The Midwest is absolutely loaded.
The Region Of Death, if you will.
The Kansas Jayhawks will be right at home in Wichita for the first round of the NCAA tournament as the No. 1 seed in the Midwest. They will be hosting Penn, the Ivy League champs, in the first round of the tournament, and if they can get past the Quakers, it will be the winner of Seton Hall and N.C. State in the 8-9 game that gets the next crack at upsetting Bill Self’s Jayhawks.
Duke is the No. 2 seed in the Midwest, drawing Iona first round of the tournament before they would advance to take on Rhode Island or, potentially, No. 10 seed Oklahoma and Trae Young in a battle of the most hated team and player in the Big Dance.
That would be a fun matchup if it were to happen. URI is good, so don’t count them out.
Oh, we’re not done yet as the No. 3 seed in the Midwest is Michigan State, who was a trendy pick to win the national title back in November. They still may be the best team in the country, and Tom Izzo is coming off of two weeks to figure out what was ailing his team. The Spartans get to face off with Bucknell in the first round, and then they would advance to take on either TCU or the winner of the play-in game, Arizona State and Syracuse.
INSTANT ANALYSIS: East | South | Midwest | West
The bottom half of Kansas’ side of the Midwest region is interesting, as both No. 4 seed Auburn and No. 5 seed Clemson have lost key players to injuries and will be facing off with mid-major programs that are talented enough to pull off an upset. Clemson gets No. 12 seed New Mexico State out in San Diego while Auburn faces off with No. 13 Charleston.
