A quick spin around the NCAA Tourney bracket

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  LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – My reactions to the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament bracket:

  *The top seeds (Duke/East, Virginia/South, North Carolina/Midwest and Gonzaga/West) were clear cut – especially after Auburn beat the snot out of Tennessee in the SEC final Sunday.

  *The strongest “1-2 seed combination”, IMHO, is North Carolina and Kentucky in the Midwest.

  SEC Tourney champion and No. 5 seed Auburn and Big 12 Tourney winner and No. 6 seed Iowa State seem the obvious biggest obstacles to a UNC-UK regional showdown in Kansas City on March 31.

    *The toughest No. 3 seed is Texas Tech, led by one of the Top 10 or so coaches in the sport right now (Chris Beard).

   LSU is the most physically gifted No. 3 seed but Tigers’ Coach Will Wade was suspended by the school (Google specifics) and isn’t likely to return to the bench anytime soon. And he’s a superb coach.

   *The most compelling first-round games:

   — Thursday, Minnesota vs. Louisville in Des Moines (Richard Pitino coaches the Gophers. His Hall of Fame father, Rick, was fired by the Cardinals last year);

  — Thursday, Marquette vs. Murray State in Hartford (Markus Howard and Ja Morant, respectively, are All-American guards for reach team; Morant could be the No. 2 pick in the June NBA Draft, after Zion Williamson, of course);

  — Friday, UC Irvine vs. Kansas State in San Jose (the Anteaters may be the strongest Big West team since the late Jerry Tarkanian was the head coach and UNLV was in the conference; along with Yale vs. LSU, this is one of two 13 vs. 4 matchups in which a lot of folks will label the games “upset specials”);

   — Friday, Oregon vs. Wisconsin in San Jose (the Ducks getting a 12 seed after being so impressive down the Pac 12 stretch was near-stunning; this game, plus Liberty vs. Mississippi State, also in San Jose Friday, provides the two 12s vs. 5s that most will lean to as “upsets”);

   *The NCAA’s Championship (aka “Selection”) Committee apparently thought even less of the overall strength of the Pac 12 Conference than I assumed it would, with regular-season champion Washington getting a 9, regular-season runner-up Arizona State an 11 – with a Wednesday Opening-Round game vs. St. John’s in Dayton – and the conference champion Oregon Ducks a 12 seed.

   The Ducks, though, seem to have a reasonable opportunity to advance to the second week of the tournament and March 28 South Regional semifinal vs. regional top seed Virginina.

   *Final Four projections . . .

   — It wouldn’t surprise me at all if regional top seeds advance to Minneapolis for April 6 Final Four semifinals of Duke vs. Gonzaga and North Carolina vs. Virginia.

    — But, if you want a FF projection that doesn’t include any of the 1 seeds, I’d go with Michigan State (No. 2/East), Florida State (No. 4/West), Villanova (No. 6/South) and Iowa State (No. 6/Midwest).