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2023 NCAA Tournament: West Region Teams to Fade (March Madness)

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year. March Madness is finally back in all its glory, with the bracket released Sunday evening. Now is the time to completely stress about every decision over the next 72 hours before your bracket is immediately busted. 

A major part of the tournament, of course, are upsets. Here, I will be identifying some of the higher-ranked teams that may be at a higher risk for an upset than it seems on the surface.

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NCAA Tournament West Region Teams to Fade

Here are some teams I am not feeling too confident about entering the tournament from the wild wild West.

Kansas (1)

It may not be the best decision to fade Kansas after posting one of the most impressive resumes in all DI basketball, as many bracketologists had them as the number one overall seed. But it is not without good reason.

Kansas’ biggest weakness this season has been their depth. Ranking 361st in bench minutes, they depend heavily on their starting five and especially Jalen Wilson and Gradey Dick. To go with that, Kevin McCullar missed the Big 12 title game, and his status for the tournament is questionable, so the Jayhawks may have taken another hit.

In back-to-back games earlier this season, Kansas struggled against N.C. State, Wisconsin, and Tennessee. In the Big 12 tournament, their third straight game showed the fatigue setting in as they lost by 20 to Texas. The second-round, quick turnaround game against either Arkansas or Illinois will be incredibly difficult against two solid teams. I truly believe Kansas will fall in the second round to either squad, failing to repeat a national championship.  

UCLA (2)

Generally speaking, it isn’t the best strategy to fade the two top seeds in any region, but UCLA is arguably missing their best player in Jaylen Clark. Without him, they fell to Arizona in a game where their offense didn’t look all too spectacular, and their defense took a big hit with his absence.

The Bruins are already a slow-paced, defensive-based team, and due to their makeup, teams can keep it close due to the few possessions. There will be opportunities for teams to strike against the Bruins, and it’s only a matter of time before something doesn’t fall their way for UCLA to be upset early on in this tournament.  

Bottom Line

Otherwise, I am a big fan of Gonzaga (3) and UConn (4) to round out the top seeds in this region. Fading Kansas and UCLA are some solid contrarian plays that I see as having a larger possibility of happening than how the brackets will be filled out. This is a relatively safe way to zig while everyone zags, without getting too crazy.

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