Every year, there seems to be one region that just goes crazy with upsets.  This year, that region appears to be the West – as we have already lost #1 Gonzaga, #3 New Mexico, #4 Kansas State, #5 Wisconsin, #7 Notre Dame, and #8 Pitt.

If I was an Ohio State fan, I would be extremely conflicted right now.

On one hand, I have to be excited that the road to the Final Four has become wide open.  At this point, if you believe the order of the seeds, the toughest opponent left in the way is #6 Arizona.  Nothing against the Wildcats, but they don’t invoke the same type of fear as maybe a Louisville (place your favorite #1 seed), Florida (place your favorite #3 seed) or Syracuse (place your favorite #4 seed) would.

On the other hand, I have now become the prohibitive favorite in a region that has seen almost all of the favorites go down unexpectedly.  The target is now squarely on the Buckeyes’ back.  It will be interesting to see how they deal with that pressure (to be fair, they handled it pretty well in the Big 10 tournament).

At this point, there are already over 53% of us who can’t see their West winner be correct – that number will go to 98% if the Buckeyes lose.   All of a sudden, the 5 people who picked Arizona, 2 people who picked Iowa State, and 1 person who picked Ole Miss might be feeling a lot better about their chances in the West.