The West Region has the defending Champs...Legendary Coaches...Bill Cosby's fav school...an amazing 8 Conference Champs...let's have a look...
#1 seed - Duke Blue Devils...29-4...ACC...5-1 vs ranked opponents...Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski leads one of the best programs in College Sports...an amazing 11 times he has led the Blue Devils to the Final Four...4 of those times he emerged as National Champion including 2010...extremely impressive in ACC Title game beatdown over rival North Carolina...Although all 4 of their 2011 losses were road blowouts, this is a program built to thrive in Tourney scenarios...one of, if not the best scoring team in the NCAA Tourney...Top-heavy scoring with the likes of Senior's Nolan Smith (damn good) and Kyle Singlar (damn good)...Duke also gets production from Seth Curry (son of Dell Curry and brother of Stephen Curry), Ryan Kelly, and the Plumlee brothers Mason (6'10") and Miles (6'10"...plus their younger brother Marshall is currently at 7-feet tall still in High School) and Sophomore Andre Dawkins...Duke is a very strong rebounding club too...current NBA Alumni include Grant Hill, Josh McRoberts, Elton Brand, Shane Battier, JJ Redick, Dahntay Jones, Mike Dunleavy, Carlos Boozer, Luol Deng to name a few...
#2 seed - San Diego State Aztecs...32-2...Mountain West...2-2 vs ranked opponents...Head Coach Steve Fisher is back in the Tourney as a fav...we remember he was the Head Coach of the Fab 5 Michigan teams that were National runner-ups both years the 5 were together...there was a ton of hype and attention for those Michigan teams, not so much these days with a SDST program that plays in the Mountain West Conference...This Aztecs squad was un-ranked to open the season, but have played so well they are all the way to #6 Nationally, and #2 NCAA Tourney seed...impressive...SDST plays great team D...The team is led by Seniors F's Malcolm Thomas and Billy White, plus Senior G D.J. Gay...Sophomore F Kawhi Leonard does a great job for this team, as does fellow Soph's Chase Tapley and James Rahon...a lot of depth in the frontcourt and backcourt for Fisher to work with...only 1 time all season did SDST lose a road/neutral site game
# 3 seed - Connecticut Huskies...Big East...9-6 vs ranked opponents...UCONN makes the 2011 NCAA Tourney as an Automatic Bid having won the Big East Tourney...amazing feat...to win the NCAA Tourney you need to win 6 games (the first 2 perhaps not even that grueling) in 3 weeks...to win the Big East Title UCONN had to win 5 games in 5 days...and by the way the competition for that was TOUGH...The Big East is sicker and deeper in 2011 than it usually already is making this a remarkable accomplishment for UCONN...tough to handicap this Huskies squad though...they limped into the Big East Tourney losers of 4 of their last 5 games, but then proceed to knock off DePaul, then 4 straight Top 25 teams in Georgetown, Syracuse, Pitt, and Louisville...UCONN is of course led by Head Coach Jim Calhoun who has guided the program to the Final Four 3 times, twice emerging as National Champions...Calhoun certainly came under fire this past year as he was cited by the NCAA for failure to create an atmosphere of compliance for his Assistant Coaches and his program...UCONN opened the season un-ranked and won the Maui Invitational...7 of their 9 losses have come on road/neutral site games...we know they are led by stud Kemba Walker (Future Raptor?!?!) who was born to score the basketball...Freshman Jeremy Lamb, Shabazz Napier, and Roscoe Smith - plus Sophomore's Jamal Coombs-McDaniel and Alex Oriakhi give UCONN depth this season, and provide an extremely bright outlook for the future of this program...I like this teams ability to rebound as that skill will translate to any court and give the Huskies a chance to compete every night...Over Calhoun's 25+ years at UCONN he has produced some NBA greats...Rip Hamilton, Rudy Gay, Ben Gordon, Ray Allen aka Jesus Shuttleworth, Caron Butler, Emeka Okafor, Clifford Robinson, Donyell Marshall, Charlie V to name a few...
#4 seed - Texas Longhorns...27-7...Big 12...6-3 vs ranked opponents...Head Coach Rick Barnes is in his 13th season at the helm in Texas, and it is the 13th time he has Texas in the NCAA Tourney...Barnes has coached NBA players like Kevin Durant, T.J. Ford, and D.J. Augustine at Texas...5 of this teams 7 2011 losses came on road/neutral site games...the O is led by Sophomore Jordan Hamilton (damn good), but this group gets very balanced scoring from F's Tristan Thompson (Freshman needs to stay out of foul trouble) and Gary Johnson, plus G's Cory Joseph and J'Covan Brown...Seniors Dogus Balbay and Matt Hill also contribute to this team...Texas is an outstanding rebounding club, and an outstanding D squad as well...“We’re a good team. We can beat anybody,” - Rick Barnes
Other teams worth a look...
#7 seed - Temple Owls...24-6...Atlantic 10...1-2 vs ranked opponents...Head Coach Fran Dunphy was the victim of the annual 12-5 upset last year when his #5 Owls fell in the opening round to #12 Cornell...they are back this season as a #7 seed...a lot to like here...very balanced scoring...The team gets Senior Leadership from F Lavoy Allen, plus underclassmen like Ramone Moore, Scootie Randall, Juan Fernandez, and Khalif Wyatt
#13 seed - Oakland Golgen Grizzles...25-9...Summit League...1-4 vs ranked opponents...Senior C Keith Benson and Junior G Reggie Hamilton give the Grizz a rare inside-outside combo threat...Seniors Will Hudson and Larry Wright provide scoring too...This team won a Conference record 20 straight Conference games...Texas is their opening round opponent so the Committee did them no favors, but take a good look at this squad...
!!! #5 vs #12 ALERT !!! ...20 of the last 22 years a #12 has upset a #5 in the opening round...in the West he have #5 Arizona vs #12 Memphis...Head Coach Josh Pastner has the Memphis Tigers back in the Big Dance...they did go 0-2 vs ranked opponents, but Arizona was worse at 0-3...Freshman G Will Barton leads a very deep squad...8 Tigers average at least 7 points per game...
Check out the other Region blogs too...follow me on twitter @craigballard77
craig.ballard@hotmail.com
