[Cactus Jack]

I've seen Houston a handful of times and always came away impressed. As long as Sasser is healthy, they should be fine. They've been ranked #1 plenty this season for good reason and right now, Vegas is giving them the best odds of any team to win their respective region, and it's actually by a pretty wide margin.

I should have added Marquette, Gonzaga, and UConn to the list of teams that I don't see losing in the first round-- at the same time, I don't think that their resumes match Texas' and Arizona's (a group I don't really see winning it, but one that could easily make a run to the Final Four or even Finals). I still see a lot of really tough match-ups in UConn's path out West, otherwise I might have them a bit higher (one of Pitino's current assistants was Director of Player Development at UConn last season & if the Huskies beat Iona, they'll play the winner of VCU-St. Mary's).

Baylor shows flashes, but they are nowhere close to being the team that they were a couple of years ago. If you take away recent history, I do wonder how they'd be ranked and if they'd be receiving the same amount of attention. I watched most of their game against Texas and thought they had moments where they looked like they could beat anyone, but they weren't very consistent either.

The East Region is an interesting one. All of the teams in it seem flawed in a major way but someone has to come out of it. If you asked me to pick a region that I thought was least likely to produce the champion, it'd be them.

I don't think they go to the Final Four, but Creighton is a nice dark horse. Same goes for USC and Florida Atlantic as teams who could pull and upset or two in a run to the Sweet 16 or Elite Eight.