The West Region of the 2026 NCAA Tournament is headlined by the Arizona Wildcats.
Tommy Lloyd’s team has quickly become a trendy pick to win the whole thing. No. 2 seed Purdue is garnering some hype having just won the Big Ten Tournament. NCAA Tournament stalwart Gonzaga is the No. 3 seed out West. Mark Few’s team seems weirdly underrated compared to most years. Much of that stems from a newfound potency defending the basketball.
While those are some of the bigger brands within the region, there are two lower seeds with more than enough firepower to make a deep run throughout the tournament. At the same time, these two programs could break the brackets of many who’ve underestimated them.
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The Badgers are no picnic to play against.
Guard play often wins in March, and Wisconsin boasts two elite guards in Nick Boyd and John Blackwell. The duo on average combines for 40 points per nights. Blackwell and Boyd are strong, physical guards with terrific aggressiveness on the offensive end.
Boyd’s feel for the game is advanced given his standing as a fifth-year player. Blackwell is the team’s best NBA prospect featuring grown man strength, a buttery jumper, and a willing to compete on every play.
The Badgers are then buoyed by 7-footer Nolan Winter and burly 6’10” Australian forward Austin Rapp. Winter averages over a block per game patrolling the paint. Rapp can space the floor quite well from beyond the arc. He’s also a menace on the boards demonstrating real toughness.
This team beat Michigan in Ann Arbor earlier this season. They’ve also knocked off UCLA, Ohio State, Michigan State, Purdue, and Illinois (twice). Given how good the two lead guards are, it’s feasible to think Wisconsin can move past High Point and presumably Arkansas to set up a Sweet 16 showdown with Arizona. A team led by Sam Dekker and Frank Kaminsky beat the Wildcats during the Elite Eight back in 2015.
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In his first year with the program, head coach Jai Lucas engineered a massive turnaround.
The Hurricanes went 7-24 last season. This year, Miami finished 25-8. Lucas led the team to a third-place finish in the ACC only behind Duke and Virginia, and head of Louisville and North Carolina (among others). It was a masterful start to his head coaching career. Up until this point Lucas had been an assistant for several programs.
Lucas constructed a team around a heavy influx of transfers along with a couple of very good freshmen.
Malik Reneau spent three years at Indiana before coming back home to Miami. He’s flourished as a senior, averaging 18.8 PPG and 6.6 RPG on 54.9 percent from the field. He’s joined in the front court by big man Ernest Udeh and stellar freshman Shelton Henderson.
Udeh is an intimidating force in the paint. He averages 1.5 BPG and 9.3 RPG. His sole job is to provide paint protection and physicality up front. Henderson is another rugged player with above-average athletic ability. Much like Udeh, the freshman is a physical specimen.
The backcourt scoring is primarily handled by Tre Donaldson (Michigan) and Tru Washington (New Mexico). The duo combine for nearly 29 points a night. Donaldson is tasked with controlling the pace of the team, and he does so quite well.
Helping Miami perhaps the most is the fact that four of their key contributors (Reneau, Donaldson, Udeh, Washington) are upperclassmen. This group has played a lot of basketball collectively. Kenpom also has this team within the top 40 in both offensive and defensive efficiency.
If the Hurricanes can get by No. 10 seed Missouri, Purdue could be lurking in the second round. Miami not only has an athleticism advantage in that game, but it also has the size to matchup with the Boilermakers — as well as an offensive-minded guard that’ll force Braden Smith to defend.
