March Madness: Ranking the remaining teams of the East Region

The top four teams have made it to the Sweet Sixteen, but an injury to a key player has changed things. Is there a clear favorite to come out of the East Region?

There was a ton of carnage throughout the first weekend of the 2018 NCAA Tournament. Upsets were everywhere, including a No. 1 seed finally going down in the Round of 64 in Virginia. In fact, history was also made in that for the first time ever, none of the top four seeds in a region made it to the Sweet Sixteen (South Region).

That’s not the case here, with all the favorites making it to this point. Possibly the overall favorite coming in to win it all Villanova has done nothing to change that, destroying Radford and Alabama to get here. West Virginia has barely had to sweat to get here, while a healthy Texas Tech looks to be a formidable opponent to deal with.

But Purdue is the story here. Particularly the elbow injury to their second-leading scorer Isaac Haas that may leave him out of the rest of the tournament. The 7’2 big man has played a crucial role in the Boilermaker’s success this year, and losing him is a devastating blow at this juncture. They almost lost in the Round of 32 against Butler, before a three-pointer in the final seconds pushed them ahead.

While an argument can be made that any Sweet Sixteen team has proven that they have a shot at a Final Four, the four teams left in this region has shown all season what they’re capable of. Still, some teams have a better shot than others and here’s a list ranking them, from lowest to highest chance at advancing.