Your Guide To The 2019 NCAA Men’s Tournament: West region

Seed perspective: Gonzaga is the best club in the West by a substantial margin, but the Zags, despite reaching have performed well beneath the glowing lights of the championship. Still, Gonzaga has a 70 percent likelihood of reaching the Elite Eight, based on our model, as well as the third-best chances of any group to accomplish the national championship game (26 percent).
If Gonzaga face Syracuse in the next round, the Bulldogs trouble could be given by the zone defense of the Orange. This is the very best crime Mark Few has experienced Spokane, but it could possibly be analyzed by some of those terrific defenses from the West: Four of the best 15 can be found in this area, including the best two in Texas Tech and Michigan.
Sneaky Final Four pick: No. 4 Florida State. A fixture at the KenPom Top 20 for the majority of the season, the Seminoles are hoping to build on last year’s championship run, which saw them come inside a 4-point margin of making the Final Four. FSU has a dominant defense (No. 9 at Pomeroy’s evaluations ) plus a balanced roster that saw four players accumulate at least 2.5 win shares. This draw is not terrible, either: Vermont isn’t especially tough as a first-round foe, and Marquette is quite beatable (more on this below). No. 1 seeded Gonzaga probably looms after that, and we give FSU a 24 percent chance against the Zags — but the Seminoles would have a 48 percent chance of making the Final Four if they were to pull off the upset.
Do not wager : No. 5 Marquette. Teams seeded fifth are not usually good bets to make it past the Sweet 16 anyway, but Marquette could be a particularly terrible choice. According to the FiveThirtyEight energy ratings, the Golden Eagles are undoubtedly the worst No. 5 seed in the field, and also a first-round date using breakout mid-major superstar Ja Morant did not do them any favors. Marquette has a star power of its own in junior guard Markus Howard, who ranks sixth in the country with an average of 25 points per game, but this team lost five of its final six games and has a challenging tournament road ahead of it.
Cinderella see: No. 10 Florida. They could be poised to do some damage they are here, although the Gators may have been among the final bubble teams to creep into the area of 68. They drew Nevada, a so-so No. 7 seed, at the first round, and we give Florida a 42 percent chance of pulling the upset that. Last year’s nationwide runner-up, Michigan, probably waits in Round 2, and that’s a difficult matchup (23 percent odds of Florida) — however when the Gators win, they have a 38 percent likelihood of earning the Elite Eight. In a region with quite a few good-but-flawed options, Florida looks better than the.
Player to watch: Brandon Clarke This Zags’ linchpin is not the consensus lottery selection, nor the two veteran guards that have started 87 percent of Gonzaga’s games over the past two seasons. It’s a transfer from San Jose State who’s in his first active season with the group, Brandon Clarke. He’s perhaps the most underappreciated player in the nation.
On a team that typically comes with a it is Clarke, at 6-foot-8, who is tasked with protecting the paint this year. Clarke has reacted by placing a single-season blocks record and submitting the maximum block rate of any team under Couple.
“Should I feel as when I can find a good, quick jump first, I’ll pretty much leap with anybody,” Clarke told me. “I mean, I’ve seen Zion (Williamson) coming down through the street before TV, and if I can not jump at the right time, I likely would not jump , however… I don’t actually see myself not jumping with anyone.”
Likeliest first-round upsets: No. 9 Baylor over No. 8 Syracuse (48 percent); No. 10 Florida over No. 7 Nevada (42 percent); No. 12 Murray State over No. 5 Marquette (32 percent)

Read more: newyork-info.com