Contender or Pretender

Even though the tournament is down to 8 teams, and every team has beaten three quality teams to get where they are, there are still some teams that have a very low shot at winning the title.

Let's start with the lowest seeded teams, Syracuse and Notre Dame. Syracuse took down #7 Dayton quite convincingly, then took on #15 Middle Tennessee, a team that beat Michigan State, but was really a one hit wonder. After that they played another low seeded team, #11 Gonzaga, but Gonzaga was actually a pretty good team, who had to take down Utah and Seton Hall to get there. But either way Syracuse has had a pretty easy road to the Elite 8 for a team that was seeded tenth, and barely made it into the tournament. I would say that is possible for Orange to make the Final Four, although I doubt they will make it any farther. Notre Dame also had a fairly easy road, although I would say it was slightly tougher than Syracuse. Notre Dame had to take down #11 Michigan, #14 Stephen F Austin, and #7 Wisconsin. Again I think the Irish can only go as far as making the Final Four. 

I think all the other teams in the tourney could all go as far as the tournament game. I think out of the other six Oregon, Villanova, and Virginia are probably the weakest. I think Oregon was over seeded as a 1 seed because I believe that they played in one of the weakest conferences this year, the Pac-12. Even though they were the champs of the Pac-12, I believe they would be better suited as a #2 or #3 seed. Villanova is a very good team, and they are shooting extremely well lately, but I don't know how much longer they can keep it up. If the Wildcats defeat Kansas, then I believe they could very well win the whole thing. Virginia I feel is a very good, but I'm concerned that they just don't have enough offense. Especially because they will likely have to play North Carolina if they make the Final Four, and UNC, who they recently lost to in the ACC title game. 

I believe the other three teams are still the top contenders, after all North Carolina, Oklahoma and Kansas were three of the teams who were thought to be top contenders throughout the year. The only thing missing is Michigan State. I think the perfect final four would be a KU vs OU part three, and MSU vs UNC, but we might have to settle for UNC vs Virginia instead.