Tourney Bracket Now - East Region

Andy Behrens, Pete Thamel, Krysten Peek and Preston Johnson break down the East Region of the 2021 NCAA men’s tournament field - including the Michigan Wolverines, who earned the top seed in their region for just the third time in school history.

Video transcript

ANDY BEHRENS: All right. We got one more region to examine. Let's discuss the East, and let's start with-- man, this is another matchup of teams that I feel like were a little bit disrespected in the seeding. It's LSU, it's St. Bonaventure. If we care about adjusted efficiency margin, we're talking about like the number 25 and 29 teams in the country. LSU just looked great, obviously, in the SEC title game. Pete, start us off. How do you handicap this thing?

PETE THAMEL: Well, St. Bonaventure already won on Monday, because Mark Schmidt, their veteran coach, one of the most respected coaches on the east coast was the speculative favorite to go to Penn State and Boston College. Well, it looks like Penn State's going to hire Michael Shrewsberry, the Purdue assistant. Boston College, surprisingly, hired Earl Grant from Charleston. So that means at St. Bonaventure, you not only have your five juniors in your starting lineup going into next season, but you're also going to have your coach back for five seniors.

So Kyle Lofton, to me, is going to be the key to St. Bonaventure winning this game. He's the do it all point guard for the Bonnies. He only shoots about 25% from three. But I talked to some opposing coaches in the A10 and they said, look, he's the best player in our league. He makes all the ones that matter.

KRYSTEN PEEK: I mean, that might all be true, Pete, but did you see that LSU team in the game against Alabama? I don't know how you pick against them. LSU's a tough team with a little bit of everything. Of course you have Cameron Thomas, who I know you love, Pete, who's the leading scorer in the SEC, letting it fly all over the court.

But also they've got point guard Javonte Smart, who is starting to pick things up late in the season. And power forward Trendon Watford had 30 points against a tough defensive Alabama team. So I not only like LSU in this one, but I also like them to upset Michigan in the second round, because Michigan is down one of their best players in Isaiah Livers. So I've got LSU going very far in this bracket.

ANDY BEHRENS: OK. Next matchup we want to get into, it's Alabama and Iona. Pete, I saw you tweeting about this matchup last night. It is just occurring to me as we speak that Rick Pitino is in this tournament and Kentucky and Louisville are not. That's kind of amazing. Bama's good. They're awfully good-- great defensive team. Pete, break this one down for us.

PETE THAMEL: Well, Nate Oats has got a lot of credit, and he should for the SEC champion, SEC tournament champions. But he was also left some really good players by Avery Johnson. Herb Jones, the SEC Player of the Year is one of them. He's a do it all dynamic player. You don't get a lot of do it all glue guys who become the league MVP.

And then obviously John Petty fits in that style, where basically everyone on the floor can run and shoot. Jahvon Quinerly was their breakout player, the former Arizona commit, Villanova player has kind of found life in this third spot and really adapted to Nate Oats' culture. It's a dynamic team and they are going to run and shoot and be a blast to watch. So with apologies to Coach Pitino, I think the new generation here rules.

KRYSTEN PEEK: I agree with Alabama. They're going to Roll Tide all the way to the Final Four. Like you said, Jahvon Quinerly is playing the best basketball of the season. He's slicing and dicing and getting to the rim and knocking down the three. And Herb Jones, not only was SEC Player of the Year, but he was Defensive Player of the Year as well, and he will carry this team all the way through this bracket. I agree with you, Pete.

ANDY BEHRENS: All right, Pete. Give us one more team to watch in this region.

PETE THAMEL: So I am going to tell everyone to beware of Georgetown, just like I'm going to tell you to beware of Oregon State. I've seen it so many times over the years and talked to some coaches about it this week. America fell in love with Patrick Ewing, right. The 9-12 Hoyas, or 9-12 Hoyas rolled into the Big East tournament hopeless. They won four games in four nights, Patrick Ewing all in the Garden. He didn't have to show his credentials anymore.

It was a great story. Don't let a good weekend trick you into picking them in their bracket. Georgetown is not a very good basketball team. They lost to Navy early in the year. They have zero NBA prospects on their roster. It's a great brand and a great story, but the evidence says it's a bad team. So don't get too caught up in the storyline. Dial into the personnel.

ANDY BEHRENS: KP, give us a prospect to focus on here.

KRYSTEN PEEK: I'm going to give you guys a name that you probably haven't heard-- if you have heard then you've been watching a lot of college basketball, like I have. It's UConn sophomore guard James Bouknight. Could we see some Kemba Walker-ish UConn magic? Maybe not to the championship game, but Bouknight can give them a spark. He had 40 points against Creighton earlier in the season, and had one of the best putback dunks I've seen all year, flying in from the wing. So he can be a fun player to watch, and might be the key to a couple of UConn wins in this tournament.

ANDY BEHRENS: Preston, help us make a little money out east.

PRESTON JOHNSON: This one hurts. It's a buy low on a UCLA team that's getting two points in the play-in game against Sparty. It hard to double for me, because I'm technically a Bruins fan. And I usually try to stay away from betting on the team, just because it hurts twice as much when they lose. But they should be a favorite here.

And I know they dropped their last four before this tournament began. You look at those four teams-- look, all four of them are in the tournament. I believe three of them went down to basically the final position. So similar to Drake, I think UCLA should be about a 1.5 point favorite. They're getting two points. Long term that's going to turn a profit. I'm going to trust the Bruins and take 'em plus two against Sparty.

ANDY BEHRENS: Man, am I the only one who fully supports their own team in this tournament? Apparently I am. OK. Let's discuss winners, projected winners in the East Region. We'll start with you Pete.

PETE THAMEL: Well, I'm going to take another dark horse and I'm going to go with Florida State. Leonard Hamilton has coached in 10 NCAA tournaments. He's never reached the Final Four. Last season he had his best chance. Florida State won the ACC regular season before everything was shut down.

I really feel like KP's draft crush, Scottie Barnes, who she talked about earlier, is going to be kind of like the Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was at Kentucky. He's going to do it all for the Seminoles. They are old, they are big, they are deep. They switch everything, which opposing coaches say really isn't a look that any other team in the country can give you to try to replicate what Florida State brings in terms of athleticism. So if you want some good value in a dark horse, take Florida State out of the East.

KRYSTEN PEEK: I love Florida State in this region, but I cannot go against Alabama and what they did in the SEC championship game. That was the best game of the year. And they proved that even when their outside shot isn't falling, they've shown how tough their defense can be. So I'm going to stick with Bama all the way to the Final Four.

PRESTON JOHNSON: I'm with Krysten again. A little sneak preview earlier as well when I said I thought Bama could be the team out of this region. People are skipping on the fact that their defense ranks third in the country in efficiency, and that's adjusted for schedule. It's adjusted for how fast they play, because they do play with a ton of tempo. We know they can score the ball and get up and down. I like them quite a bit. And obviously without Isaiah Livers I think Michigan takes a hit. I thought Alabama had a resume that warranted a one line seat, potentially anyways. So give me the Roll Tide. Yeah.

ANDY BEHRENS: Man, Preston took all my talking points on Alabama there. I agree with him fully. I thought Bama could be a one seed as well. And you look at Michigan-- it's just unfortunate that Livers is not going be able to start this tournament. Hopefully we see him at some point, don't know that yet. But Bama is so good. They play fast, scary fast, great defensive team. They throw up a million threes. And when they go in, they're just about unbeatable. So absolutely love Bama here. They are also my pick to go to the Final Four.