The East Region is set, and there are plenty of storylines involved.
While Purdue is the No. 1 seed with runaway National Player of the Year candidate Zach Edey, No. 5 seed Duke looms as a Blue Blood in a potential Sweet 16 matchup if it can survive a first round matchup with March Madness legend Max Abmas and Oral Roberts.
On the bottom half of the bracket, Kentucky will look to outperform their No. 6 seed with another run to the Final Four. In the Wildcats way are pleasant surprises in 2023, No. 2 seed Marquette and No. 3 seed Kansas State.
Purdue is the No. 1 seed, but both Memphis and Florida Atlantic are live for an upset from the winner of the 8/9 matchup.
It doesn’t get easy elsewhere for the trendy names, including Duke, who faces one of the best offensive players in the country in six foot guard Max Abmas, who led Oral Roberts to a Sweet 16 two years ago as a No. 15 seed.
On the bottom half of the bracket, Kentucky has the most pedigree, but Marquette won both the Big East regular season and conference tournament in convincing fashion.
This bracket can break plenty of ways with upsets galore, and I’ll take a long shot in this bracket and back Penny Hardaway and Memphis to breakthrough to the Final Four.
The team’s defensive-minded approach will overwhelm Purdue’s freshman backcourt to the Sweet 16, and I fancy the matchup for lead guard Kendric Davis, who averaged over 20 points per game this season, in a Sweet 16 matchup against Duke and Tennessee, if not for Oral Roberts.
There’s vulnerable favorites in this region, I like getting aggressive and backing a battle tested Memphis team that is fresh off an AAC title win over Houston on Selection Sunday.
