Ncaa Bracket Predictions

How To Pick An Ncaa Tournament Bracket Using The Four Factors Of Basketball Success

... closely with winning games. Former Sacramento Kings and ESPN Director of Analytics Dean Oliver coined these the Four Factors of Basketball Success — shooting, turnovers, rebounding and free throw proficiency. Each of these factors hold varying weights, and we can apply them to determine a team’s likelihood of success, in this case within the NCAA Tournament. Using a model that measures these factors — eight total stats when accounting for both a team’s offense and defense — we’ve unofficially created an adjusted ranking for each team in the Field of 68 to help pick your bracket. You can scroll down to key takeaways for some bracket tips and the full rankings, or continue reading for an explanation of how this system works. MORE: Print your bracket here. Here are the stats at play. Offensive and Defensive Effective Field Goal Pct (weighted 40%) — a shooting percentage which adjusts for a three being worth more than a two. Offensive and Defensive Turnover Pct (weighted 25%) — an estimate of turnovers per 100 possessions. Offensive and Defensive ...

March Madness Predictions 2017

... the stretch, but we like both teams to advance in the first round. The Gators play what will essentially be a home game in Orlando. Here is a full rundown of the first round of the East Region. The teams in bold are the schools we predict to advance. 1 Villanova. 16 Mt. St. Mary’s/New Orleans. 8 Wisconsin. Round of 32. Villanova faces plenty of talent in the East region. (Getty). UNC Wilmington is the one surprise pick. The Gators lost big man John Egbunu in mid-February and have been in a slump since. Florida will survive a first round scare but runs into a red-hot UNC Wilmington team. Wisconsin will pose a challenge to Villanova, but the defending champs come in a bit more battle tested coming out of a strong Big East conference. There is skepticism over Baylor given their history of early exits in March. Providence ...

Bold Predictions For The Ncaa Tournament

... size advantage. 4. Oregon goes to the Final Four without Chris Boucher. The Ducks are without Chris Boucher, but they still have Dillon Brooks and are efficient at both ends of the floor. Scott Olmos-USA TODAY Sports. Losing Boucher (11.8 PPG, 6.1 RPG, 2.5 BPG) to an ACL tear hurts the Ducks. They can't spread the floor the same way without him and his 3-point shooting (36 percent in Pac-12 play). Plus, the loss damages their depth and interior defense. But the Ducks nearly knocked off Arizona in the Pac-12 tournament championship without him. Editor's Picks. There are the trendy upset picks, and then there are the upsets that are backed by a statistical model that was created for just this purpose. Enjoy. 2 Related. Per __link__, Oregon's offensive efficiency (1.17 points per possession without Boucher, 1.13 PPP with him) has suffered minimal, if any, setbacks with Boucher on the bench this season. Same with its defensive efficiency (.03 PPP difference without Boucher on the court). Yes, he matters. Oregon is strong enough, however, to fight through the Midwest Region and punch its ticket to Glendale, Arizona, without Boucher. 5. ...

Why Villanova Will Repeat

... to set up the regional final we all want to see. The Blue Devils’ memorable March run ends there, however, as ‘Nova reminds everyone why it’s both the defending champ and the top overall team in this tournament. WEST REGION. There’s been so much talk in recent months about this being “the year” for Northwestern. That came to fruition, and so will the talk of this being “the year” for Sean Miller. Miller knew that his team would be better for the long run with the return of Allonzo Trier, who missed the first 18 games of the season under some bizarre circumstances. That’s exactly how it’s played out, with the Wildcats suffering through a couple of disjointed weeks immediately following Trier’s return and now rounding into top form at precisely the right time. Toss in a relatively friendly draw that doesn’t ...

These Tournament Upset Picks Could Incite March Madness

... March Madness. March 15, 2017 10:54 pm EDT March 15, 2017 10:51 pm EDT march-madness Here are Mike De Courcy's NCAA Tournament upset alerts and sleeper picks that could incite March Madness. Rhode Island coach Dan Hurley (Getty Images). Published on Mar. 15, 2017. Mar. 15, 2017. It wouldn't be March Madness without a few tournament upsets. To help keep your 2017 NCAA Tournament bracket somewhat intact, Sporting News college basketball writer Mike De Courcy offers up his picks for the upsets and sleeper teams to watch out for in each region. Bonus: Check out each region preview linked below for Final Four picks and star players to watch. NCAA bracket predictions. Upset alerts. East Region : No. 12 UNC Wilmington over No. 5 Virginia. In addition to the very cool nickname of “Seahawks” – how many Wildcats do we need, people? – Wilmington has a ...

