March Madness is officially here and RotoBaller will be giving a full breakdown on each region. You can review the South region here, and now we'll be taking a look at the East.

Editor's Note: If you are interested in more college basketball columns, you can also check out our CBB DFS lineups picks and daily league predictions.

 

March Madness Picks for the East Region

Top Four Seeds: #1 North Carolina, #2 Xavier, #3 West Virginia, #4 Kentucky

This region could be the most dramatic and interesting by far. There are some great possible match-ups in this region; Kentucky vs. Indiana in the second round, Kentucky vs. North Carolina in the Sweet 16, a possible Notre Dame vs. Kentucky rematch in the Elite Eight from a year ago, and a West Virginia vs. Kentucky rematch of the 2010 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight.

If North Carolina played how they did in the ACC Tournament, then they will not be stopped. But, if they play lousy and nonchalant like they did against Duke back on February 17, then they can get bounced early.

Xavier was a bust of mine a week ago, and more on them below.

West Virginia is really good and underrated. Bob Huggins is one of the great college coaches in the game today and it always helps to have a great coach on your side. Their losses this year came to Virginia, Oklahoma (twice), Texas (twice), Kansas (twice), and Florida. They are ranked sixth on Kenpom.com, and I think West Virginia gets to the Elite Eight.

Kentucky's apparent under-seeding will be talked about all week, but their unpredictability gives their seed some support. With losses to non-tournament teams LSU, Ohio State, UCLA, Auburn, and Tennessee, I am scared as to which Kentucky team will show up. Regardless, I think the Tar Heels will be too much for them in the Sweet 16.

 

Most Intriguing Matchup: 8-Seed USC vs. 9-Seed Providence

USC has a ton of talent, but unfortunately plays too lackadaisical sometimes. Providence has top-five draft pick Kris Dunn and another great scoring threat in Ben Bentil. Providence was hot to start the season but tailed off in the second half with losses to DePaul, Marquette, Xavier (twice), and Seton Hall. This same team that lost to lowly DePaul went on the road to Villanova and beat them in overtime. Both of these teams are hot and cold, but I'll take the NBA talent in Dunn to lead his team to a victory after a very disappointing first round loss to Dayton last year.

 

Bust of the Region

Xavier is so, so, so, so, so overrated. They are not deserving of a 2-seed after playing in the weak Big East and losing in the tournament semifinals to Seton Hall. As I wrote last week, "Xavier plays great when they face big-time opponents. When they played Villanova two weeks ago, they came out and played their best game of the season.When they had to play lowly St. John's they let them hang around in both games, settling for seven- and eight-point wins." I'm not saying they will lose to Weber State in the first round, but they will lose to Wisconsin in the second round. The Badgers have the talent and experience and I don't think Xavier will take them seriously.

 

First Four Matchup

Like the East region, this region features two First Four teams. Since expanding to 68 teams in 2011, one of the teams to play in the First Four have won a game in the first, second round, or beyond. The play-in-game in this region is among 11-seeds Michigan and Tulsa. The winner would face Notre Dame, a team that is known to lose in the first weekend (outside of last year). It will happen again this year.

 

Final Four Pick

North Carolina. Brice Johnson is an unstoppable force on the boards and he can carry this team to the Final Four. They'll get past Providence in the second round and Kentucky in the Sweet 16. A Carolina- West Virginia Elite Eight matchup will be extremely entertaining, but Carolina will prevail. Also, as Doug Gottlieb noted, this could be Roy Williams' last year. Carolina has one big run left in them that could even see them cutting down the nets in Houston.

 

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