The 2023 NCAA Tournament field has been announced, and now college basketball fans everywhere will spend the next couple of days until brackets lock doing as much research as possible for their picks in Bracket Games. We’re here to help you with region-by-region primers, turning our attention today to the West Region, with Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games being held in Las Vegas.
That setting is particularly notable when we begin our discussion around the region’s No. 1 seed, Kansas. The Jayhawks were slotted for the West Region in part because of the selection committee’s order of the four top seeds. Heading into conference tournament weekend, the Jayhawks were widely considered a lock for a No. 1 seed with the potential to be selected as the overall No. 1 seed. Such a distinction would come with regional preference, and with the Midwest Region holding its semifinal and final games in Kansas City, there was a natural excitement about the potential for a home-court advantage for the reigning national champions in their efforts to repeat.
Then Selection Sunday came, and it was Houston, which finished one spot ahead of Kansas in the final seed list, getting the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region. Kansas now not only misses the opportunity to play pivotal tournament games in Kansas City, but it takes its talents out to a city where West Region competition like No. 2 seed UCLA and No. 3 seed Gonzaga have plenty of experience. If Kansas is going to make it back to the Final Four, it will not be a path that is free from significant adversity.
Those top three seeds are also notable for the fact that all three have Final Four appearances in the last two years, with Gonzaga and UCLA playing in an epic national semifinal back in 2021 and the Jayhawks cutting down nets last April in New Orleans. No other top seed combination can match the recent NCAA Tournament success of these three in the West Region, and the oddsmakers agree; by listing Kansas, UCLA and Gonzaga among the top six odds to win it all, this corner of the bracket is the one most likely to produce a national champion.
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