2025 March Madness Preview: Midwest Region

Midwest Region

Overall Analysis 

The Midwest is headlined by number one seed Houston and two seed Tennessee. We also have Mark Few and Gonzaga seeded as an 8, one of the clear misseeds by the committee. Teams like Kentucky, Illinois and Purdue are all beatable as top seeds for me while Tennessee is not a team that imposes me as a two either. Houston got an extremely favorable draw, with what I think is Kelvin Sampson’s best version of the Cougars yet. 

Houston has perennially been great at two things under Sampson – defense and getting second chance points. They do those things extremely well again this season, but have elevated themselves to a top-10 three point shooting team by percentage. They don’t take *a ton* of threes, but they make them at a high clip and have three dead eye shooters in LJ Cryer, Milos Uzan and Emanuel Sharp. Overall, I’ve been high on Houston in recent seasons and I have to back them both at their price and with what I think is the best rendition of the Cougars we’ve seen. They haven’t ranked inside the top-140 in three point% any of the last four seasons – that spike in efficiency can be the difference between a close Elite 8 loss and a national championship. 

Potential Cinderella: Xavier Musketeers

We’ll have to wait a day to see if Xavier can get a chance to achieve this, but if they beat Texas I do think they are capable of making a run. I was on this team in the Big East tourney against Marquette, a game they should have won if not for blowing a late lead. They’ve been red hot to close the season, winning their last seven games including a convincing win over Creighton. This team is built for tournament play in my opinion combining strong guard play with a good big man in Zach Freemantle. Illinois and Kentucky are two of the most vulnerable top-7 seeds in the tournament in my opinion and that is potentially who would match up with Xavier should they advance past Texas. Historically, I haven’t been a big Sean Miller fan but I really love how this team sets up for tourney play and they have an extremely favorable draw for an 11 seed. 

Pick to Advance: Houston Cougars

Written by Ben Hossler