College Basketball

Midwest Region: Brutal road for Wichita State

Wichita State must have angered the seeding committee. How else to explain the undefeated Shockers drawing the bracket of death? From defending red-hot national champion Louisville as a four-seed to Jabari Parker and Duke at No. 3, suddenly resurgent Kentucky as the eighth seed in a possible third-round matchup with Wichita and Big Ten regular-season champion Michigan at No. 2, this region is a minefield.

It doesn’t end there. You have depth in Atlantic 10 regular-season champion Saint Louis as the fifth seed, No. 10 Arizona State of the Pac-12, and quality mid-major Manhattan, seeded 13th, from the MAAC. What a monster region.

Best Player

Duke’s Jabari Parker is a Carmelo Anthony clone who scores how the rest of us breathe — it just comes naturally to the potential No. 1 pick in June’s NBA Draft.

Unsung Player

Montrezl Harrell, Louisville’s 6-foot-8 sophomore forward, oozes NBA — from his defensive prowess to his paint toughness to his improved offensive skill-set.

Best Second-Round Matchup:

No. 8 Kentucky vs. No. 9 Kansas State. Kentucky and its six McDonald’s All-Americans are beginning to blossom, but Kansas State has dynamic guard Marcus Foster, who enjoyed as good a freshman year as anyone not named Andrew Wiggins or Jabari Parker.

Second-Round Upset Watch:

No. 14 Mercer over No. 3 Duke. Remember Lehigh and C.J. McCollum two years ago? Meet Mercer and dynamite guard Langston Hall.

Bracket Buster:

The Kentucky team we saw this weekend in the SEC Tournament is the one we expected to see all year — and an eighth seed Wichita State won’t be too pleased to see in the third round.

By The Numbers:

21.1

Defending national champion Louisville’s point differential, tops in the country.

1998

Sixth-seeded UMass’ last trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Champion: Louisville.

The best four-seed in decades, last year’s champion and the AAC tournament winner has the look — the look of determined dominance. The same look we saw at this time last year.