Three No. 1 seeds and other contenders gives the spotlight to ACC Basketball in the NCAA Tournament. What are the top questions involving the league?
Welcome to another Busting Brackets roundtable, where several of our writers answers five burning questions for the NCAA Tournament. This article focuses on ACC Basketball and their seven participants. Here are the guys doing this roundtable to discuss these topics.
Trevor Marks – @twmarks_
Jay Anderson – @heregojayagain
Jason Burgess – @collegehoopsguy
Neil Adler – @DAMNTWIN
*Sports Illustrated Realtime Brackets is the first bracket game that lets college basketball fans switch their picks, in exchange for points, between and during live tournament games to keep their brackets alive all month long. Sign up now!
1. Which one seed has the toughest/easiest path to the Final Four?
Jay Anderson
Easiest path: Virginia
It’s ironic to believe that the Virginia Cavaliers would have the easiest path this season, sure. When you look at who they play on paper, though, the only team that really jumps out are the Utah State Aggies, who’ve beaten Nevada, but UVA is no Nevada. Purdue won’t make it past Villanova. Kansas State and Wisconsin don’t exactly jump off the page as competitors. All in all, I think we can expect Virginia in the Final Four.
Toughest path: Duke
The Duke Blue Devils got a No. 1 seed, but the committee certainly took into account how they’ve looked in recent weeks. The challenges await the Blue Devils with each victory. They play the winner of VCU/UCF should they advance in the second round. Then in the Sweet 16, there looms a possibility of facing Virginia Tech or Mississippi State, two solid defensive teams. They will have their challenges ahead but I’m convinced a player not-named Zion Williamson is going to step up.
Trevor Marks
Social media was buzzing on Sunday after Duke’s region was revealed, with the general reaction being that the Blue Devils were gifted the easiest path to the Final Four. Gut reactions aside, I think Duke’s region is tougher than immediately thought, with teams a tough, veteran teams all presenting their own challenges to an inexperienced Duke team.
With said, I’m probably straying from the pack by saying Virginia has the easiest route to the Final Four due to the high potential for upsets below them in their region—it’s possible that they miss both No. 5 Wisconsin and No. 4 Kansas State on their way to the Elite Eight. North Carolina definitely has the toughest road ahead of them, with two Blue Bloods (UK, KU) and a number of red-hot teams (Utah State, Auburn, Houston) filling out the rest of the Midwest. Roy Williams will have his hands full if he wants to make his sixth Final Four with UNC.
Neil Adler
Duke, the No. 1 overall seed in 2019 Big Dance, didn’t get receive any favors from the selection committee when the Blue Devils got placed in the same East Region as the No. 2 seed, Michigan State. Despite the Spartans having to deal with a ton of injuries during the 2018-19 campaign, MSU is playing extremely well of late, and I expect Sparty to advance to the Elite Eight, where it will match up with Duke in an epic regional-final showdown. So the Blue Devils landed the toughest path.
Conversely, the easiest path, by my estimation, belongs to No. 1 seed Virginia in the South Region. Now, just because it’s the easiest path, doesn’t mean that it will prove easy for the Cavaliers to get to the Final Four. First and foremost, we will all watch with anticipation to see how UVA fares after falling prey to a historic upset 12 months ago. There are a handful of defensive-minded squads in this region, such as No. 4 seed Kansas State. The Cavaliers, it goes without saying, are insanely good on defense, but this year’s roster can also score, which makes me confident that Virginia has a terrific opportunity to get to Minneapolis. Plus, the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, Tennessee and Purdue, while both talented, do not scare me away from picking the Cavaliers to triumph in this region.
Jason Burgess
Which one seed has the toughest/easiest path to the Final Four?
I think Duke has the easiest path with Michigan State the No. 2 in their region, but after that LSU is in turmoil and a healthy VT might be their toughest test. The most difficult road has to be Gonzaga. If you look at the No. 2-4 in that region, it’s not crazy to think any of them could make the FF.