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By Matthew Couden
Contributing Writer
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Throughout the college basketball season, ESPN's bracketologist, Joe Lunardi, has been updating his projections for the NCAA Tournament bracket, including team seeds and teams on the bubble.
On Sunday, he learned the final bracket for this installment of March Madness and was pretty much spot on regarding his higher-seeded teams, although their regions and matchups varied.
Once the official bracket arrived via Selection Sunday, it provided a more accurate picture of teams' potential paths to the Final Four and winning the NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship.
Read More on NCAA
It quickly led to casual and diehard fans predicting their brackets for challenges. Along with that, various experts from the sports world began unveiling their predictions for the field, including Lunardi.
Read more: Rick Pitino Sends Message on Big East After St. John’s March Madness Seed
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Lunardi shared his predictions during an ESPN segment, reacting to the official bracket. In the Elite Eight, Lunardi had all of the No. 1 seeds except one: the Michigan Wolverines.
He predicted that the No. 4 seed Alabama would upset Michigan in the Sweet Sixteen, mentioning that the season-ending injury to Wolverines guard L.J. Cason is significant. Lunardi revealed his bracket prediction with No. 4 seed Alabama against No. 2 Iowa State for an Elite Eight matchup out of the Midwest.
In the East Region, Lunardi's bracket picks showed No. 1 seed Duke playing No. 3 seed Michigan State. In the South Region, he had No. 1 seed Florida against No. 3 Illinois, while his West Region had No. 1 seed Arizona against No. 4 seed Gonzaga.
Read more: Dan Hurley Gives Honest Reaction to UConn’s East Region in NCAA Tournament
Based on that, Lunardi's lowest seed to reach the Elite Eight was No. 4 Alabama. For his Final Four, he indicated it would be Duke, Arizona, Florida, and Iowa State, as the only non-No. 1 seed to get there.
That's a strong statement from Lunardi in favor of the Cyclones, who went 27-7 overall and 12-6 in the Big 12 Conference this past year. Among their significant wins were defeating former No. 1-ranked team Purdue, 81-58, former No. 14-ranked team St. John’s, and their conference foes, the formerly No. 2-ranked Houston Cougars.
Iowa State currently has the sixth-best odds to win the championship at +1500 via DraftKings Sportsbook. The Cyclones officially open tournament play on Friday afternoon against the No. 15 seed, Tennessee State.
Read more: Which No. 1 Seed Has The Best Final Four Odds in the Men’s NCAA Tournament?
For more about March Madness, visit Newsweek Sports.
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