East Bracket

We are now heading East. If this isn't the toughest bracket, it is certainly loaded with teams that found the place in the top half of the AP Polls most of the season, which include 6-seeded UCLA, 7-seeded Texas, 9-seeded Tennessee, and 12-seeded Wisconsin. Let's find out where I am going with my East predictions.

My East Bracket

1) Pittsburgh vs. 16) East Tenn St

8) Oklahoma St vs. 9) Tennessee

5) Florida State vs. 12) Wisconsin

4) Xavier vs. 13) Portland State

6) UCLA vs. 11) VCU

3) Villanova vs. 14) American

7) Texas vs. 10) Minnesota

2) Duke vs. 15) Binghamton

The first thing that jumps out to me in the East bracket is the balance in power conferences throughout the bracket. I knew heading into selection Sunday that Duke was going to be the 2 seed in Pittsburgh's bracket, but I didn't realize how many great programs will be along with them. Like I said earlier, the bracket is loaded with teams that were "suppose" to have a great season and found themselves early and often on the AP Polls. For this reason, I can not find a single Cinderella team among all these teams, unless of course you want to call the Texas Longhorns a surprise team. Two first round games really jump out to me in the opening round, the first of course are the contrasting styles of the 8-9 game between Oklahoma St and Tennessee, and the 6-11 match up between UCLA and VCU. I have tried hard for the past two seasons defending Bruce Pearl and the Volunteers of Tennessee but I am done. The reason for them not being a successful team is the lack of discipline found on the basketball court. Fouling on the perimeter, poor shot selection, and their team chemistry needs to change or they will never win. For that I am going with the Cowboys. In the other game that I love, Darren Collison and the Bruins try to make it to a 4th consecutive Final Four while Eric Maynor and the Rams look to rekindle a spark that saw them defeat a Duke team in the 6-11 match up then almost defeating a very good Pitt team back in the 2007 tournament. Maynor has shown a lot more maturity over the past few years and I think that he will keep his Rams team in the tournament for another day come Thursday night. Other then them I really can't find a Cinderella in the bunch, I do like Portland State but not against Xavier. In the second round games they all look very, very dangerous. All 4 top seeds could find themselves on the next flight out at the end of the game. But I am going to stay positive. I like all the higher seeds to advance except for the Xavier when they face Florida State. The Seminoles are riding a high wave and have been the most impressive team to me over the last 3 weeks. So in the Elite Eight I really have no surprises, it's a Big East/ACC showdown. The East bracket is a real test to just how well the Big East is going to fair in this tournament and with much debate I am going to stick with their teams...but I am not very confident about it especially having followed and been very impressed with the play of the ACC all season. I have loved the play though of both the Pitt Panthers and Nova Wildcats all year and instead of picking one or the other I am going to go with both of them to face each other in the Big East Elite Eight match up. So the drought for a Big East team making the Final Four will stop this season. My heart would love to see Jay Wright fighting in the Final Four for a National Championship, but I have to stick to my guns and go with the veteran bunch of the Pitt Panthers to finally have a good NCAA tournament and get coach Jamie Dixon to a place where he can finally get some respect as a great NCAA coach.