West Bracket Sweet 16 Predictions

The West bracket almost had all the top seeds advance if it weren’t for Missouri getting upset by Norfolk State. Still as a 7th seed Florida is a very dangerous team. The West features two players that are playing better basketball than anyone in the country. Those players are Michigan State’s Draymond Green and Marquette’s Jae Crowder. Check out my picks below to see who I think will advance to the Elite 8.

Michigan State/ Louisville- Here is where I think Louisville’s inconsistency will catch up to them. The Cardinals sometimes struggle to score; they are 155th in the nation in points scored. Cardinal’s point guard Peyton Siva averages 3.5 turnovers per game, and that is way too much for a point guard. In Louisville’s two tournament games they have committed more turnovers than assists. Michigan State’s Tom Izzo always has his teams playing well in March. Michigan State’s Draymond Green is just unstoppable, and he can do it all. He led the Spartans in points, rebounds, blocks and steals. He became just the third player to have multiple triple doubles in the tournament. Besides Green the Spartans also feature plenty of size inside with Derrick Nix and Adreian Payne . Payne and Nix are playing their best basketball of the season right now. In the two tournament games the Spartans are a plus 25 on the glass while Louisville was out rebounded by 11 in their last game. This will be a low defensive game but the Spartans have too much inside. Michigan State-65 Louisville-57

Marquette/ Florida- Jae Crowder, the Big East Player of the Year was just unstoppable this weekend. In the two games he averaged 21 points, 14.5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3.5 steals. I still think Crowder doesn’t get enough publicity nationally. Darius Johnson Odom is also averaging 18.5 points per game. Marquette head coach Buzz Williams is one of the most intense coaches and his teams play like it. His teams play tough physical defense. The Golden Eagles are also playing great defense holding their opponents in the first two games to 34 % shooting from the field. The Gators feature a 4-guard offense; they make the most three’s of any team in the nation. . However in the opening week they only made 14 of 51 three’s and that is just 27 %. Stud Freshman Bradley Beal is playing his best basketball of the season right now. Kenny Boynton and Erving Walker can go off on any night. Florida’s 108th ranked defense in the country will come back to hurt them. Marquette has trouble with bigger teams but the Gators don’t feature that. They lack that physical presence. There is no way that they will be able to handle Crowder. Marquette-68 Florida-63

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