NCAA Tournament 2019: Strengths and weaknesses of Midwest Region teams
Here is a look at the strengths and weaknesses of the 16 teams hoping to make the Final Four out of the NCAA Tournament Midwest region.
The Midwest Region may be the one that is the most wide open among the four. The top two teams in the region, North Carolina and Kentucky are very strong, but after that, the seed lines become a little blurry.
The three seed is a three-loss Houston team that has been strong all season but failed to beat Cincinnati for the third time in the American Athletic Tournament final. The No. 4 seed is Kansas who saw their run of Big 12 regular-season titles come to an end, but despite all the injuries and turmoil they endured, reached the conference title game. The No. 5 and No. 6 teams, Auburn and Iowa State are coming off highs of winning their conference tournaments and the No. 7 Wofford Terriers have won 20 in a row.
After the top seven, the remaining teams in the region are capable of pulling upsets as well. No. 8 Utah State won the Mountain West and head coach Craig Smith has done one of the best jobs in the country for the 28-6 Aggies. On the famous 5/12 line sits the king of the WAC New Mexico State, all the other Aggies in this region have done is win an average of 26 games over the last three seasons.
With most of the games in this region possible upset specials, teams are going to have to take advantage of the things they do well and do their best to limit their shortcomings, Here is a quick look at those things.