In the words of Tupac, "the west coast is the best coast"

This is the first of our breakdowns of each of the individual regions of the NCAA tournament. I will be focusing on the West, and later tonight we should have blogs about the East, Midwest, and dirty dirty South.

In my opinion, there are 2 first round games that you can't miss. They are the 5-12 matchup between Drake and Western Kentucky and the the 7-10 game between WVU and Arizona.
Interesting to note that Drake's Adam Emmenecker has only attempted 4 three pointers in his college career. Clearly breaking the "Hoosiers-White Guy" stereotype. However, the 6'1 guard is such a good assist man that he even found me open a few times this year. On the other side of the court, if shots aren't falling for WKU's Courtney Lee, things could get ugly. The Hilltoppers have only one other double digit scorer. This is probably going to be the best game of the 5-12's and really there is a chance for WKU to pull the upset. Normally I'm a fan of making predictions, but I just can't for this game. It is too close to call and I like both teams way too much.

In the other great matchup, Bob Huggins takes WVU on some rough country roads to Washington DC. It will be like Huggy and the kids are playing at home. However, with three future NBA players (Bayless, Hill, Budinger) Arizona will make it a tough test. I'm not going to make a prediction on this game yet either, but I will be watching.

Bold Prediction: I guess I owe the readers a bold prediction for skipping out on predicting those two games. Here it is....... The winner of the WVU/Arizona contest will beat Coach K and the Duke White Devils.

The Biggest Question: Can UCLA stay healthy?

The Regional Champ will be: UCLA

The Most Outstanding Player of the Region is: Josh Shipp UCLA, with Love battling back problems and Collison leading the team, it will be the senior Shipp who rises to the occasion and takes home the award.

-NM

Stay tuned the rest of the night for the other three regions!!!!