Every single year, the selection committee seems to do a disservice to at least one region, and this year it’s the East. In the final AP Poll of the season, the East Region features the #1, #6, #8, #13, and #14 ranked teams all in the same bracket. It’s hard to understand how five of the top 15 teams in the country end up in one pod while other regions look far less competitive.
The committee also did no favors to the St. John's Red Storm. After winning both the Big East regular season and tournament titles, they were given an underseeded 5-seed and sent across the country to San Diego for a first-round matchup against Northern Iowa, a team ranked #72 in KenPom. On top of that, this is now the second straight year the bracket appears to be setting up a potential second-round meeting between Bill Self and Rick Pitino.
For anyone looking at the bracket as a whole, this is easily the most stacked region. Eight of the 16 teams rank inside the top 28 of KenPom, and the coaching talent might be the best we’ve ever seen in a single region. The East includes Jon Scheyer, Dan Hurley, Tom Izzo, Bill Self, and Rick Pitino, all in the same bracket.
Buckle up, this region has all the ingredients for chaos, and it wouldn’t be surprising at all if the East ends up producing the wildest games of the entire tournament. As a result of the bracket draw, the odds for every top-5 seed in the East Region to win the national championship dropped on FanDuel, except for Duke.
