NCAA Bracket 2012: South Region Coverage And Updates

And we’re off.

The comeback was sealed with a T.J. Price’s three-pointer with 19.5 seconds remaining:

The Wildcats got favorable No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, too: No. 2 Duke and No. 3 Baylor are less imposing than some of the other teams on those seed lines. But they may have a tougher round of 32 game than most teams, with No. 9 UConn looming. Elsewhere in the South, No. 5 Wichita State and No. 12 VCU meet in the second round in a tussle of mid-majors, and No. 10 Xavier breezed into the tournament after being considered a bubble team in recent weeks.

Here’s the full South Region bracket for the 2012 NCAA Tournament:

“The first thing you want to do,” Fasulo says, “is put Kentucky to the Final Four and figure out everything else.”

Join our 2012 NCAA Bracket pool to compete against the best and brightest from around the network.

The Buffaloes were fifth in the Pac-12 after the regular season, finishing 11-7 in the conference and 23-11 overall. Their best wins came over California — once in the regular season, again in the conference tournament — and Washington, but they lacked a premier non-conference win, like every other team in their conference.

They’re led by one of the country’s best rebounders in Andre Roberson. Roberson averaged 11.1 per game, good for a tie for fifth-most in all of college basketball, and leading the Pac-12. He paired that with 11.6 points, 1.9 blocks and 1.2 steals per game, making him the walking definition of a statsheet-stuffer. He should be fun to watch when the Buffaloes, seeded 11th in the South region, take on sixth-seeded UNLV.

The Hilltoppers are an example of a tournament team that got at exactly the right time. After opening the season 5-14, Western Kentucky won three of their last four regular season games to enter the Sun Belt Conference Tournament as the No. 7 seed with an 11-18 record. The Hilltoppers will go dancing for a 22nd time following nail-biting victories over Florida International, University of Arkansas-Little Rock, Denver and North Texas in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.

Western Kentucky will head to Dayton for a First Four matchup with Mississippi Valley State after each earned a No. 16 seed in the South Region. The winner will move on to face Kentucky in the Second Round.

The season started off well enough, too. Xavier opened with eight straight wins, including an overtime victory over then-No. 19 Vanderbilt. But a Dec. 18 loss to Oral Roberts kicked off a tough stretch in which the Musketeers lost three straight and five of six. That run of games concluded with a loss to La Salle in their Atlantic 10 opener.

Although Xavier regained its footing with four straight wins, the A-10 schedule did not go as planned. The Musketeers won consecutive games only once more all season and finished the regular season with a disappointing 10-6 conference record and finished third, behind Temple and Saint Louis.

If you were unfamiliar with the South Dakota State Jackrabbits before Selection Sunday, we’ll forgive you. This is their first appearance in the NCAA tournament, following their victory in the Summit League conference tournament. They finished second in the conference behind Oral Roberts in the regular season and ahead of Oakland, who has gone to the NCAA tournament the last two years.

South Dakota State earned a No. 14 seed in the South Region and will face Baylor in the second round.

When it comes to future NBA prospects, the South Region stands far above the rest of the field. Kentucky, Connecticut and Baylor alone have at least seven lottery picks between them, while there are over 15 future first-rounders sprinkled throughout this regional.

Davis, a 6’11, 220-pound fly-swatter with a 7’4 wingspan, has a chance to be the Defensive Player of the Year, the National Player of the Year and the No. 1 pick in the 2012 NBA Draft. Drummond, a 6’11, 270-pound center with dunk contest athleticism, is the only player in the country who could knock Davis off his perch.

UNLV’s 25-7 regular season included a perfect 17-0 record on their home floor and 2-0 mark in neutral sites. The Rebels opened the season 13-2 and were 20-3 entering February, where they went 4-3 and hit a low point with a 20-point loss to New Mexico.

The Rebs earned the No. 6 seed in the South Region and will face Pac-12 Tournament champion Colorado in the Second Round.

