The South Region is completely messed up. This is the first time ever where seeds 1-4 were all eliminated before the Sweet 16. As a result, we have 5 Kentucky vs 9 Kansas State and 11 Loyola-Chicago vs 7 Nevada. Take that however you want. In my personal view, upsets in early rounds just lead to crappy regionals and Final Fours. I think we see this happening here. These matchups are fun because of the Cinderella aspect of each team, but expect the quality of basketball to take a nose dive due to the lack of top teams. Despite that, we should be seeing exciting basketball. Kansas State got here by killing Creighton and surviving 16 seed UMBC, and Kentucky got here by taking care of business against 12 Davidson and 13 Buffalo. The second matchup in this regional is a bit more exciting. In Loyola-Chicago and Nevada, you have two teams that love winning on the last possession. Loyola has won two straight games on buzzer beaters over 6 Miami and 3 Tennessee, while Nevada has survived second half double digit deficits in its first two games, the latter featuring a 22-point comeback against 2 Cincinnati.
Since my South bracket is totally screwed, I'll do a new prediction:
5 Kentucky over 9 Kansas State
I like the way Kentucky is playing with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Also, K-State played horrendously against UMBC.
7 Nevada over 11 Loyola-Chicago
I really want Loyola-Chicago to win as they're currently the best basketball team in Illinois. (I'm including the Bulls.) But Nevada has a really strong starting lineup consisting of the Martin twins, Kendall Stephens and Jordan Caroline, and I can't see them slipping up here. The Cardiac Pack got this.
7 Nevada over 5 Kentucky
I really like the way Nevada is playing right now. They shoot lights out in the final 5 minutes of every game they've played so far, and the energy brought by Eric Musselman is enough to get Nevada to the Final Four.
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