Start The Madness! Day One Predictions

Welcome to the time of the year where the best college basketball programs enter the NCAA Tournament and the legendary March Madness begins! Where “Dark-Horses” knock off high-seeded contenders, where Cinderellas emerge to keep fans surprised and excited.

Many people never watch a single college ball game until this time in spring, so brackets usually bust quickly. Second-round upsets are promising and predicting these games perfectly never happens, but here are still is a quick guide with some predictions for the first day!

THE EAST REGION

Villanova is one of the hottest teams in the country. Expect them to have an easy first day matchup. They will be facing Mount St. Mary’s today at 7:10 PM on CBS. The defending national champions will be victorious the first weekend, no matter how strong the Mount comes out.

One that has potential to be one of the best opening weekend games will be Wisconsin vs Virginia Tech. This season, the Badgers played as one of the more balanced teams on both sides of the ball. In last weekend’s Big Ten Conference championship game, their performance against Michigan showed vulnerability. Do not be quick to trust this team racing through the bracket.

THE EAST REGION PREDICTIONS (DAY ONE)

1 Villanova, 3 Baylor, 4 Florida, 9 Virginia Tech.

THE MIDWEST REGION

#4 Purdue will have a tough game when they face Vermont. They haven’t lost a game since December. The catch is, even with their impressive 29 wins this season, none were up against the top-100 teams. The key to this upset will be forcing other Boilermakers besides Caleb Swanigan score. If they can send double-teams early to make him uncomfortable and add strong performances on offense from Anthony Lamb and Payton Henson, the Catamounts will keep dancing.

The newly-crowned Big 12 Champion Iowa State Cyclones will win off the strength of their guard-play, which includes Monte Morris whose averaging 16 points, five rebounds and six assists a game, this season.

THE MIDWEST REGION PREDICTIONS (DAY ONE)

5 Iowa State, 13 Vermont.

THE WEST REGION

Gonzaga is truly a contender for this tournament. I know it is always easy to go with a #1 team, but this team is special. Led by Nigel Williams, this team has depth, and a Head coach in Mark Few who has over two decades of tournament experience. The Bulldogs are a lock for your bracket when they play the first two games.

There are three upsets I could see happening. One being the Bucknell Bison over West Virginia. This team has won six games in a row coming into the tournament. That is one of the best streaks in the country. Xavier has a strong chance to knock off Maryland, as well. Riley LaChance has been playing great enough for Vandy to where I want to give them the edge.

THE WEST REGION PREDICTIONS (DAY ONE)

1 Gonzaga, 9 Vanderbilt, 5 Notre Dame, 13 Bucknell, 11 Xavier, 3 Florida State, 7 St. Mary’s,

2 Arizona.

THE SOUTH REGION

The South may include the most talented teams combined. UNC, UK, UCLA, and Wichita State, just to name a few. As talented and stacked are UNC and UK, are I think the Bruins playing in Sacramento will give them the ultimate boost. But for today, Butler will match up against Winthrop’s Keon Johnson whose averaging 22.5 PPG and shoots solidly from the free-throw stripe at 86.8 percent. Still, I believe the Bulldogs will overcome. Middle Tennessee has won their last five. I’m predicting a sixth against Minnesota.

THE SOUTH REGION PREDICTIONS (DAY ONE) 4 Butler, 12 Middle Tennessee