to a regular Madness team in just a few seasons. Watch out for possible break out tourney for super frosh Nickeil Alexander-Walker to explode onto the national scene

#9 ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE

They have the necessary ingredient of to go deep with a top level PG in Freshman Collin Sexton

#10 BUTER BULLDOGS

I’m not feeling the Bulldogs with their first year Head Coach, but many metrics have Butler rated pretty high. Bracket buster?

#11 ST. BONAVENTURE BONNIES

Anyone see their play-in game vs. UCLA??? Nobody wanted to win that game. Not great shot selection and the defense was non-existent. So this is an obvious recipe for a Sweet 16 run!!! #Madness

#12  MURRAY STATE

Know nothing of these guys.

#13 MARSHALL

Best team of a decimated Conference USA that is a low major conference now. Lowwwwww, like get that base into your voice low!!!

#14 STEPHEN F. AUSTIN

People wanna take SFA, but Coach Underwood and his great 4-high sets (AKA Motion and Thumbs) are gone. Let it go Insanity Inmates, Let it go!

#15 CS FULLERTON

Big West Conference? It’s a surfing powerhouse and not hoops.

#16 RADFORD

Enter in Robert Radford pun. They are not the “Natural” and would need “All the Presidents Men” to get within 15 points of Villanova

WEST REGION BREAKDOWN

Gonzaga vs Florida at the PK80 earlier this season in arguably the best game of the season

#1 XAVIER MUSKATEERS

Xavier has a great coach in Chris Mack who is always rumored to get the next huge Power 5 program opening yet he is not taking these openings as he is building Xavier into a powerhouse. The Muskateers return a lot of experience led by Sr. Wing Trevon Bluitt who does it all in scoring, hitting a high volume of treys, and rebounding while taking care of the ball. He hits the bulk of the team’s three pointers however, so if he’s cold then Sr. G JP Macura will need to make up for those misses. JP is a nasty 6-5 guard that plays hard and plays pesty. He is the captain of the All Connor Lewis Team, as a leader of the Muskateers where his teammates love playing with him and moreso are relieved he’s on their team, while opponents hate him. Like hate him! That’s valuable!!! Xavier has an extremely underrated in PG Quintin Goodin who distributes the ball well while limiting turnovers. He’ll have to step up his production of 8.8 ppg in the Madness though. Xavier is picked by many as the weakest #1 seed in the tourney with a solid road record that is peppered with lower ranked Big East teams. Xavier will rely on their vets and the March Madness experience of the these vets.  They’ll have to as this West Region is the All-Veteran Region.

#2 NORTH CAROLINA TAR HEELS

Talk about March Madness experience! The Tar Heels have Sr. PG Joel Berry and Jr. F Luke Maye and Sr. Wing Theo Pinson who just have 2 national finals and one National Championships under their belts. No biggy. Joel Berry will lead the pack, and as Insanity Report Dean of Correspondents, J-Dawg mentioned many times this season, that UNC should just put Maye and Berry in constant screen-and-roll action every possession ala Stockton and Malone. In the past couple weeks, they haven’t really done this so expect this screen-and-roll to be unleashed. The biggest glaring weakness is the youth and inexperience of their freshmen posts in Sterling Manley, Brandon Huffman and Garrison Brooks. In a UNC system that relies heavily on the size and presence of their posts, the Tar Heels may be exposed on certain post match ups on the blocks and on the boards. Pitt Transfer, Cameron Johnson can shoot the trey well as a tall 6-8 wing. One of the best x-factors in the nation is Theo Pinson with his quickness and hustle on both sides of the ball getting clutch steals and clutch boards while constantly having the toughest defensive assignments every game. If it’s Madness experience you value, then your bracket may very well be writing UNC down 4,5, maybe 6 times.

#3 MICHIGAN WOLVERINES

Michigan has arguably the best and most organized coach in the nation in John Beilein. He is applauded often by Insanity Report Coaching Correspondant, J-Dawg through the defensive principles he teaches extremely well to his players. Michigan had a solid run in last year’s Madness losing in the Sweet 16 to a veteran team in Oregon. Like last year as well, Michigan progressed all season long leading to a Big Ten tourney title. Michigan has solid talent in their sophomores with PG Xavier Simpson (and watch his odd free throw routine during the Madness), Kentucky transfer SG Charles Mathews and G Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman. The bulk of the scoring and rebounding is done through Jr. F Mo Wagner who can bang in the paint ala Ryan “Turpentine” Paulsen yet he can play away from the hoop making him a great NBA prospect. Michigan is indeed peaking at the right time, but there are questions of depth and of their long rest from the Big Ten Tourney being played a week early giving Michigan close to a 2 week break. Will this break help Michigan or stagnate their momentum?

