NCAA Basketball: Busting Brackets Bracketology
By Doug Winkey
12 Seeds: UCLA, Monmouth, San Diego State, South Dakota State
UCLA has been a major headache this year. They’ve beaten Kentucky, Arizona, and Oregon State, but have a couple strange losses to Wake Forest and Washington State. Both of those teams are near the bottom of their respective conferences. The team has huge potential with Bryce Alford, Tony Park, and Thomas Welsh, but definitely needs another good win or two and a solid Pac tournament run to be a sure thing.
UCLA Bruins
Monmouth leads the MAAC by one full game. They have two great wins against Notre Dame and USC, but a poor loss to Army. They have a super guard in Justin Robinson who averages 20.8 points, 3.6 assists, and 2.1 steals. If they lose the conference tournament, they could still get in as an at-large because of their nonconference resume.
San Diego State looks to represent the Mountain West yet again with their stifling defense. The Aztecs best win came against California in November, but lost to RPI 288 San Diego just a week later in San Diego. Defense can take a team far in March, but SD State does pretty poorly on offense to take advantage.
South Dakota State is currently the leader from the Summit League, but the Jackrabbits are locked in a four-way tie with IPFW, Omaha, and IUPUI with seven games left in the regular season. This is among the most competitive mid-major bids up for grabs. If SDST doesn’t come away with it, watchout for the high scoring Omaha Mavericks.
Next: 11 Seeds