Almost home! At least for me. Rest assured that I'm putting just as much thought into the West division as I am any other division (read: none at all).
1st Round Outs
(16s) Niagara / Florida A&M, (15) Weber State, (14) Wright State, (13) Holy Cross, (12) Illinois
Really, I'm just picking on the States here. And trying to piss off Simmons, even though we're using a very similar format for this. I should note that I did try to write semi-extensive team capsules, then stopped after doing 1 because:
1 - they were taking about an hour, at least
2 - there are at least equal ones online
I don't feel too broken up about it. Also, Illinois would've taken the Last Major Conference Team In title were it not for Arkansas. Stupid Arkansas.
(8) Kentucky, (7) Indiana, (6) Duke
Don't call it an upset. Or upsets, whatever. Kentucky hasn't been doing anything all season, Gonzaga's good for a win if they're below a 7 seed, and Duke may be the schauenfreude winner of the tourney.
2nd Round Outs
(11) VCU, (10) Gonzaga, (9) Villanova
Weeding out the chaff here - although the Zags will certainly keep it close against UCLA. I think.
(4) Southern Illinois
Losing just to make sure that no region gets all their top seeds through to the Sweet 16.
Sweet 16 Outs
(5) Virginia Tech, (3) Pitt
Pitt was probably slightly overseeded, but they got here because they had to beat Wright State and VCU. Whoopee. Tech just goes down to a better team.
Just Missing the Final Four
(1) Kansas
This will be a minor shocker, I think, but I also think Kansas may be more tired than UCLA at this point. I love having conclusive, hard evidence that points to a Final Four participant, don't you?
Honestly, since it's not like anyone else has any real ideas on how to pick F4 contestants, I'm just trying winging it.
Out of the West: (2) UCLA
