2022 NCAA Tournament: Arizona, Villanova, and Tennessee headline South Region
By Karl Heiser
2022 NCAA Tournament South Region: San Diego Pod
(1) Arizona vs. (16) Wright State/Bryant
Don’t overthink this one. Although we saw the first No. 16 seed take down a No. 1 seed within the last five years, this will not be the second one. A point of interest with Bryant specifically is that they have Division I’s leading scorer in Peter Kiss. You may recognize Kiss for his viral behavior in the Northeast Conference championship game where the Bulldogs dismantled Wagner, 70-43. Kiss had 34 points in that game, taunting players and fans alike along the way. This season, Kiss is averaging 25.1 points per game.
Arizona will run through whichever No. 16 seed prevails in the First Four, but it’s at least fun to consider a potential matchup between Peter Kiss and Kerr Kriisa in the first round. Bryant is a team that wouldn’t have any issue with Arizona’s uptempo style of play either – the Bulldogs currently rank No. 7 nationally in Adjusted Tempo. Not to sell Wright State short as the Raiders have an efficient field goal offense in their own right, but Bryant would be the more fun team to see for the sake of potential antics.
Like I said, don’t think twice about this one. In either matchup, Arizona is the much better team with a potential Coach of the Year on the sidelines. Neither Bryant nor Wright State will have anyone who can stop Bennedict Mathurin or Christian Koloko. The Wildcats are the No. 1 seed in the region for a reason, so look for them to ride their significant advantages on both sides of the ball to a big first-round win.
Prediction: Arizona
(8) Seton Hall vs. (9) TCU
In the spirit of the 8-9 games, this one is a true tossup. Both Seton Hall and TCU are solid defensive sides with good guard play. Jared Rhoden paces Seton Hall with 15.9 points per game while Mike Miles leads the Horned Frogs with 15 a contest.
Just looking at recent play, it appears Seton Hall is playing better down the stretch. Over their last seven respective games, the Pirates went 6-1 while TCU finished 3-4. Upon closer inspection, however, I would argue TCU has the more impressive results in that span.
Of Seton Hall’s six wins to close out the season, four of them were by six points or less against the three worst teams in the Big East. The other two came against Creighton minus Ryan Nembhard and against a Xavier team that had totally collapsed in the back half of the season.
On the other side, TCU’s three wins in their last seven games came against Kansas (NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed), Texas Tech (No. 3 seed), and Texas (No. 6 seed). Two of their recent losses also came against Kansas, one by just four points on the road. TCU is battle-tested, and while they may not have the nice win percentage to close out the year as Seton Hall does, I think their experience against tough opponents helps them out a lot here.
Prediction: TCU