Midwest Region: Kansas Beats Louisville (but some methods show Iowa St. in Finals or Louisville)

This blog breaks down all four double header of games played in the Midwest Region, which are the games that appear in the upper right corner of brackets. It shows the top 10 players on the floor for each of these double headers, and gives details on which factors give advantages to which teams.

This bracket looks wide open however. Kansas is the overall winner despite Louisville and Iowa State splitting the nine categories evenly, and based on the "Top 3 Players" equation Iowa State goes all the way to the championship game.
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Click here for the grid showing the results of the entire tournament using 10 different approaches. If you simply want to fill out a bracket quickly, you can go straight to that link and fill out your bracket in about two minutes choosing any of the 10 options. That post also explains the 10 different approaches. Many more stories appear here, and you can sort the rating for all 4000+ players and see who is injured by clicking on www.valueaddbasketball.com.

Tulsa 1^st two rounds
Midwest: No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 16 NC Central/UC Davis
Midwest: No. 8 Miami vs. No. 9 Michigan State

Top 10 Players

3, Frank Mason #0, Kansas

40, Davon Reed #5, Miami FL

49, Josh Jackson #11, Kansas

63, Bruce Brown #11, Miami FL

77, Devonte' Graham #4, Kansas

176, Nick Ward #44, Michigan St.

191, Miles Bridges #22, Michigan St.

308, Landen Lucas #33, Kansas

327, Brynton Lemar #0, UC Davis

381, Anthony Lawrence #3, Miami FL

Possible “style/home” edge upset: Kansas will have the big home advantage.

Milwaukee 1^st two rounds
Midwest: No. 5 Iowa State vs. No. 12 Nevada
Midwest: No. 4 Purdue vs. No. 13 Vermont

10 Best Players

7, Monte Morris #11, Iowa St.

17, Caleb Swanigan #50, Purdue

42, Marcus Marshall #1, Nevada

55, Nazareth Mitrou-Long #15, Iowa St.

120, Vincent Edwards #12, Purdue

171, Dakota Mathias #31, Purdue

174, Matt Thomas #21, Iowa St.

198, Cameron Oliver #0, Nevada

238, Deonte Burton #30, Iowa St.

256, Jordan Caroline #24, Nevada

Possible “style/home” edge upset: None. “Home” advantage: Two higher seed home edge, but Iowa State more so in second game including Deonte Burton coming back to the arena where he played for Marquette before transferring.

Sacramento, California
Midwest: No. 6 Creighton vs. No. 11 Rhode Island
Midwest: No. 3 Oregon vs. No. 14 Iona

36, Jordan Bell #1, Oregon

72, Khyri Thomas #2, Creighton

111, Justin Patton #23, Creighton

134, Hassan Martin #12, Rhode Island

151, Dillon Brooks #24, Oregon

226, Dylan Ennis #31, Oregon

263, Tyler Dorsey #5, Oregon

335, EC Matthews #0, Rhode Island

349, Rickey McGill #0, Iona

382, Kuran Iverson #23, Rhode Island

When one of the greatest coaching family’s of all time (Dan Hurley) is coaching Allen Iverson’s cousin, it is no surprise Rhode Island has improved from 50^th to 37^th. Greg McDermitt steadied the ship with a run to the Big East Finals after the team had fallen from 16^th to 27^th after Watson’s injury. He hopes to have a chance to take on Creighton’s former coach in Dana Altman of Oregon.

Healthy: Oregon and Creighton were hit with two of the biggest injuries in the country, however Oregon’s bench is good enough to offset most of the loss of Chris Boucher, while Creighton was one of the most hurt teams in the country after point guard Mo Watson went down for the season.

Possible “style/home” edge upset: Rhode Island is very good at denying 3-pointers (18^th in country) that Creighton needs (13^th best 3-point shooting).

Indianapolis, Indiana
Midwest: No. 7 Michigan vs. No. 10 Oklahoma State
Midwest: No. 2 Louisville vs. No. 15 Jacksonville State

8, Derrick Walton #10, Michigan

19, Donovan Mitchell #45, Louisville

21, Jawun Evans #1, Oklahoma St.

30, Jeffrey Carroll #30, Oklahoma St.

141, Phil Forte #13, Oklahoma St.

161, Moritz Wagner #13, Michigan

168, DJ Wilson #5, Michigan

235, Deng Adel #22, Louisville

255, Erik Durham #15, Jacksonville St.

289, Quentin Snider #4, Louisville

Michigan improved from 40^th to 21^st in the last month, winning the Big Ten title along the way after surviving a plane crash to enter the tournament as the hottest team in the country behind only SMU.

Possible “style/home” edge upset: Michigan doesn’t turn the ball over (9^th best at protecting the ball) and forces opponents to take 2-pointers (9^th best), which seems to stop the two chances Oklahoma State would have at the upset (29^th in steals, and 9^th in three-point shooting).