NCAA Tournament East Region

This year’s NCAA Tournament East Region is full of former Cinderellas that have outgrown their slippers as overlooked mid-major sleepers. Butler went to back-to-back National Championship games in 2010-11, Davidson made an Elite Eight run in 2008 with Steph Curry, and Bucknell won opening round games back-to-back in 2005-06 (upsetting Kansas and Arkansas, respectively). These picks, however aren’t as sexy as they once were (think Lindsay Lohan circa Mean Girls vs. Lindsay Lohan now). Davidson hasn’t beaten a ranked team all year, Bucknell hasn’t either (though they came close at Mizzou), and  Montana (Big Sky Champs) haven’t even played a ranked team all year. Butler is the best of the bunch if you want to look at team seeded 5^th or higher, capable of beating most anyone, but I don’t see them beating Marquette after winning their opener. If you are looking for a sleeper in this field to knock off a top seed I would take the winner of the Colorado/Illinois game to knock off Miami. Both have beaten some really good competition, and I predict that one of them will be the demise of a very good Miami team.

UNLV/Cal. will be a fun game to watch as they played to a one-point game back in December, but neither of them can topple the mighty Orangemen in the second round. I will take Syracuse to beat Indiana in the sweet sixteen with the surly vet Coach Jim Boehiem putting a paternal punishment to the proverbial backside of former Big East foe Tom Crean. I like ‘Cuse freshman Michael Carter-Williams to take charge late in this game; MCW is for the Orange what MKG was to the Cats a year ago. Syracuse will meet up with Crean’s former team and ACC rival, Marquette, in the elite eight. Syracuse and Boeheim will emerge to represent the East Region in this year’s Final Four, and I think it only fitting that in the last year of a powerhouse Big East Conference, perennial conference powerhouse, Syracuse, will be reppin’ the East.