March Madness: Ranking the remaining teams in the Midwest Region

The Midwest Region had the highest level of pedigree from the coaches in the group. Which future Hall of Famers are left standing? And more importantly, who’s the likeliest to advance to the Final Four?

The “Group of Death” became the Midwest Region, after top-seeded Kansas got the two preseason top teams with them in both Duke and Michigan State. These were three of the initial favorites to win it all, setting up some championship caliber matchups before the Final Four.

But there were other great coaches who had plans themselves to advance, including Jim Boeheim, who once again had a Syracuse team many felt didn’t deserve to even be in the Big Dance. But after taking care of Arizona State and TCU, the Orange’s legendary 2-3 zone claimed another victim, stifling the Spartans to an upset win.

Duke utterly dominated Rhode Island in the Round of 32 to get here, while Kansas had 40 minutes of Hell versus Seton Hall before barely moving on.

The last team in another from the ACC in Clemson, who may have had the most shocking score result in their 84-53 win over Auburn. Brad Brownell came into the season on the hot seat but is now one of only 16 coaches left vying for a national title.

There’s a fair amount of familiarity with these teams, so there won’t be too many surprises. Still, if the first weekend of the 2018 NCAA Tournament has taught us anything, it’s that anything can happen, meaning that neither Kansas or Duke might make it to the last weekend of games.

Here are rankings of the likelihood each team being the last one standing in from the Midwest.