Bracketology 2023: Final projected field of 68 ahead of Selection Sunday

Midwest Region (Kansas City)

(1) Kansas vs. (16) Northern Kentucky
(8) Missouri vs. (9) Iowa
(5) Miami vs. (12) Drake
(4) UConn vs. (13) Louisiana
(6) Texas A&M vs. (11) Pittsburgh/Providence
(3) Gonzaga vs. (14) UC-Santa Barbara
(7) Michigan State vs.(10) Utah State
(2) Arizona vs. (15) UNC-Asheville

From defending champions to No. 2 overall seed, the Kansas Jayhawks are the top seed in Kansas City’s Midwest region. The Jayhawks won the toughest conference in the country, the Big 12 but fell to Texas in the Big 12 title game. The loss didn’t impact the Jayhawks’ standing too much but did drop them to second on the seed list. But, this is a team that has the No. 1 strength of schedule, metrics all in the top 10, and if you want quality wins, 24 of their 34 games have been quad 1 games, winning a nation high 17 of them.

The road to the Final Four won’t be easy for the Jayhawks as Arizona and Gonzaga are lurking as the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds respectively in this region. Also in this region are Miami who fell to Duke in the ACC semifinals and lost big man Norchad Omier to an ankle injury in the first minute and the team that quietly finished second in the SEC and is one win away from taking home the tournament title, Texas A&M. Buzz Williams’ Aggies are led by sophomore guard Wade Taylor IV who is averaging over 16 points and shoots over 35% from three-point land.

The team to keep an eye on in this region is the No. 4 seed UConn Huskies. Dan Hurley’s team was the most noticeable exclusion from the NCAA’s bracket reveal in February, despite the fact that the metrics absolutely love the Huskies to the tune of a predictive metric average of five. Even though they lost to top-seeded Marquette in the Big East semifinals by two points, UConn is 10-4 in their last 14 games with all of those games coming by a combined nine points.