2017 March Madness Bracket Predictions

... midway through the season. I have Kansas now. The TCU loss ( Josh Jackson didn’t play in the game) doesn’t scare me. The Jayhawks have the best backcourt in the country in Frank Mason (big-shot maker) and Devonte’ Graham. Jackson’s ready for the NBA right now. Bill Self will win a second national title, it’s just a matter of time. It doesn’t seem like this should be Kansas’ year. The team’s had off-the-court drama throughout. Injuries have shortened the bench. It’s only 10 th at Ken Pom. But I will not bail on the team I picked from the start, which rightfully has a 1 seed. As for my other picks, you’ll notice some ridiculousness. Just fade me as fast as you possibly would like. I’m hellbent on going for Wichita State Shockers into the second weekend because the Shockers were jobbed in their seeding and will play as angry as they ever have. Rhode Island Rams in the Elite Eight? Hey, why not have a little bit of fun? You seeing what I’m doing with Oklahoma State Cowboys and SMU Mustangs too? Probably regrettable, but oh well. Hey, as long as the tournament’s fun, that’s all that matters. Chip Patterson. ( Click here to enlarge the bracket ). After toppling North Carolina ...

March Madness Predictions To Help With All Your Bracket Needs

... most of its key pieces from last season’s No. 1 overall seed, and added elite recruit Josh Jackson. Kentucky reloaded again with De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk leading a new group of freshman stars. Then something happened that we should have expected all along. Every team showed a vulnerability along the way. Duke had to deal with the hysteria surrounding Allen , as well as a drop-off in his production as he adjusted to a new role as point guard. It also had to deal with injuries to the freshmen and Coach K’s unexpected back surgery. Kansas needed to rely on huge comebacks throughout conference season. Villanova lost twice to Butler and showed a weakness in the middle without departed center Daniel Ochefu. Kentucky’s defense and perimeter shooting were shaky. Duke’s Jayson Tatum and Harry Giles are living up to the hype ahead of March Madness. Now that Selection Sunday is finally here, the picture is no clearer. Duke is playing its best ball of the season after running through the ACC tournament championship as the No. 5 seed. UCLA emerged as a ...

Sorry, Duke Is Going To Win It All

... but I’m going with the team that impressed me the most during Championship Week. This region will be even chalkier than the East (I promise, things will get crazy on the other half of the bracket). I love picking big upsets, but there were none here that I could pull the trigger on. I guess that’s the whole point of an upset — they’re unexpected. If you’re looking to take a chance, Princeton is a really, really good low-major team that can beat you a variety of ways. The only reason I couldn’t choose the Tigers is because I don’t know how they will be able to stop Bonzie Colson. However, Princeton hasn’t lost since December. They’re doing something right. As for Gonzaga, my regional champion, this is the year. I can feel it. By every available metric, the Bulldogs are one of the best teams ...

Odds And Predictions For Top 1st-round Games

... is one of the deeper and more balanced teams in men's college basketball. The Razorbacks have four players who average between 11.8 and 14.6 points per game, and nine Hogs also play at least 11.6 minutes of court time a night. The Razorbacks score 80 points per game, which helped them win 25 games this year along the way to an SEC title-game appearance. It should be a good duel with Seton Hall on Friday. The player to watch the most will be 6'10" senior forward Moses Kingsley, who averages 7.8 boards per game (he's the only player on the team averaging four or more). His job will be to check Delgado and make sure he doesn't lead the Pirates to victory with a  20-20 game , which he has done once this season. Seton Hall doesn't have the best team in the country, but that confidence, coupled with a recent run of success, could go a long way. Expect the Pirates to stay hot and beat the Hogs. No. 7 South Carolina (-1.5) over No. 10 Marquette. If this game was being played in a true neutral location (e.g. Spokane, Washington), then you'd need to flip a coin to pick between two ...

8 Reasonable March Madness Picks That Will Make Your Bracket Stand Out In A Pool

... Cardinals are ranked fourth by BPI , sixth by  Ken Pomeroy  and seventh by Jeff Sagarin. Oh, and Rick Pitino is their coach. 3. No ACC teams in the Final Four. Anthony Gruppuso, USA TODAY Sports. Then again, what about the other extreme? With Louisville, Duke, UNC and Florida State all in separate regions, the consensus bracket likely will have two to three teams from the best conference in the country reaching the national semifinals. But there are so many options around it. Villanova, Arizona, Kentucky and Kansas is a totally reasonable Final Four. 4. Kansas out in the first weekend. Unless the Jayhawks lose in their first real challenge. Look, don’t be the guy trying to predict the 16-1 upset. But Miami and Michigan State are both really good teams for an 8-9 matchup, and Kansas is facing some internal issues with Devonte’ Graham’s recent struggles (health and otherwise), Josh Jackson’s hit-and-run ...

Using The Last 10 Years To Predict Upsets

... No. 7 Michigan. No. 10 Wichita State over No. 7 Dayton. No. 12 Middle Tennessee over No. 5 Minnesota. Pick one of the 13 seeds. On average there are seven double-digit upsets per year. So you still have one left to pick. And historically, it’s a 13 over a 4. The 13 seeds are 8-32. Generally, that’s one per tournament. The lowest rated Ken Pom 4 seed is Butler at No. 26. My pick: No. 13 Winthrop over No. 4 Butler. Distribution of your upsets by region. These picks also meet one of the other rules of picking upsets. How many in a region? Obviously, you could pick five double-digit seeds in one region. But that’s not how they’ve played out over the years. Eight regions of the 40 played since 2007 have had zero upsets. It’s hard to not pick one, but in all likelihood, there will be chalk in an entire bracket. Eleven regions have had one upset. ...