Jim Ruppert's NCAA picks: Kentucky beats Gonzaga in title game

We will avoid any reference to this NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship — that’s what it’s called on the NCAA website — being the Kentucky Invitational. But let’s face it. Everybody is playing for second place.

The first time I saw this University of Kentucky basketball team play back on Nov. 18 in a 72-40 victory over Kansas, I was smitten. I told anybody who would listen that I thought the Wildcats would go undefeated and win the national title.

I compared them to the great teams I have seen over the years. John Wooden’s UCLA teams of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The James Worthy-Michael Jordan North Carolina teams of the early 1980s. And of course Bob Knight’s 1976 Indiana team, the last team to go through a season undefeated.

So I worked backward when I filled out my NCAA bracket Sunday. I wrote Kentucky in the box for national champion and then filled in the other five spots where Kentucky will win. It got harder from there.

I am not sure how many years I have written this column on this Sunday, but I am here to tell you I have gotten way more wrong than right. I have done about as well as the Division I universities in the state of Illinois did this year, which is to say not one school from Illinois was good enough to make the 68-team bracket.

With nothing to lose, here’s the way I see this year’s bracket.

** See Ruppert's bracket (pdf) **

Midwest

In the Midwest, first-round winners will be Kentucky, Purdue, Buffalo, Maryland, Butler, Notre Dame, Wichita State and Kansas. Then I’ve got Kentucky, Maryland, Notre Dame and Wichita State advancing to the Sweet 16. Give me Kentucky and Wichita State in a rematch of last year’s second round of the Midwest Regional when Kentucky ended the Shockers’ bid for perfection. Kentucky wins again this time to make the Final Four.

West

My West bracket has Wisconsin, Oregon, Arkansas, North Carolina, Xavier, Baylor, Virginia Commonwealth and Arizona advancing. Top-seeded Wisconsin, No. 4 North Carolina, Baylor and Arizona see to it that the seeds hold to the Sweet 16, and I have Wisconsin and Arizona playing for the regional title. Give me the Badgers — easily the best team in a very average Big Ten that put seven teams in the tournament — to make the Final Four for the second straight season.

East

The East bracket includes four former NCAA champions, but to me it’s the weakest of the four regions. I have Villanova, LSU, Northern Iowa, Louisville, Dayton, Oklahoma, Michigan State and Virginia surviving the first round (Dayton actually survives a play-in game and a game with Providence). I’ll take LSU, Northern Iowa, Oklahoma and Virginia to make the Sweet 16. My Missouri Valley Conference shows up as I take Northern Iowa to meet Virginia for the regional title, but alas the ACC regular-season champs prevail and head to the Final Four.

South

And boy, do I have a mess in the South Regional. I have top-seeded Duke, St. John’s, Stephen F. Austin, Eastern Washington, Southern Methodist, Iowa State, Davidson and Gonzaga winning their openers. Then I have Duke, Stephen F. Austin, SMU (I still remember Larry Brown taking Danny Manning and the Miracles to the 1988 NCAA title) and Gonzaga moving to the Sweet 16. Duke and Gonzaga square off for the regional title, and this time the Zags get their trip to the Final Four.

Final Four

That leaves Kentucky and Wisconsin playing one game too early for the NCAA title, in the semifinals at Indianapolis. Most years the Badgers are good enough to win it all; this isn’t the year.

Tony Bennett got my vote for national Coach of the Year for the job he has done at Virginia, but this is Gonzaga’s year. The Zags win a thriller and head for the April 6 title game against Kentucky.

Thanks for playing Gonzaga, but these Wildcats are a team of destiny. Crown the ’Cats and wait for the NCAA to knock on John Calipari’s door.

— Contact Jim Ruppert: jim.ruppert@sj-r.com, 788-1549, twitter.com/JRupSJR.