If Kentucky’s involved, it’s must-watch, so welcome to the enticing Midwest regional. The Midwest has to be the most compelling region, even if UK remains the overwhelming favorite. This quadrant gave us a super Notre Dame-Butler tilt on Saturday night. It gave us Wichita State running Kansas. It gave us a great Cincinnati-Purdue game that went to OT, and it all started with Northeastern almost upsetting No. 3 Notre Dame, which was the first game in the Round of 64.
Now the Irish are in the Sweet 16. This bracket is fickle.
What’s going to be fun to watch play out in Cleveland, and I’ll be there, is the fan quotient. Kentucky fans travel in prodigious hordes. Wichita State fans are not incapable of flooding an arena. West Virginia honks too? Oh my god, it’s going to get ridiculous in Cleveland. And let’s not forget that Notre Dame has more sidewalk alumni than any college in the country, and it’s technically the closest school to this regional. Scalpers about to get rich out by Lake Erie.