A derelictable bracket breakdown: Southeast Regional

What I may never understand about the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee is how it decides what teams to put where after it divvies up the No. 1 seeds.

Ohio State is the No. 1 overall seed, yet it seems the Buckeyes have the toughest road of any No. 1 to the Final Four. Pittsburgh, meanwhile, is the third-ranked No. 1 seed, and probably has the least amount of significant speed bumps in its way.

Sure, the Panthers are widely being picked to not make it out of their region, but that's because the Southeast is so bleh, that people figure something crazy is going to happen in it. When there isn't a team in a bracket that instills confidence in anyone, they choose chaos. But should they?

Top Dog: Pittsburgh is led by Ashton Gibbs and Brad Wanamaker, a pair of experienced guards that can pretty much anything that's asked of them. The Panthers are getting a bad rap, I think, because of the fact they were knocked out in the Big East quarterfinals by UConn. But Kemba Walker was going to beat anyone in his way last week. There's also the thought that Pitt doesn't perform up to expectations in the NCAA Tournament, and that's completely -- well, true. But Pitt's five losses are by a combined 18 points.

Top Contender: The Florida Gators are limping into the tournament after taking a pounding from Kentucky in the SEC Championship game. But the Wildcats are the only team to beat Florida in the last two months, as Billy Donovan's crew came into the SEC Tournament as many people's sleeper team to make a run for the NCAA title. The luster wore off with that loss, however, but let's remember that the first Florida title team lost its SEC title game, too. Is this team as good? Well, no. But is the field?

Best First Round Matchup: Ah, Michigan State. How the hell are we supposed to get any kind of a read on you? Will you come into the tournament playing like the Michigan State that beat Purdue? Or will you come in playing like the one that lost to Iowa? Frankly, we should expect the one that lost to Iowa, because that's the Spartans team we've seen the most of this year. But we'll trick ourselves into believing we'll see the other one, because it's March, and Tom Izzo is still the coach. This alone makes their matchup tonight against UCLA intriguing.

Cinderella: How about the original Cinderella, Gonzaga? The Zags aren't as good this year as the teams they put in the tournament throughout the 2000s, but they have an amazing draw. They get a probably overrated St. Johns team -- away from home, anyway -- and a BYU team that is missing it's best post player. Sure, St. Johns has the potential to be a beast, and sure, BYU still has Jimmer, but things are set up rather nicely for Mark Few and Gonzaga to get to the Sweet 16, and perhaps beyond.

Who Wins?: I am thinking the opposite of the chaos theory. My thought is that from the rubble that is this bracket, we'll see the top teams rise, and that's Pitt and Florida. When we get to that point, I think Florida has the more talented team, and does what wouldn't have surprised people if you told them a week ago -- makes the Final Four.

Final Four Teams
Florida
Kansas
http://thedailyderelict.blogspot.com/2011/03/derelictable-bracket-breakdown-west.html
Ohio State

Derelictable title pick: Kansas over Ohio State (yeah, yeah, I know)