#4 GONZAGA BULLDOGS

Come on Tourney Committee. I’ll never understand how the Zags get a 4-seed while they are 6^th in the last AP Poll and ranked 8^th in the kenpom.com rankings!!! Coach Mark Few always has the Zags super organized offering one of the best team defenses in the nation. That is there is no one true lockdown defender but rather great game planning in deflating their opponent’s leading scorers from all 5 guys on the court. There is considerable size in 6-11 Soph. F Killian “Tilly Tilly” Tillie, 6-9 Sr. Johnathan Williams and 6-8 Soph. Rui Hachimura. Their length, speed and mobility gives other front courts fits, especially when Tillie Tillie goes 13-14 from three point land in the WCC Tourney. The determining factor for Zags to make another Final 4 run rests solely on the play of PG Josh Perkins. When he’s on, he pushes the pace in transition and hits dagger jumpers. When he’s off he is very unnoticeable. Perkins is a gamer and he will be primed for a solid Madness. Also don’t sleep on Gonzaga’s bench and especially don’t sleep on Mark Few’s experience from last year’s National Final run. There are few coaches that prepare their teams as well as Few. Want a darkhorse Final 4 pick? Look no further than the Zags.

#5 OHIO STATE BUCKEYES

Ohio State was looked upon to have a Big Ten basement-dwelling rebuilding year under new coach, Chris Holtmann who came from Butler relieving long time coach, Thad Matta who had 9 players leave the program; Most of whom were players in the last 2 froshie classes. Hence, the prognostication of a long year of character building losses. What occurred were character building wins in the Big Ten as the remaining players were highly ranked Sr class players in RS Jr. F Keita Bates-Diop and Sr. F Jae’Sean Tate. Diop had many experts calling for National Player of the Year votes. That’s a little much, but Diop did it all in peppering all aspects of the stat sheet while being a wily leader for the Buckeyes, especially for Freshman F Kaleb Wesson. The backcourt is a bunch of rag tag grinders in Juco transfer, CJ Jackson and former walk-on Grad transfer Andrew Dakich. Man, how can anybody not love the season that OSU had?!? They showed grit all season highlighted by a very tight win at Purdue. OSU must improve their average shooting from downtown and the guards must continue to over achieve or else they will get dominated like they did in their non-conference schedule with a 27 point loss to Gonzaga in the PK80 tourney. 

#6 HOUSTON COUGARS

Houston is a very sexy pick to go further in the Madness with the high scoring and assist man and All-Man Bun player, Rob Gray Sr. He shares the passing duties with fellow G Galen Robinson Jr. There isn’t much else in the front court other than Indiana transfer in Sr. Devin Davis. Head Coach Calvin Sampson has Houston playing an entertaining efficient 3-pt shooting game. They have depth off the bench, but will likely shorten the bench allowing Rob Gray Jr. to carry them to what they’re hoping is a trip to the second weekend of the Madness.

#7 TEXAS A&M AGGIES

Texas has a disappointing season period. They started off the season with a season opening convincing win vs. Huggy Bear and the West Virginia Mountaineers, but have since floundered. Grad Transfer PG Duane Wilson was lost for the season after trying to play on a partially torn ACL. His knee buckled too many times leading him to not play. Also 3 regular players were suspended at various points of the season for violating team rules so the tip of the iceberg on the surface may have had plenty of dissension underneath the surface. It didn’t help that the 0-5 SEC start for A&M had 4 of those 5 games vs. Alabama, Florida, Tennessee and Kentucky. 3 of these 4 opponents were road games too. Ouchy! But the Aggies didn’t rebound well with a bad road record all season long. There just seems no mofo coming outta College Station, which is odd with this lineup comprised primarily full of Top 100 talent and a 29^th place overall ranking on kenpom.com.

