NCAA Basketball: Preview of all 31 autobids for 2021 NCAA Tournament

Georgetown Hoyas – Big East

Last week before Championship Week started I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about if Patrick Ewing was going to get fired. This is the first season that Georgetown has had a winning record under Ewing and given how much turnover there has been in his tenure it likely may not have been long.

The Hoyas came out of nowhere to win the Big East tournament and looked really good doing it. They were picked to finish near the bottom of the Big East by the media. Georgetown survived against Villanova, then beat Seton Hall and absolutely blasted Creighton to secure the automatic bid for the Big East.

Best Player: Qudus Wahab

Wahab has stepped his game up in a major way on the run through the Big East tournament. Wahab is a big body and is a traditional back-to-the-basket center who makes 60% of his shots. He is going to hold his own against any center in this tournament and he protects the rim with the best of them. The sophomore big man is a great rebounder as well and this year he had a huge breakout year. What better center to learn from than his head coach Patrick Ewing. Wahab is ready for his national breakout on the game’s biggest stage.

Change at Upset

The Hoyas have size, shoot it well from deep, and are one of the best rebounding teams in the country. They are also playing the best basketball they have played under head coach Patrick Ewing. They enter the tournament as one of the hottest teams in the country and are playing with extreme confidence.

Outside of Wahab, the Hoyas have a senior point guard in Jahvon Blair who has stuck it out with Ewing and is going to do what he can to make sure their stay is longer than one day. The Hoyas have a 12 seed and a team they can beat if they continue to play as they have been. Chance at Upset 60%.

Ohio Bobcats – MAC

Ohio has one of the best offenses in the country and they have five starters who can keep a game close against anyone in the country. Ohio has experienced a lot of success in the NCAA tournament and in 2011, the team’s last appearance, they made the Sweet 16 before falling to North Carolina.

Ohio was the one team this year in the MAC that no one knew what to make of. They have a ton of talent but that talent is young and the roster only features one Senior. The Bobcats are poised to be the class of the MAC for a few years.

Best Player: Jason Preston

Please allow me a few moments to gush about Preston. He is my favorite player in this tournament because he is electric to watch play basketball. He fills the stat sheet and affects a game in so many ways. He currently holds averages of 17 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists per game. He makes a not-so-easy game look extremely easy and makes every single player on the floor with him better.

Preston was not recruited by anyone except for Ohio out of High School. He scored 31 earlier this year against Illinois which almost led to a Bobcat win and he was unbelievable in the NCAA tournament. Not many people know who Preston is but he is the type of player who is going to grab people’s attention as Steph Curry did many years ago. He is awesome and is going to finally get his due.

Chance at Upset

The Bobcats, as mentioned have five starters who are all double-figure scorers and can score at any point in time during the game. They average over 80 points per game and are extremely efficient on the offensive end. Preston changes games and with the other players mainly Dwight Wilson and Ben Vander Plas the Bobcats have three players that are really hard to prepare for. As a 13 seed they are under seeded but didn’t have a lot of quality wins early or in their conference.

They are playing at a really high level right now and don’t be surprised to see a lot of people pick this upset in their bracket. Ohio is good and if they continue to play as well as they are now they will make the second weekend. Chance at Upset is 80%