Is Auburn just going to run away with this, or have the Tigers had too many holes poked in their deal late in the season?
Sick of hard-hitting analysis of the 2025 NCAA Tournament? Up to your eyeballs in expert picks chock-full of astute takes on players to watch and budding upsets?
Fear not, friends: your pals at Anonymous Eagle are here to inject some half-baked, homespun “insight” into the proceedings, with our (mostly) annual region-by-region tour, as we go Anonymously Through the Brackets.
For each region, we’ll give you our patented Anonymous Eagle Half-Arsed Analysis with: a gutless pick to win the region; a sleeper regional champ; a CRUSH YOUR MAN upset special; a player/team we’d pay to watch; a player most likely to carry his team singlehandedly to the Sweet 16; and the best player in the region that you’ve never heard of before.
Let’s see what Bracketville has in store down south this year……..
GUTLESS WONDER Pick To Win The Region
You can make a lot of worse decisions in your life than to take Auburn as the Final Four team here. 14 straight weeks of the season at either #1 or #2 in the AP poll, including eight straight weeks at #1. They were the outright regular season champion in the SEC, winning 15 games in the conference that sent a new all-time record number of teams to the NCAA tournament. Johni Broome is probably going to be the national player of the year in a lot of outlets if not all of them, and so just run with that and keep it moving.
…… just try to ignore the fact that they come in with three losses in their last four games.
CHEX BOLD PARTY MIX Bold Pick To Win The Region
So, hey, remember when I said Auburn had lost three of their last four games?
One of those teams was Texas A&M, as the Aggies jumped out to a 12-2 lead early and got five double digit scoring outings on their way to the 83-72 victory. That was A&M’s first ever a #1 ranked opponent, and that was just two weeks ago. Buzz Williams’ squad is the #4 seed in this region, and if they can beat Auburn, they can beat anyone of the other squads in this region.
It just won’t be fun to watch them try to do it because they can not shoot the ball in the slightest, ranking #317 in the country in effective field goal percentage according to KenPom.com.
CRUSH YOUR MAN Upset Special
You’ve gotta take a 5/12 upset somewhere in your bracket, right? UC San Diego over Michigan is just sitting right there for you, begging you to make your pick. It’s the first ever trip to the NCAA tournament for the Tritons, as they just moved up to Division 1 in 2020-21. They have the longest active winning streak in the country at 15 games, and they absolutely qualify as “sneaky good.” KenPom.com has them top 60 in the country in offense, partially thanks to the sharpshooting duo of Tyler McGhie (37% on threes) and Hayden Gray (42% on threes), and they’re #30 on the defensive end too. They get there by creating a ton of turnovers, 2nd best rate in the country, in fact, and, uh, well, Michigan’s turbo bad at keeping track of the ball. #328 in the country there per KenPom, and the projection here is only Wolverines by 3.
Player I’d Pay To Watch
Michigan State is 9-2 since Jase Richardson moved into the starting lineup. He was already having a nice freshman season, appearing in all but one of the Spartans’ games, and let’s be clear: They weren’t bad with Richardson coming off the bench. But with him in the starting five, MSU has been playing like a top 10 team in the country. He wasn’t the reason they lost either game as well. He had 13 points and six rebounds plus a block in the home loss to Indiana and then 21 points and seven rebounds in the Big Ten semifinals loss to Wisconsin.
He’s a freshman making an impact for the team that won the Big Ten regular season title by three games AND he’s the son of a two-time NBA Slam Dunk Contest winner who happens to have played for the Michigan State team that won the 2000 national title. A rising star player with an interesting story? What’s not to like here?
The Chiropractor Special: aka Who Can Put The Team On His Back?
Yes, hi, hello, it’s time for Complete Homer Corner, where I tell you that it’s time to believe that Kam Jones can singlehandedly drag Marquette into the Sweet 16. He’s already proven to be one of the best players in the country this season. He’s going to get you some rebounds, he’s going to get you some assists, he’s going to get you a steal or two, and Jones is going to be going up against defenses that are not used to seeing his magical bag of tricks in the lane.
If Kam’s game is going, Marquette’s going as far as he can take them.
Best Guy You’ve Never Heard Of
Can I interest you in a 6’7”, 240 pound forward that’s #2 on his team in scoring, #1 in rebounding, and is hitting nearly half of his three-pointers on the season? That’s Yale’s Nick Townsend, who comes in averaging 15.4 points and 7.2 rebounds, not to mention 3.6 assists per game. He’ll hit a three if you leave him alone at 49% on the year, although he only attempts 1.8 per game. The Bulldogs have lost just three times since Thanksgiving and just once since Christmas — to Harvard of all teams, that has to sting for them — and he’s coming off a 19/5/4/ and two steals outing in the Ivy League title game. Who doesn’t want to get excited about a slightly stocky white guy from the Ivy League absolutely ruining Buzz Williams’ life for 40 straight minutes??
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