This year’s NCAA Tournament is going to be electric, as always. There will be multiple opportunities for upsets throughout the tournament, as it happens every year. I love this tournament every year because of the nature of the one-and-done element. You have to play your A-game every game or go home. However, this year I’m going chalk with all four No. 1 seeds making the Final Four because these are pretty good teams overall. I can’t see them faltering. Here’s how the picks shape out.
NCAA Final Four Picks
As I mentioned before, I have the four one seeds, Auburn, Duke, Houston, and Florida making the NCAA Final Four this season. Yes, I know it’s rare for all four to make the Final Four because of the various upsets that happen. The fact of the matter is these one seeds are the most complete teams we have in the game of college basketball. Especially Florida and Duke when Cooper Flagg is healthy.
Auburn has been on kind of a skid entering this tournament and, yes, Houston could easily lose to Tennessee in the Elite Eight. I believe that Bruce Pearl and Kelvin Sampson will navigate their teams this year through their regions to meet the Gators and Blue Devils in San Antonio. But that’s how far the Tigers and Cougars will go unfortunately for those fan bases. We are heading for a Florida-Duke National Championship in my mind. So let’s dive into the NCAA Championship game and give you my National Champion.
NCAA Championship Game/National Champion Picks
The Gators and Blue Devils I feel are the two best teams when fully healthy. Especially Florida with the depth they have across the board led by Walter Clayton Jr. I love the run that the Gators are on entering the tournament with wins over Auburn, Alabama, and Tennessee over the last couple of weeks of the season to win the SEC Tournament. The Gators have been the trendy pick to win the title on the national media stage with pundits like Jay Bilas and Seth Greenberg picking the Gators to cut down the nets. BUT THEY ARE UNDERESTIMATING THIS BLUE DEVILS TEAM ESPECIALLY WITH COOPER FLAGG!
Yes, I know that Flagg is dealing with the ankle injury suffered against Georgia Tech in the ACC Tournament, but it looks like he could play as early as the game on Friday against either American or Mount St Mary’s. If he does play in the game Friday, look out NCAA because this Duke team just won the ACC without him. He will be hungry to win the National Championship before he goes to the NBA.
I believe this Duke team that beat Auburn in December in the SEC vs ACC challenge will beat another SEC team to cut down the nets in San Antonio thanks to the Flagg and Kon Knueppel duo along with the strong defense that the Blue Devils bring to the table. My National Champion is the Duke Blue Devils at the end of the day.
Total Apex Sports is the place to be for more NCAA Tournament news and updates throughout the rest of March, with game previews throughout the tournament. Thanks again for reading this article. I love making picks and I think that these picks will do well for me this year.
