2009 March Madness Bracket Predictions: Midwest Region

Written by Jimmy Boyd on March 17, 2009

midwest region 31709 I have weighed the field and I am ready to reveal my Midwest Region predictions. Find out what upsets I have picked and if anyone can keep No. 1 seed Louisville out of the Final Four in this article.

Round One – The winner of the play-in game wins the opportunity to get crushed by Louisville. We have an intriguing No. 8 versus No. 9 matchup Ohio State and Siena. I’ll take the Buckeyes to move on as they have more overall talent and peaking at the right time. Arizona should take care of business as a No. 12 seed over Utah, but Wake Forest should avoid any upsets against Cleveland State. I have West Virginia over Dayton and Kansas over North Dakota State. I like USC to pull off the No. 10 over No. 7 upset against Boston College to complete round one.

Round Two – Ohio State has enough talent to hang with No. 1 seed Louisville, just ask the Michigan State Spartans who they defeated in the Big Ten Tournament, but when the smoke clears, Louisville’s experience gets it into the Sweet 16. Arizona is a talented team, and not much of a Cinderella in my opinion, but its No. 12 seed does insinuate that it wears the slipper if it makes a run. I have the Wildcats taking down a young Wake Forest team in round two. Kansas has had some bright moments this season but this team is young. I have an underrated West Virginia squad advancing over the Jayhawks. USC plays good enough defense to give the Michigan State Spartans some problems, but offensively it isn’t explosive enough to take out the Big Ten’s best.

Sweet 16 – I like Arizona to make a nice run after narrowly finding its way into the field, but it ends here as No. 1 seed Louisville takes down the Cats. It will be Louisville’s defense that gives the Cards the edge as the Wildcats have failed to get stops in plenty of critical games this season. West Virginia versus Michigan State should be a good one, but I think Michigan State point guard Kalin Lucas will be the difference as the Mountaineers have no answer for him. Defensively, West Virginia is as good as anyone in the country so I’m expecting a defensive battle here with the Spartans edging out the Mountain Men.

Elite Eight – While Rick Pitino’s squad won both the Big East regular season title and the tournament championship, it is still a team with plenty of weaknesses. It rules the Big East because not too many of those teams have handled Louisville’s full court pressure very well. Teams that have done so have won and a disciplined Michigan State team with an exceptional point guard will be able to do so. The Spartans play great defense and they rank No. 1 in the nation in defensive rebounding. Louisville wins a lot of games by getting second chance points because it is active, but the Spartans are too good of a rebounding team to allow that. Tom Izzo and the Spartans are my pick to get to the Final Four from the Midwest.

Beat the NCAA basketball lines this month with the help of Jimmy Boyd’s college basketball picks. Why leave your basketball betting to chance when you can play with a highly regarded world champion handicapper?

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