If Doc Brown is going to stick his reputation behind his NCAA tournament bracket, then you know it has to be legit. Doc dominated during NFL season against the spread and straight up, and is bringing his wisdom and knowledge to you in the form of NCAA picks. Here’s the deal though: there’s a reason they call it March Madness — bad teams pull upsets, good teams get knocked out — and it drives you mad! So don’t get upset when everything doesn’t go according to Doc’s plan, but just know a lot of careful and thoughtful analysis went into the picks.
If you want to know understand the formula, it’s simple. The Doc took a look at the college basketball matchups and used variables such as strength of schedule, Adjusted Offense and Adjusted Defense statistics by Ken Pom, and overall college statistics for a clearer look at these teams. The Doc likes teams that have size to go far, and teams that have explosive scoring to pull upsets. But of course no matter how much analysis you put in, you’re going to get a lot wrong, so don’t stress when your brackets fall apart.
Anyway, here are Doc Brown’s NCAA tournament picks, and you can compare them to Del’s picks which were posted on Tuesday (and don’t forget to join the LBS March Madness pool for free to win some cool prizes. Enter here)
Doc has some chalk going pretty far and very few upsets on the left side of the bracket. He’s long felt that Ohio State and Duke were two of the top teams in the country, and though they’ll have some tough games, they should make it to the Final Four. Joining them in Houston will be Kansas and Wisconsin, with Ohio State beating Kansas in the final.
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The Big East may have been stacked this year placing 7-8 teams in the Top 25 consistently, but I don’t see any powerhouse team in that group. They all should do well, but the Doc doesn’t see them going too deep. Overall, Ohio State has a good rotation, size, outside shooting, superstar power, and every ingredient you need to win it all. Duke has veteran experience and excellent guard play, but they’re somewhat weak inside. Because I dislike them I wanted to pick UConn to knock them out, but I cannot do it. Duke is just too solid all the way around to pick them to flame out early. Even San Diego State and its excellent defense wouldn’t be able to beat them — we have them bombing out in the Sweet 16.
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As for college basketball’s lone superstar The Jimmer, we have BYU making an Elite 8 run. They’re missing Brandon Davies and lacking in size, but a beneficial draw should help them. The Southeast bracket seems the weakest to the Doc who has Wisconsin coming out of the pack. The Badgers dropped a few games at the end of the season, but they knocked off Ohio State in Madison and have plenty of stars who can help carry the team including Jon Leuer and Jordan Taylor. With their defense, they always stay in games.
The Southwest bracket is loaded with good teams. You have Louisville and Notre Dame — two of the top teams from the Big East — taking up the two and four seeds, and Kansas and Purdue serving as the one and three. This is the toughest one to call in Doc’s opinion, but after getting Northern Iowa’d last year, Kansas should rebound nicely. They have size to spare, scorers, and plenty of depth. They will be a tough out by any team’s standards. Notre Dame has been fantastic all year, and Ben Hansbrough has been a stud. But the Doc thinks Purdue will get it done behind JaJuan Johnson and E’Twaun Moore and knock off the Irish.
Now everybody knows there are going to be upsets, especially in the 10-7 games and 12-5 games. To fill those holes, the Doc is picking Penn State which is fresh off a deep run in the Big Ten tourney to beat Temple in the first round, and also Florida State and its strong defense to knock off Texas A&M. For 12-5 matchups, 30-3 Utah State will use its balanced scoring and three point shooting to knock off an inconsistent Kansas State squad. And don’t be surprised if Clemson gives West Virginia a run for their money in the first round.
In the end, it will be the Buckeyes over the Jayhawks.