Of course, to the untrained eye, it didn’t look good. But head coach Shaka Smart has earned nationwide respect with his “havoc” defense, and that was on full display from the ‘Bama loss onwards, when the Rams lost just three of their next 28 games on their way to the CAA title. The effectiveness of that defense was evident in their win against Drexel, which had won 19 straight games before the championship matchup, when the Rams forced 17 turnovers in the win.

The Rams will again take the “havoc” defense to the NCAA tournament and unleash it against teams who aren’t used to facing such active hands in the first weekend and perhaps beyond.

1 Kentucky vs. 16 Mississippi Valley State/Western Kentucky (TBS)

Thursday, March 15, 6:50 p.m.

UConn picked up the No. 9 seed in the South Region on Selection Sunday and will face Iowa State in the Second Round. The winner moves on to face Kentucky, barring a historic upset.

Join our 2012 NCAA Bracket pool to compete against the best and brightest from around the network.

Notre Dame had two other massive wins for its tournament resume, winning at Louisville and Connecticut. Its losses to St. Johns and Rutgers were slightly concerning, but both losses came on the road. The Irish only lost one game at home in conference, against Connecticut when the Huskies were ranked No. 16 in the country.

The Fighting Irish outlasted South Florida in overtime of the Big East Tournament quarterfinals, but they shot just 11 percent from three in a 64-50 loss to Louisville a night later.

Kentucky fell for the second time in the SEC Tournament, losing to Vanderbilt in the championship game by a final of 74-71. Still, their overall body of work was more than enough to warrant their top-seed status.

As expected, Kentucky earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and was sent to the South Region. The Wildcats will either MVSU or Western Kentucky in the second round.

A loss to Drake in the second game of the season sticks out like a sore thumb and wasn’t the ideal way for Iowa State to get its season started. Just two weeks later, the Cyclones dropped back-to-back games to Northern Iowa and Michigan, the former of which also looms as a bad loss. Iowa State did rebound, though, winning seven straight stretching into the Big 12 conference slate.

Iowa State’s signature win came at home against Kansas in January, two weeks after dropping a road game to the Jayhawks. To cap the regular season, Iowa State may have sealed its NCAA Tournament bid with a win over Baylor at home.

Indiana opened plenty of eyes during its non-conference schedule before hitting a rough patch early in Big Ten play. However, despite a hit-or-miss record in conference play, the Hoosiers are back in the NCAA Tournament and could pose challenges for opponents early and often.

The Hoosiers’ signature win came at Assembly Hall in December when they knocked off No. 1 Kentucky in what was widely viewed as an “I’m back” moment. Kentucky posed the toughest test in Indiana’s non-conference slate and propelled the Hoosiers to an undefeated out-of-conference record and 13-game winning streak.

The Blue Devils finished the year with a 27-6 record, losing twice during the non-conference schedule. A loss to Ohio State in November was understandable, but Duke’s slip-up on the road at Temple in January was a head-scratcher. In the ACC, Duke lost four times, falling to Florida State, Miami in overtime, UNC in the last game of the regular season and again to Florida State on Saturday.

The Seminoles proved to be a tough out for Duke on Saturday in a matchup that was more about seeding than anything else. The Blue Devils’ loss in the ACC Tournament denied them another shot at North Carolina, freeing Duke up to focus on Selection Sunday instead.

On Jan. 16, Baylor was 16-0 and ranked No. 3 in the country. That night, Kansas embarrassed them 92-74 in Lawrence on national television, and it’s been all downhill for them since.

However, coach Scott Drew has somewhat inexplicably allowed 5-foot-10 junior college transfer Pierre Jackson to take over the offense. Even more bizarrely, despite having elite athletes at every position, he’s used a 1-3-1 half-court defense which can’t put any ball pressure on opposing guards and leaves the easiest three-point shot in the game (the corner) wide open.