March Madness Mulligan: redoing picks for Sweet Sixteen
By Ryan Darcy
SOUTH REGION
Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports
Who I Picked: 1-seed Florida Gators, 4-seed UCLA Bruins, 3-seed Syracuse Orange, 7-seed New Mexico Lobos. The Gators are the best team in the nation, the Bruins were carrying over Pac 12 tourney momentum, the Orange were due to snap out of it, and the Lobos’ talented front court is too good.
Who Is Actually Left: In the top half of the bracket, it’s the Gators taking on the Bruins. After letting 16-seed Albany hang around for way too long in the second round, the Gators were much more dominant in their 61-45 dismantling of 9-seed Pittsburgh in the third round. For the Bruins, they handled 13-seed Tulsa before ending 12-seed Stephen F. Austin’s 29-game winning streak in the third round with a convincing 77-60 victory.
In the bottom half of the bracket, it’s everyone’s favorite underdog, the 11-seed Dayton Flyers against a 10-seed Stanford Cardinal. The Flyers took out an in-state rival in 6-seed Ohio State before crushing the Orange in the third round. The Cardinal just disposed of 2-seed Kansas after its upset win over New Mexico. It’s highly unlikely you saw this matchup coming — only 4.1 percent and 3.9 percent of ESPN brackets had Stanford and Dayton, respectively, winning in the round of 32.
Who I picked to reach Elite Eight: Florida, Syracuse
Mulligan pick to reach Elite Eight: Florida, Stanford