ROLLASON: March Madness is back again

It’s that time again. March Madness has been in full swing for weeks now and finally we have the NCAA official bracket released.

It’s the time of the year where everyone becomes an expert at analyzing college basketball. Co-workers setup office pools and throw in money on the side for a pot that the bosses don’t know about — unless your boss is cool and is also filling out a bracket.

In a year where it has been difficult to determine who the best team in the country was for up to a week, I have attempted to give my argument for this year’s National Champion.

Unlike most Americans, I have a single bracket. You only need to fill it out once to get it right. None of this filling out five or six different brackets every year, one bracket should be enough.

To start, most people have that one team that they believe will win the Championship before they even look at the bracket. I am probably making a similar choice to a lot of college basketball fans, but based off of that I would say that the Louisville Cardinals would be this year’s champion, but let’s fill out the bracket and see where they fall.

The Midwest region is touted as the toughest region in the Tournament. Headed up by the number 1 overall seed Louisville Cardinals who are favored by many to win the title, including yours truly.

But also in the tough Midwest region is Duke as the second seed and Michigan State as the third seed; along with them is a tough Saint Louis team as the four seed and a very talented Memphis team as the sixth seed. This region will be a gauntlet battle, but I predict Louisville defeating Duke in the Elite Eight to make their way to Atlanta for the Final Four.

The South Region has a handful of good teams that could make their case for a Final Four spot. Headed up with Kansas at the number 1 seed, the Jayhawks are coming off of another great season and have once again claimed a top seed.

The second seed in the South Region is the Hoyas of Georgetown, along with Florida as the third seed and the Wolverines of Michigan as the fourth seed, who themselves were once the number 1 ranked team in the Nation.

Tough call on this one, but I am predicting Kansas to defeat Georgetown and move on to the Final Four.

The West Region might just be the lightest region in this year’s tournament. Gonzaga, who isn’t getting much love, is the No. 1 seed and Ohio State is the second seed. New Mexico holds the third seed and Kansas State has the fourth seed.

Also in the West is a battle tested fifth seed Wisconsin and a dangerous Belmont squad who has the 11 seed. Even if this region is the weakest it might be the most fun to watch, I see Ohio State defeating Wisconsin in the Elite Eight to earn a spot in the Final Four.

The last region is the one that I am most excited to see. The number 1 seed in the East is the Indiana Hoosiers who some believe should have been the overall number 1 seed.

After Indiana is the exciting Miami Hurricanes with the second seed and two talented Big East teams in Marquette with the third seed and Syracuse with the fourth seed.

A few other teams to watch in the East are Butler with the sixth seed, the eighth seeded NC State Wolfpack, and 14 seed Davidson Wildcats. A fun region, but I am going to take Miami to beat Indiana and go to the Final Four.

This creates the Final Four of Louisville, Kansas, Ohio State and Miami. I understand that not everyone will agree with me on this, but after looking at the bracket these are the results I’m predicting.

Louisville will beat Ohio State and Miami will beat Kansas setting up Louisville and Miami in the Championship game where the Cardinals will take out the Hurricanes for the title.

This bracket was tougher for me this year than it has been in years past, but I do believe that Louisville will end up winning the title in Atlanta.

Tyler Rollason is a Winder-Barrow High School graduate and mass communications major at the University of West Georgia. He writes a weekly column for the Barrow Journal. You can e-mail comments about this column to tyrollason@yahoo.com.