Re-seeding: EAST REGION

Isn’t it nice to have the tournament back? Unless you’re in Louisville, Lexington, Durham or Milwaukee. Anyway, it’s time to re-seed the regions by KenPom. We’ve got some interesting things in this mix this year. Let’s start with the East

1. Michigan (2)

2. Alabama (8)

3. Florida State (15)

4. UConn (16)

5. Colorado (17)

6. BYU (24)

7. St. Bonaventure (25)

8. Texas (26)

9. LSU (29)

10. Maryland (31)

My first reaction to this bracket was it was the weakest but that isn’t correct. Only 2 top-10 teams but 10 top-30 teams give it depth. We do have some anomalies to discuss.

The 3-seeds across the board are over seeded based on KenPom. Texas drops to an 8 here. The Longhorns swept one of the weaker Kansas teams of recent memory and missed them at the Big XII tourney due to Covid. Their next best win is over North Carolina and that’s not a great win in 2021. Outside a rout of KU on January 2nd, they haven’t beaten a Top-100 KenPom team by double digits. Wins are wins but they have a bit of luck on their side.

UConn moves up the most in this exercise and happen to be on the same side of the bracket as Texas. They were without future NBA first rounder James Bouknight for awhile as well. UConn sneaking into an Elite 8 shouldn’t shock anyone given the side of the bracket they’re on.

LSU will be a trendy pick over Michigan in the second round and there isn’t much doubt LSU is a good squad but they’re 125th in defensive efficiency and their best two wins are over Arkansas. Michigan is banged up but if you fell in love with LSU over the weekend, take a deep breath and look closer.

I had mentioned Colorado might be worth a flier but they were pretty average away from home and there was a recent article by someone on altitude teams having an advantage at home that is discernible enough that it may inflate how good they are. I’d link it but just take my word for it.

As for potential upsets, I’m sure the Izzo is March crowd will like them over BYU should they beat UCLA but they’re 56th in KenPom which is behind Georgetown. I don’t think Abilene Christian will beat Texas but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Longhorns are uncomfortable for about 39 minutes. I think the 4’s and 5’s are safe in this region. As much as I love Iona, Alabama is too much for them and I watched bits of the MAAC final. The Gaels aren’t very good