My ladies and gentlemen, we have a console!
One of the best times of the year is on us, and selection Sunday gave sports fans and console heads no shortage of material to talk about. Let’s break down some early takeaways from this year’s NCAA tournament by naming a big winner and loser among No. 1 seeds, followed by the worst guy and a dark horse that can do Sweet 16.
Winner: Duke
Maybe Cooper flag can get away with resting its destroyed ankle for another week. By playing in the Eastern Region, Blue Devils has the simplest road on paper – lighter than No. 1 Overall Auburn. Kenpom.com gives them the best odds to reach Elite Eight (69.4%), the last four (52.5%), the title game (35.6%) and the championship itself (22.9%).
After opening to a play-in winner, Duke will get Mississippi State or Baylor in the second round, two teams that sharply fell off in the rear half of the season. I am not worried about a fourth-seeded Arizona who lost six of the last 11 and rely on one of the dirtiest players in the sport in Caleb Love. Did I mention that Duke gets a couple of veritable home games in Raleigh for the first weekend?
Loser: Houston
March 15, 2025; Kansas City, Mo, USA; Houston Cougar’s head coach Kelvin Sampson cuts the net after defeating Arizona Wildcats in the Big 12 Conference Tournament Championship Game at the T-Mobile Center. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images I have been singing cougars’ praise all year, and Kelvin Sampson’s outfit has owned Big 12 during the two years that it has been a member. But unlike in the east, the Midwest region has the most dangerous combination of teams in the 8-9 game: Gonzaga and Georgia. Gonzaga had a quiet season according to his standards but still carries the No. 2 crime in the country, while Georgia has struck by St. John’s, Kentucky and Florida this year.
Come past that round, and Houston is probably staring down Purdue or Clemson, two no-nonsense programs that made the title game and Elite eight last year, with much of their cores back for another go round. Houston has plenty of work to do to prove that it will not crash early in the second weekend, as it did each of the last two years.
SUBBRY: West Virginia
March 12, 2025; Kansas City, Mo, USA; West Virginia Mountaine’s guard Javon Small (7) and Colorado buffalo forward Andrej Jakimovski (23) collides under the basket during the first half in the T-Mobile Center. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images The most unfortunate guy from the field is also the only obvious this year. I think the Committee received 67 out of 68 teams correct, including handing out wounded Indiana at the end of the day.
But on the console matrix, which aggregates and points intals by professional and amateur festologists, projected 111 of 111 consoles West Virginia as in the field before the selection show. This was a team of six quadrant 1 victories (versus North Carolina’s One), high quality victories against Gonzaga, Iowa State and Kansas, decent measurement values and no bad losses. This would not be a bubble team.
Worse is that the committee’s president’s explanation sounded like an excuse. “They had a really good year in total, but since (Tucker Devries) was injured, they went 13-11 and when they beat Iowa State, Iowa State was also short-handed,” Bubba Cunningham said. Honestly, the rock climbers cannot check if their opponents are completely healthy – and Javon Small, not Devries, was their best player.
Dark Horse: Yale
None of the 10 or 11 seeds scream out to me as big cute 16 choices, but down here at No. 13 The seed in the southern region we have an attractive.
Yale threw Auburn in a 4-13 game in March last year, and despite losing 7-feet Danny Wolf to the transfer portal, Bulldogs was even better this season, with the eighth best 3-point percentage in Division I (38.8%). They have won 16 of their last 17 games, boat stops in the Ivy League and pulled Texas A&M in the first round. Here is the open secret of aggies: they often forget how to score and own the worst field goal in Sec.
Should Yale pull off an upset, its second round of opponents could very well be No. 5 Michigan-where Wolf is now playing. I would love to see it. Wolverines just won the Big Ten tournament, but they have constantly surpassed their underlying measurement values, a number of luck that feels safe to end early in the tournament.