#8 MISSOURI TIGERS

Mizzou has had one of the biggest turnarounds of any team in the nation with the influx of new talent as well as a new coach in Cuonzo Martin. Martin had somewhat disappointing stints in Cal and Tennessee due to mediocre results with highly ranked recruiting classes in most of those years at those 2 schools. This was helped rastically when #1 rated recruit, 6-10 Michael Porter Jr. signed from his original commitment of Washington. But Oops, Porter was limited to only 2 minutes of playing time due to a disc herniation injury. He came back for their lone SEC Tourney game losing to Georgia showing some obvious court rust. A huge contributor was fellow froshie in Michael’s brother, Jontay Porter. This typical coin-flipper 8 seed vs. 9 seed match up will hinder on the effectiveness of the returning Michael Porter Jr and how well he can mesh with the other players.

#9 FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES

There are metrics that can validate the at-large bid for Florida State. These metrics are predicated on the strong ranking of the ACC. The ‘Noles had a great 12-2 start to their season only to finish 9-9 in the ACC with an atrocious 2-7 road record. FSU returned an average lineup this year with the loss of 2 NBA draft picks from the year before. This average lineup was infused with the signing of McD All-American MJ Walker who was slated to be an instant contributor, but he came off the bench all season long with very average stats. Missouri has the most upside on this matchup.

#10 PROVIDENCE FRIARS

The Friars return the bulk of their line up that were rebuilding last year after the loss of 2 NBA draftees 2 years ago. This line is led by Sr. F Rodney Bullock and Sr. PG Kyron Cartwright. Head Coach Ed Cooley, play the long game in developing his recruits giving the regular but cyclical success of the program. Providence seems more together than the somewhat disarrayed Texas A&M Aggies. To get the win, they will need to shoot the 3 better than their pedestrian 3-pt shooting percentages. Providence is the lowest ranked at-large team in kenpom.com, so they have that going against them.

#11 SAN DIEGO STATE AZTECS

This is a sexy pick with the recent run the Aztecs have made in the Mountain West. They have a new coach in Brian Butcher who was an assistant coach under Steve Fisher for over 2 decades at SDSU and Michigan going as far back as the Fab Five days. Big name guys have left the SDSU program, but C Malik Pope is still with the Aztecs.

#12 SOUTH DAKOTA STATE JACKRABBITS

This is the 3^rd straight March Madness for the Jackrabbits. So the vets on this team has experience in the show led by RS Jr. Mike Daum and his 23.8 ppg, 10.4 rpg and gawdy 42% 3PT%!!!! Then they travelled to Kansas to get pummeled by 34 and then a couple weeks later travelled to Wichita State to only lose by 10 points. In their non conference schedule is also a win vs. tourney team, Buffalo. It’s like they’ve been preparing for a Madness moment all season and for 3 years. This team is a sexy 12-seed upset pick and rightfully so.

#13 UNC GREENSBORO SPARTANS

UNC Greensboro came into this season seen as an upper enchelon mid-major team and proved it with their SoCon Conference championship after their NIT berth last year. All I’ve heard about these guys is their solid nationally ranked defense. Gonzaga’s is better.

#14 MONTANA GRIZZLIES

RS Jr G Ahmaad Rorie is the main scorer for the Grizzlies, but like the Vancouver Grizzlies of yesteryear, there isn’t much of a shot for these Montana Grizzlies. The Big Sky conference has historically been a bottom feeder conference. This year it’s in the middle of the pack with a kenpom.com ranking of 17^th best conference out of 32, but still.

#15 LIPSCOMB BISONS

Know nothing of these guys other than they beat dunk city in Florida Gulf Coast in the Atlantic Sun Conference tourney for the programs first ever March Madness berth. Congratulations, you play UNC who is their 456^th Madness.

#16 TEXAS SOUTHERN TIGERS

I must make a correction. I said that UMBC was the lowest ranked team in the nation at 189^th in kenpom.com. Nope, that distinction belongs to Texas Southern at 243^rd ranked. They are so far behind UMBC that I assumed nothing was behind UMBC’s ranking on the computer screen. Former Indiana Head Coach, Mike Davis is still at the helm at Texas Southern as he brings them back to the Dance for the 5^th straight season. They also had a murderers row of opponents in their non-conference going 0-13 to start the year ALL on the road at the likes of Gonzaga, Wazoo, Ohio State, Syracuse, Kansas, Clemson, Oakland, Oregon, Oregon, Baylor, TCU and BYU!!! Wow!!! 6 of those teams are in this years Madness. They have the #1 strength of schedule by far, but still won the lowest conference. Their experience playing on the road may help them possible cover the spread vs. Xavier, but that’s it. Could this be the resume of the first ever 16-seed beating a 1 seed??? Naahhhh. Could it????.....