Tourney Bracket Now - Final Four picks

Andy Behrens, Pete Thamel, Krysten Peek and Preston Johnson break down the 2021 NCAA men’s tournament field and reveal their choices for who will cut down the nets in Indianapolis.

Video transcript

ANDY BEHRENS: Welcome back. This is what you've all been waiting for. This is really the money moments here. Time to get our Final Four picks, our finalists, are national champions. Pete, start us off.

PETE THAMEL: Well, my Final Four is going to be Gonzaga, Florida State, Arkansas, and Illinois. I really feel like if you are going to pick Gonzaga on the chalk rocket, like I am, you better have a couple dark horses in your Final Four if you want to win the pool. Because guess what? Everyone's going to pick Gonzaga to win.

And if you need some creativity, [? then ?] you need to make up in some other spaces. So I'm going to have Gonzaga playing Arkansas in the national title game, and I look for the Zags to roll and capture history.

KRYSTEN PEEK: For me, I'm also going with Gonzaga. I'm having them playing Alabama and Arkansas playing Cade Cunningham and Oklahoma State. For the championship game, I want the game that every basketball fan wants. We want to see Jalen Suggs verse Cade Cunningham for all the marbles, number one team, [? versus ?] number one pick. And you know, I don't think they're going to be enough for Gonzaga, and I see Gonzaga, again, making history. And I'm going with the favorite, for sure.

PRESTON JOHNSON: I don't know if it was the NBA fan in me that saw a potential Jalen Suggs-Cade Cunningham match-up in the final that just had me writing in Oklahoma State every time. But I agree. I think that would just be like, the most ridiculous head to head match-up.

I do think Gonzaga and Alabama are coming out of those two regions. Pretty frequently, they're the two best teams on that side of the bracket. And then I did need to go contrarian. Pete hit on it. If you're filling out bracket pools, definitely don't just have Gonzaga winning it all and then going chalk everywhere else, too. It's not going to pay off.

I think Oklahoma State has a real shot over Ohio State again. I think they have [? a good shot ?] against Baylor themselves.

ANDY BEHRENS: Oh, my goodness. Listen to these guys talking as if they're going contrarian here, but all taking Gonzaga. I get it. Gonzaga's great, probably going to win it. Really hard to distinguish your bracket if you've got them going all the way. So I am way out on a limb here, way contrarian.

Of course, I'm taking Iowa to the Final Four. That was a given. I also like Alabama. Alabama's great. Like, they're sneaky great. Again, they play fast. They get up a million 3s. They're a great defensive team. I think they can go all the way to the final game.

On the other side, I like Baylor, I like Illinois. Illinois has been so good, but I am taking the Baylor Bears all the way through to win this thing. Again, they were right there with Gonzaga very early in the season until they hit their COVID pause. They've been great all year, multiple scoring options.

Talked about it earlier, the best percentage shooting team in the country. I think the Baylor Bears can take down this whole field. They are my pick.