East Region
This region comes down to precisely one thing – do you buy into the hype about John Wall and Demarcus Cousins? Kentucky comes into this region as the best team, and they are in a good position to make the Final Four and beyond, but only if their fab freshmen are as good as people say they are. Personally, I buy the hype. We’ve seen some impressive accomplishments from freshmen in the tournament in recent years – especially one frosh point guard from Memphis – and Wall is in the same ballpark as those that have risen to the occasion before him. Wall also has the benefit of a coach who is very used to hitting the tournament with a freshman running the point, and he has a fairly easy pod to star the tournament and get his feet wet. The first round will be a joke, and the second round will put the Wildcats up against one of two chronically flawed, horrifically underachieving teams. There’s no drama en route to the Sweet Sixteen.
