NCAA Tournament 2019: Duke, UNC and Virginia viewed as favorites to win it all
Who’s the favorite to get out of their regions in the NCAA Tournament? Our staff comes together and makes their selections.
The NCAA Tournament is finally upon us! Here at Busting Brackets we plan on covering just about every aspect of the Big Dance from start to finish. But before the first tip-off of the Round of 64 games, let’s see how everyone “thinks” this year’s event is going to end up.
Compiled by 28 different writers on our staff, here are the results we think is most likely to happen.
*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!
South Region favorite – Virginia
Despite losing in the epic upset to UMBC a year ago, the Cavaliers was voted as most likely to succeed from this region. With a healthy De’Andre Hunter around and no sign of Duke in his bracket, Virginia and Tony Bennett should be able to advance. There were some votes thrown Tennessee’s way, considered their biggest threat. Villanova, the defending national champs, did get a vote as a possible Cinderella.
East Region favorite – Duke
It was nearly unanimous, with 25 out of 28 votes going to the Blue Devils. With Zion Williamson healthy and back to dominating and the East Region viewed as the easiest of the four, it makes sense. Michigan State got two other votes out of respect to Cassius Winston and the season the Spartans had. Virginia Tech got the last vote and they should be taken seriously now that point guard Justin Robinson is healthy.
Midwest Region favorite – UNC
The closest decision of the four regions, the Tar Heels edged out Kentucky to be the third ACC team. The have the perfect mixture of star freshmen in Coby White and Nassir Little, combined with veteran leadership and talent of Luke Maye and Cam Johnson. The Wildcats received most of the other votes as expect, while Wofford got the nod from one writer as a Cinderella candidate.
West Region favorite – Gonzaga
Although the staff has the Bulldogs coming out of the west, it’s clear that this was the shakiest vote. The West Region is viewed as the toughest of the four and there are multiple Final Four contenders. Florida State, Texas Tech, Buffalo and Michigan all received multiple votes to make it out of this bracket.
Biggest Round of 64 Upset – UC Irvine over Kansas State
There were a ton of different responses to this question but the game that had the most votes was the 30-win Anteaters taking on a Wildcats team that’ll be without their best player. Forward Dean Wade will be out for this tournament and Kansas State struggles on offense, so this 13-4 upset will be a trendy pick in the brackets. Yale over LSU also got mentions, with the Tigers not having their head coach in Will Wade.
Most likely Cinderella – Buffalo
Led by a quarter of senior players and a star in CJ Massinburg, the Bulls have the offense to keep up with any team in the country. As a six seed, Buffalo has a pathway to make a run in the West Region. Nevada, who’s also in the same group also got some votes so a possible Sweet Sixteen matchup between them makes sense.
National title game prediction – Duke vs. Virginia
It didn’t really matter who came out of the West Region, as most of our writers had them falling to Duke in the national semifinals. The Blue Devils are viewed as just too strong for most of their opponents. And while their was no true consensus on who they would face in the title game, Virginia received the most votes to get a third crack at them.
National Champion – Duke
Not much of a surprise here, as the Blue Devils are the clear frontrunners in this event. But based on the staff, it’s clear that the expectations are that an ACC team will be cutting down the final nets, with Duke, UNC and Virginia getting 22 out of 28 votes. Gonzaga got a few while Tennessee and Kentucky split the last two.
Next. Top 100 players in NCAA Tournament. dark
Final 4 Most Outstanding Player – Zion Williamson
Another non-shocker, Zion is the favorite to get one last award before going off to the NBA. But this was by no means a consensus view, as under the radar players tend to get the nod if they have a great final weekend. Tre Jones of Duke also got votes with the assumption that they win it all, while Coby White of the Tar Heels and Brandon Clarke of Gonzaga also got some votes.