March Madness: East Region Preview...

Besides Kansas, there isn't a team in the country as talented as the Kentucky Wildcats. The three-headed monster of John Wall, Demarcus Cousins, and Patrick Patterson is as good, if not better than any other threesome in the nation. Their road to the Elite Eight shouldn't be that difficult either. They'll face the winner of the Texas-Wake Forest game (the only important aspect of this game is that we find out which team wins the Choke of the Year Award). Then, in the Sweet 16, they will play powerhouses such as Temple, Cornell, or Wisconsin (sorry Wofford, it's nothing personal). Maybe one of these teams plays with the Wildcats for a half. But there are no gamebreakers that can steal a game's momentum like those that Kentucky has. The bottom half of this region should be a little more interesting. West Virginia is a very dangerous team that is not only capable of knocking off Kentucky, but winning the whole tournament. They were the first #2 seed, meaning that they will be motivated to prove to the committee that winning the Big East Tournament should have been enough for a #1 seed. A potential Kentucky-WVU Elite 8 matchup would certainly give the fans their money's worth.

Other observations on the region:
-Wow, a week ago, people were thinking that Washington might not make the tournament. Now, they have a fairly easy road to the Sweet 16. Washington has always had many athletic players such as Quincy Pondexter and Isaiah Thomas, but has struggled against teams with size. Neither Marquette nor New Mexico has much height, so in battles of fairly equivalent athletic teams, it might be wise to go with the one playing in a relatively familiar area (San Jose) that isn't miles across the country.
-Everyone loves picking those 5-12 upsets, but don't get too excited about this one. Temple coach Fran Dunphy used to coach at Penn, so he knows all about Cornell and what they are capable of. His team has also proved that they are quite the formidable opponent, beating Villanova earlier this season and winning the A-10 regular season and conference titles.

For many people, it's pretty set in stone that Coach Calipari and Coach Huggins will get an opportunity to renew their old C-USA rivalries. The questions is, who do you pick? Both teams have clutch players (Wall and WVU's Da'Sean Butler) and solid supporting casts. Both are also pretty young teams that are coming off of thrilling conference championship victories. But Kentucky has already grown up so much this year that I think by this point they will be cohesive and too much to handle. And that's bad news for a somewhat under-sized WVU team. Plus, the John Wall dance must live on!