’Nova steamrolls
Best Round of 64 matchup: This one is a tie. Virginia coach Tony Bennett and Florida coach Mike White have to be wondering what they did to make the tournament selection committee unhappy. Their team each drew a firstround matchup against an opponent that has the ingredients to be a big problem. At least the Gators have the benefit (or will it be the pressure?) of playing in Orlando. East Tennessee State fields a starting lineup that includes three seniors and a junior. One of the seniors is guard T.J. Cromer, who averages nearly 19 points per game and had 41 in a Southern Conference tournament semifinal. The other two — forwards Hanner Mosquera-Perea and Tevin Glass — played earlier in their careers at Indiana and Wichita State, respectively. Florida is without injured 6-11 center John Egbunu, who could have been a differencemaker in a game like this. Virginia has to deal with UNC-Wilmington, which gave Duke an extremely difficult time in the first round of last year’s tournament and has many key players back. The Seahawks are averaging more than 85 points per game, which might seem to make them an easy mark for a rugged defensive team such as Virginia, but the Cavaliers have struggled during the second half of the season and they can have trouble scoring. They will have to avoid falling behind early, or they could be in for a long game.
Potential upset: If the prospect of the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds facing tough firstround matchups isn’t enough, try this on for size: Villanova has three losses this season. Two of them were to Butler. Who
might the Wildcats face in the second round? Another methodical, experienced team that has won its share of big games in recent seasons: Wisconsin. Or, if you’re a believer in karma, with a political twist, how about the prospect of a South Carolina-Duke pairing in the second round in Greenville, S.C. This is the site that the NCAA selected as replacement for Greensboro, N.C., after that state’s HB2 saga.
The sleeper: In this space (well, actually it was in the West Region space), someone picked a fifth-seeded Baylor team as The Sleeper last year in a region featuring Oklahoma and Oregon, Texas A&M and Duke. That Baylor team lost to Yale in the first round. In an era of doubling down on controversial statements, here’s another nod to the Bears. Yes, they lost to Kansas State in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals. But surely they’ve learned from last season. Or from the season before that, when they got knocked out in the first round by Georgia State as a No. 3 seed. And star forward Jonathan Motley can lead a team that this season has beaten Oregon, Virginia Commonwealth, Louisville, Michigan State and Xavier. All the attention is going to be on Villanova and Duke and new darling SMU. Maybe that’s all Baylor needs. If it can get out of the first round.
The winner: Villanova has lost twice to Butler. Butler isn’t in this region. Although 2015 NCAA title winner Duke is in this region — seriously, how about having the last two national champions in the same region? — and Duke is steaming into this tournament off an ACC tournament title, Villanova has been there all season. Calm. Cool. Efficient. The road to Phoenix goes through Madison Square Garden, the Wildcats’ regular postseason home, and through Villanova.