2009 NCAA Bracket Advice: Midwest

Key to the region...
Surviving the opening rounds. There could be as many as five first-round upsets and two according to the seeds in round two. Louisville is the only higher seed that should have little trouble advancing to the regionals, though they could face Ohio State in Dayton if both teams advance. Kansas has scant players on this roster that played significant minutes during the title run from a year ago and Wake Forest is led by sophomores and freshman, though very talented ones. On the other hand, lower seeds like Siena, Arizona, Cleveland State and North Dakota State are just the kind of upper class-led programs that can do damage to office pools across the country.

First round upsets:
This is one upsetting region, but the biggest shocker of all will be the 13th seeded Cleveland State Vikings knocking off the #4 seed Wake Forest Demon Deacons. On paper, Wake has simply too much size inside, but the young squad struggled recently in two games against another vertically challenged team in Maryland, a fact that bodes well for the Vikings. 6-5 J'Nathan Bullock is the Vikings inside threat while Horizon Tournament MVP Cedric Jackson, who hit a half court, game winning shot at Syracuse this year, controls the perimeter.

Others:
#9 Siena over #8 Ohio State; #10 USC over #7 Boston College, #12 Arizona over #5 Utah. Would love to make the gutsy call and take the senior-led #14 seed North Dakota State over Kansas, but need to find more game film on the Bison, especially one night in particular...

Best player you never heard of
Which college player scored 60 points in a game this season? No, not Stephen Curry. Blake Griffin? Strike two. Ok, here is a hint: he plays in the state of North Dakota. Yeah, I guess if you don't know by now, that clue will not help, so let me simply introduce North Dakota State's Ben Woodside, a 5-11 senior guard who lit up fellow NCAA Tournament team Stephen F. Austin for that monster total. The Bison's leading scorer with 22.8 points per game also the hit the game-winning shot in the Summit Conference title game to send the 3-point shooting Bison into the big dance in their first year of eligibility.

Others
Luke Nevill, Utah; Kenny Hasbrouck, Siena; Cedric Jackson, Cleveland State

Sweet 16 matchups
Louisville over Arizona, West Virginia over Michigan State. I am not even sure the Wildcats should be in the field, but they have multiple NBA players and the negative buzz will fuel a Sweet 16 run before running into the Cardinals buzz saw. After going toe-to-toe with the Big East heavyweights all season, Bob Huggins and his Mountaineers will be able to match the Spartans toughness and long-range bomber Alex Ruoff will provide the offense.

And going to the Final Four...
Louisville. Simply put, I will take Rick Pitino over every coach going today, period. The master motivator has the deep and balanced Cardinals peaking at the right time and their regular and post season Big East titles will grow in stature during this tournament. Forward Terrence Williams is the type of player that can dominate a game without scoring much and he does not need to with the likes of swingman Earl Clark and post scorer Samardo Samuels at his side. Beating a team three times in one season is a tough task, but one Louisville is poised to accomplish as they take down their Big East rivals West Virginia 75-70.