Marshall Hampson

The Missouri Tigers will be waving bye to the Big 12 Conference with a National Championship trophy in the other hand.

As a surprisingly-low No. 2 seed in the tournament, the Tigers (30-4) have the easiest path to the National Championship game where I see them beating the No. 1 seed of Syracuse University.

Missouri uses four guards (Phil and Matt Pressey, Kim English and Marcus Denmon) and one dominant center in Ricardo Ratliffe to control its fast-paced game.

Watching them throughout the season (because I’m a Baylor fan … no, I don’t want to talk about the Big 12 Championship game) has made me believe no team, besides Kansas State University, has found an answer to defend four guards consistently. Luckily for Missouri, the Tigers won’t be seeing the Wildcats in the tournament unless they make the National Championship game.

All five starters average more than 10 points per game and all four starting guards shoot 39.4 percent from the 3-point line. This is how they win games. They have four guys on the court who can drive past defenders for an easy lay up or can shoot threes without second-guessing their decision.

Four out of five starters for the Tigers are seniors, with the exception of Phil Pressey. They have leadership and they know how to play as a team.

I know Syracuse has depth on its bench. Kris Joseph and Dion Waiters can control a game, but Syracuse has been sloppy at times and won’t score enough to keep up with Missouri.

The hardest task for the Tigers comes in the Elite 8 when they need to get past No. 1-seed Michigan State University in the West Region. This matchup creates more of a problem for the Tigers than the National Championship game. 

As a fan of Baylor, it will hurt me to see Missouri walk away from its last Big 12 season with a National Championship trophy after earning the Big 12 Championship trophy by beating Baylor on Saturday.

But the Tigers deserve it after how they’ve played this entire season.

Marshall Hampson can be reached at [email protected].

Josh Stanley

The bracket this year is balanced across all four regions.

The South Region features three teams that stand out in the University of Kentucky, Baylor University and Duke University. 

I have Baylor advancing because of the inconsistency of Duke game-in and game-out. 

A Kentucky and Baylor matchup would be a great game, but the youth of Kentucky will not be enough to stop the balanced and deep Bears.

In the West Region, another three teams stand out to me are Michigan State University, the University of Missouri and Marquette University. 

Missouri has been one of the best teams all year and an offensive juggernaut, but Marquette is balanced on both ends of the floor and they will have the edge in the regional semifinals. 

Marquette will cause problems for Michigan State, who should be the No. 2 seed. They will advance to the Final Four.

In the East Region, Ohio State University and Syracuse University are the only teams that stand out to me. The University of Cincinnati is a physical and tough matchup, but Ohio State will knock them off. 

Syracuse will face Ohio State and come out on top, solely because of their deep bench. This year’s team is arguably the best team to play under head coach Jim Boeheim and they are going to make a deep run. 

In the final region, only two teams stand out to me in the Midwest, the University of North Carolina and Kansas University.

 Kansas is good, but they are no match for North Carolina. 

With Harrison Barnes, Tyler Zeller, John Henson and Kendall Marshall, North Carolina is way too deep for Kansas.

With the Final Four set for a Marquette-Baylor and Syracuse-North Carolina showdown, I think Baylor and North Carolina will compete for a title.

These two teams are as deep and athletic as they come. 

The play of Perry Jones III and down-low presence of Quincy Acy will challenge Zeller and Henson, but the floor general Marshall will keep the North Carolina offense rolling and send them to its first championship since the 2009 season.

Josh Stanley can be reached at [email protected].