4 Regions in 4 Days!

Yesterday I did the Midwest, now today I am going to do the West region.

This is the region that has Connecticut as the top seed. There was some debate as to who should get the 4th number 1 seed and most people thought it was going to come down to Connecticut or Memphis. Well, Connecticut got it but Memphis will get the chance to prove they deserved being that they are the two seed in this region.

In the opening round out west we have:

Connecticut against Chattanooga in the 1 vs. 16 matchup. The noogs or the chats or whatever their nickname is won't be the first number 16 seed to win.

In the 8/9 game we have BYU and Texas A&M. BYU is a solid team that not many people know much about. A&M played well down the stretch to put themselves into the conversation and then comfortably in the field despite a bad loss to Texas Tech in the Big 12 tournament. This is going to be a very good game and you should definitely make sure you see this one.

Purdue and Northern Iowa is a very interesting 5/12 matchup. I personally love this Purdue team and I thought a 12 for Northern Iowa was a little high. A 12 always beats a 5 though and this may be the one. I will be very surprised if it is though.

Washington comes in as a 4 seed and for their efforts they get to play a red-hot Mississippi State team with potentially the best single defender in the nation. I think Miss. State deserved a better seed but I'm not on the committee. I really don't know how good Washington really is. I know Brockman is a stud but with Varnardo on the other side, how much damage will he really do. This is going to be a good one as well.

Marquette without Dominic James just isn't the same. Utah State has already won 30 games. That's second most to Memphis so far this season. This is probably going to be a serious upset special for a lot of people but don't count out Marquette yet. They still have McNeal and they still are a very solid team. This is a really tough game to pick.

Missouri is coming off the Big 12 tourney championship and Cornell didn't even play in a conference tournament. I don't think this game is going to be close. Missouri is a good team and a team you should really watch out for.

California and Maryland may be the most intriguing matchup of the entire first round. Maryland may have gotten in solely on big wins. The win against Wake wrapped it up. Vasquez is the key for the Terps and but for Cal a solid performance may be all that is needed if the good Terps don't show up. Another incredibly hard game to pick.

Like I said above, Memphis is the 2 seed in this region and will have no problems with whoever they play. I said it like that because I honestly didn't know and really thought about if it was worth putting the effort into moving the mouse to check. I guess it was. Northridge is the victim in the first round but don't be surprised if Memphis doesn't go a really long way in the tourney.

I have the dream matchup in the regional final. I don't see Memphis or Connecticut losing. When they play each other I have UConn getting the L and Memphis moving onto Detroit.