NCAA Tournament South Region Preview

South Region

We will start with the bracket headlined by the defending champ. Florida won it all last season and are looking to repeat. They have are primarily led by a fantastic frontcourt of Rueben Chinyelu (6’10”), Alex Condon (6’11”) and Thomas Haugh (6’9”). But this region may be the one that is the most up in the air.

Vanderbilt is the 5-seed, and they just took down the Gators in the SEC Tournament, winning 91-74. Illinois probably has the best offense in the country and can certainly match Florida’s size. Finally, Houston is the top overall 2-seed, and they are the team that lost to Florida in the national championship game a year ago. The Cougars are maybe not quite as good defensively as they’ve been in recent years, but they have improved on offense.

It is also important to recognize Nebraska as the 4-seed. They began the year 20-0 and have gone 6-6 since. Their recent losses have mostly been to good teams and they seem well-positioned to make a run to the second weekend. A feat never accomplished by the Huskers.

This region is wide open.

Best Mascot

The beauty of the NCAA Tournament is that you get a random assortment of colleges from all over the country and you get exposure to some of the great nicknames of college basketball.

Joe Vandall gets my pick from the South Region as the best mascot.

“The University of Idaho is the only institution of higher education to use the mascot of the Vandal. The nickname exemplifies the spirit of the University in more than just athletics; as University of Idaho Vandals, we are fiercely competitive and independent thinkers and doers.”

Players to Watch

If you watched the Ivy League championship game between Penn and Yale, you were introduced to TJ Power who nailed two threes in the final seconds to send the game into overtime and finished the game with 44 points and 14 rebounds. Power was a Duke commit out of high school and a top-20 player nationally. He spent on year at Duke, one year at Virginia and is now playing for Fran McCaffrey at Penn. He’s fun to watch, and if Penn gets Ethan Roberts back from injury, they are going to make life tough for Illinois in the first round.

Kingston Flemings (Houston) and Keaton Wagler (Illinois) are both going to be top 10 (maybe top five) picks in this summer’s NBA Draft.

Nasir Whitlock is a guard for Lehigh who shoots 44.5% from three (on 173 attempts). Whitlock is from DeLaSalle and after scoring 21 ppg for the Mountain Hawks might be a prime portal candidate for the Gophers (pure speculation).

Potential Upset

#11 VCU over #6 North Carolina

I thoroughly enjoy watching many of the teams in the A10 and VCU was great this year. Phil Martelli Jr is going to be an outstanding coach (or is?) and VCU is dangerous. Their top five leading scorers are all shooting over 35% from three and since early January, they have lost just one game.

North Carolina is a good team but they haven’t quite been the same since they lost their stud freshman point guard, Caleb Williams. This one is ripe for an upset.

Also of note, Nebraska is the only Power 5 team to have never won an NCAA Tournament game. Ever. This is a streak that I would desperately like to see continued. Not because of hate for the Cornhuskers, but for the love of dubious streaks. They are facing the Troy Trojans, who are led by a couple of forwards who have been with the program for three seasons. They made the tournament last year as a 14-seed and they defend the three fairly well. But it is hard for me to see this an upset, no matter how badly we want to see it.

Nasir Whitlock over 2.5 threes made

This would be for their game in Dayton against Prairie View A&M, a team that ranks 251st at defending the three.

Jadrian Tracey over 10 points

UNC doesn’t defend the three very well and I thinkk Tracey sneaks in 12 points.

TJ Power over 15.5 points

This Quaker is on a heater. He won’t hit 40, but I see 16 in his future.

Who wins the South: Houston

I really want to pick Illinois here, but (spoiler) then I would end up with three Big Ten teams in the Final Four. Which feels unlikely.

Houston will exact their revenge on the Gators this year. They’ll dominate the guardplay in this matchup and head to Indianapolis…where they will lose…again.

Intriguing later-round matchups

Houston and Illinois in the Sweet 16 would maybe be the best potential matchup of that round.

KenPom Efficiency Plot

To be used as a guide for your bracket decisions.

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