Three Point Range

Starting off my region by region previews is the Midwest. Headlined by Illinois, it's got a ton of great teams, and especially some great players. It also has my Syracuse Orange, so it's the region I've spent the most time looking at, trying to figure out the route for the Orange to make a Final Four run. I'll have the South preview up tomorrow sometime from 1-2, and then the West and East will go up on Friday, after we get the results from the First Four. If you want to be the first to know when you can see them, follow me on Twitter @ThreePointRange where I'll be talking about the tournament as it happens, as well as posting whatever blog updates come along. Without further ado, let's dig into some hoops.  1. Illinois vs 16. Drexel Line: Illinois -23, o/u 144 Preview:  I mean look, Illinois is going to win this game. They're going to win it handily. Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn alone are enough to beat Drexel. Add in all the other studs the Fighting Illin...

The Big Ten is going to be super interesting this year. I'm really only confident in roughly four teams being good, and as you'll see, there's this giant group of teams in the middle of the conference that could finish in any order. The top of the conference is absolutely elite, with some of the best teams in the nation, but I think there is a drop off and there could end up being a good number of teams on the bubble this year. Who can emerge from that group will be a fascinating storyline, and one I'm excited to track throughout the year. Let me know your thoughts on Twitter @ThreePointRange, and tell me how you see the conference playing out. The Contenders 1. Michigan State Starting 5: Cassius Winston, Rocket Watts, Aaron Henry, Thomas Kithier, Xavier Tillman Why They'll Be Good: The Spartans have been a model of consistently, finishing near the top of the Big Ten nearly every season. That won't change this year, as they return arguably the best p...