2026 Anonymously Through The Brackets: South Region

Sick of hard-hitting analysis of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament? Up to your eyeballs in expert picks chock-full of astute takes on players to watch and budding upsets?

Fear not, friends: your pals at Anonymous Eagle are here to inject some half-baked, homespun “insight” into the proceedings, with our (mostly) annual region-by-region tour, as we go Anonymously Through the Brackets.

For each region, we’ll give you our patented Anonymous Eagle Half-Arsed Analysis with: a gutless pick to win the region; a sleeper regional champ; a CRUSH YOUR MAN upset special; a player/team we’d pay to watch; a player most likely to carry his team singlehandedly to the Sweet 16; and the best player in the region that you’ve never heard of before.

Let’s head on down south, which in this case is directionally south of the east region on the ol’ bracket sheet…..

GUTLESS WONDER Pick To Win The Region

There are more cowardly and uninteresting picks to win a region elsewhere in this year’s field, but I’ll tell you what: Picking last year’s national champion standing as a #1 seed this year is a tough contender for “you get no credit for picking that team to get to the Final Four.” Yep, there’s Florida, sitting atop the region, waiting for either Prairie View A&M or Lehigh to come out of Dayton to be their first round opponent.

The Gators had a 12 game winning streak snapped in the SEC semifinals, and that winning streak propelled them to win the SEC by three games over Arkansas and Alabama. That’s the “10 bids, most in the tournament” SEC, and Florida won it by a resounding margin after getting off to a 5-2 start. Maybe they don’t repeat as champion — they have non-conference losses to Arizona, Duke and Connecticut, after all — but all we’re doing is taking the cheap way out to pick who can win four games in a row.

CHEX BOLD PARTY MIX Bold Pick To Win The Region

Remember when I said that Florida lost in the SEC semifinals? They lost by 17 points to Vanderbilt, which is the #5 seed in this region. The Commodores are #12 in the KenPom.com rankings and #13 in the NET. Does that sound like a team that might be in a bad mood about getting underseeded in this tournament? Does that sound like a team that’s ready to start kicking ass and taking names to show people how disrespected they are by this seed? Do you think they might be driven to get the Gators in the Sweet 16 and give them the business again?

CRUSH YOUR MAN Upset Special

At some point during Sunday’s selection show, I believe I heard the committee chairman say that VCU is only in the field because they won the Atlantic 10 tournament. That lines up with reason here as they’re a #11 seed. However, they’re facing a North Carolina team that just got bounced in the ACC quarterfinals for a second straight loss. Things have not been peachy keen for UNC head coach Hubert Davis since getting to the national championship game in his first season in charge of the Tar Heels, and KenPom.com has them favored by just three points over the Rams.

Would you like to watch Chapel Hill tear its hair out after Hubert loses to a team that shouldn’t even be in the bracket for a second straight first round exit? I thought you would.

Player I’d Pay To Watch

A freshman leading the #3 seed in the region in scoring and assists while shooting over 40% on threes and launching nearly six of them a game? And he’s arguably a national player of the year candidate?

Yeah, this is Illinois’ Keaton Wagler for sure here. It’s going to be a shock if the 6’6” guard from Kansas is wearing Illini orange past the month of April, so get your watching in while you still can.

The Chiropractor Special: aka Who Can Put The Team On His Back?

I think the way that his team is constructed, not just this year but year over year with their head coach as well, that Houston isn’t going to need Kingston Flemings to back up the F-250 and pile everyone into the back to get them to a Final Four. But the 6’4” freshman from San Antonio is their leading scorer, and he leads them in field goal attempts, and he’s one of the best passers in the country, and he holds up his end of the shooting at 39% from three.

Flemings is also shooting it just a little bit better from long range against Houston’s toughest opponents, and his assist rate and turnover rate both get better when the heat gets turned up a bit. I don’t think they’re going to need him to carry them, but the name of the category is who CAN do it, and he’s my pick in the region.

Best Guy You’ve Never Heard Of

Can a former top 25 prospect fit the bill here?

TJ Power was #20 in the 247 Sports Composite rankings when he showed up at Duke as a freshman, then played 181 minutes in 26 games for the Blue Devils, then left for Virginia, where he played 226 minutes in 24 games last year.

Somehow, he has managed to continue to improve his academic situation, landing at Penn this season. He’s not the leading scorer overall this year, but Ethan Roberts, the guy who is, missed both games of the Ivy League tournament with a concussion. Power was good in the semifinals against Harvard with 16 points and 12 rebounds, but he was RIDICULOUS in the title game against Yale, putting up 44 points, 14 rebounds, two assists, a block, and a steal. He’s the #2 guy in the Ivy’s KenPom player of the year rankings, and a 45% three-point shooter. The Quakers are going to need him to stay hot to have a chance against Illinois’ firepower, but it’s a heck of a story at the very least.

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