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March Madness is officially here, so let's fill out some winning brackets! RotoBaller will be bringing you a full breakdown on each tournament region, including some potential sleepers and busts. Today we'll be taking a look at the East Region and my bracket picks.
I'm here to tell you some teams that I believe in to help you make the right tournament bracket decisions. Below I analyze the top four seeds, a potential bust, and a potential final four candidate. Hopefully, my college basketball predictions can help you win your March Madness pools. I really like to use Ken Pomeroy's advanced analytics to help determine a champion. Since 2002, each team to win the title except for one, was ranked top-20 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. I'll be putting those numbers in parentheses after each breakdown of the top-four seeds. Now let's get to it.
Once you're done here, be sure to also check out the rest of our NCAA Tournament articles and analysis including previews, predictions, sleepers, busts and guides on how to fill out your including other predictions for the South, Midwest, and West regions.
East Region Top Four Seeds
Top four seeds: No. 1 Michigan | N0. 2 Alabama | No. 3 Texas | No. 4 Florida State
Michigan was the talk of college basketball just three weeks ago after beating Ohio State and Iowa but then a blowout loss at home to Illinois sort of derailed them. They lost to Michigan State a week later before losing to Ohio State in the Big Ten semifinals. It feels like they're undervalued in this tournament. They have shooters and big men. (Ken Pom: #6 offense, #7 defense)
Alabama is off a thrilling SEC tournament win against LSU. Many people watched that game and will fall in love with Bama because of that. That makes them overvalued in my book. (Ken Pom: #34 offense, #2 defense)
Texas finally won their first Big 12 tournament title. They got lucky with Kansas having to pull out of their semifinal game. I've watched the Longhorns several times this year but they don't do it for me. There are games they're up but struggle to put the opponent away. They let the other team hang around too long. They'll win a game or two in the tournament but the trend will come back to haunt them. (Ken Pom: #21 offense, #36 defense)
Florida State looks like an NBA team. They are so big. Their shortest player in the starting lineup is 6'4. They can dominate but like Texas, they have lapses and play too carelessly. There's no reason they should have lost to Georgia Tech in the ACC championship. But they turned it over 25 times. (Ken Pom: #10 offense, #48 defense)
Most Intriguing First Round Matchup
No. 6 BYU vs. No. 11 Michigan State/UCLA
Michigan State and UCLA are in the play-in game Thursday. The Spartans have beaten both Michigan and Illinois during the year. But they have long droughts where it's painful to watch. UCLA is the typical Mick Cronin-coached team. They're very physical, but like Sparty, really struggle to score at times.
How they didn't close it out against Oregon State in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament was shocking. The winner plays BYU and many will count out the Cougars. But BYU is a balanced team that can score and play defense.
Bust of the Region
Alabama. They're one of the hottest teams in the country like I mentioned above. They'll be a wildly popular pick for the Final Four and teams like that usually go out early. In the Second Round, they'd have to face UConn or Maryland. Both teams will slow the game down and make Bama play a halfcourt game, which is not their comfort.
Final Four Pick
Michigan. Like I mentioned above, they're a complete team. They're one of the four teams per Ken Pom's advanced stats that can win the title. I hate to go chalk, but they're undervalued here.
