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College basketball analyst Jay Bilas has made his NCAA Tournament pick. The former Duke star chose a surprising champion when filling out his March Madness bracket.
Many would immediately think that winner to be the Blue Devils, who enter this year’s field as a No. 5 seed. While he does have his alma mater in the title game, there’s another blue blood that Bilas sees coming out on top.
Bilas went through his entire bracket in a segment on ESPN.
When all was said and done, the analyst chose four-seed UCONN to cut down the nets on the tournament’s final day. Fans were quick to react on social media.
Jay Bilas picking UConn to beat Duke in the Final. I like it!
— Vito Corleone (@BigV3032) March 12, 2023
Many are tailing Bilas’s championship pick.
I’m riding with @JayBilas #UConn
— 🅿️atrick Bursey (@BurseyP) March 13, 2023
UCONN started the season hot, looking like the best team in the nation. The Huskies began the year 14-0, picking up wins over Alabama, Oregon, and Iowa State, all of whom find themselves in the Big Dance.
Unfortunately, they faltered a bit in Big East play, going just 6-6 in their first 12 conference games.
The Huskies finished strong, winning six of their last seven matchups to land on the four-line in the NCAA Tournament. Jay Bilas believes they can regain that early season form and make a run to the title game.
Of course, he then confused followers by picking a different champion in a recent write-up on ESPN. Though he still has UCONN in the championship game, he chose Arizona as his winner in that article.
Bilas posted his analysis of the picks to the website.
We’ll save you the read and fast forward to his championship game analysis.
No No. 5 seed has ever won the national championship, or so Rece Davis told me on the Dirty Dog in between spine-rattling screams on the Screaming Baby Express from Greensboro to Bristol. I am going with Davis’ wisdom … or maybe it was the guitar-playing cowboy that told me that?! No matter, Arizona will win the Pac-12’s first national championship since 1997, when Arizona won it under Lute Olson. Winner: Arizona.
We’ll see if either of Jay Bilas’s predictions come true.