The Baylor Bracket
My Final Four: 1 Auburn, 1 Florida, 5 Oregon, 3 Kentucky
It’s hard not to believe Auburn can cruise to the Elite 8 whilst having the #1 overall seed. Kentucky can battle and fight. I believe in a lot of their young homegrown talent.
The Oregon Ducks go on a run ALL the way to the national title game. Here’s how. The SEC is inevitable, but the performance by the conference cannot justify every powerhouse making it to the Elite 8. I am also half believing the Top 12 in Week 6 AP Poll streak to carry the Ducks to multiple upsets, like Arizona, then ACC winner Duke, and Alabama and Kentucky.
My Winner: The Florida Gators
Why: The Gators showed in tournament situations with must-win games that they can pull away from top dogs like Alabama and Tennessee. They’ve showed resilience even in their worst loss of the season to Georgia. The only worry I have is that they need to go flawless in the month of March entirely because the Gators went out and played hard day after day to win the SEC tournament.
Sleepers and Miscellaneous:
I might be the highest on High Point, why? Their offensive fire power is unreal, and they can get hot and prove to be last year’s Oakland squad. 25th in offensive rating, but a ridiculously low defensive rating 227th in defense.
Yale is going to clinch another first round win to make the Ivy League an impressive conference that sticks a thorn in the side of any power conference opponent. They did it last year to Auburn, which just so happened to clinch the #1 overall seed in this year’s tournament.
Clemson dazzles again by taking down the Houston Cougars in the Sweet 16 and are getting into the Elite 8 for a consecutive season.
Marquette and Shaka Smart will send Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans home to East Lansing. I’m banking on the recent misfortune for the Spartans in the tournament.
Drake to the Sweet 16! After all the turnover from last season to this season, they’re back like they never left. And this year they will find success, and climb over Mizzou and Texas Tech.
