McDonalds Nuggets: Don't look for upsets; change play-in games, more

BOSSI'S BEST: Top recruiting finds in each NCAA Tournament region

Dan McDonald is back with his weekend primer, McDonald's Nuggets. This week’s edition predicts less drama in first round, a prospect to watch in the late signing period, offers a proposal for changing the play-in games, and more.

I have a couple rules I try my best to follow each year when it comes to filling out my bracket. My first one is to do it quick - like, less than five minutes - so that I don’t overthink it. My other rule is to mostly go chalk, but I do like to have fun with some upset picks just like anybody else.

My bracket this year only has three upsets in the round of 64 without counting the 8/9-seed games. I have Belmont beating Maryland, Liberty knocking off Mississippi State and Oregon staying hot and defeating Wisconsin. The highest seeds I have making the Sweet 16 are No. 5 seed Auburn and No. 6 seed Villanova, and I have both losing there. My Final Four is Duke, Michigan, Virginia and Houston with Duke beating Houston in the championship.

I do believe this year’s field is more open than usual. Duke is clearly the best team, but it is a Zion Williamson injury or foul trouble away from being in deep trouble. There are probably a dozen teams outside of the Blue Devils that could cut down the nets. I really feel pretty strongly about Houston being a dark horse to win the whole thing. The Cougars have a ton of fire-power in the backcourt, and they have an imposing frontcourt as well.

The first high-major offer is in for 2019 shooting guard Asanti Price. Georgia Tech came through earlier this week with an offer for the South Carolina native and he will be returning the favor with an official visit after taking an unofficial visit last month. The increased recruiting interest is because Price is 6-foot-5 and is one of the better available shooters in the country. I had a coach who has seen him this season tell me he should definitely be considered for our final Rivals150 because he can shoot it at such a high level. Iowa State, Kansas State, Murray State, Texas Tech and Xavier have also been involved in his recruitment. Don’t be surprised if his recruitment surges in the next month leading up to the late signing period.

If you follow me on Twitter (and you should), you have seen my proposal for how to improve the interest in the play-in games for the NCAA Tournament. Before I go into it though, I must say that Fairleigh Dickingson win over Prairie View A&M was all kinds of fun. However, under my proposal, that game never happens.

I would like to see all four play-in games be with at-large bids instead two games with at-large bids and two games between 16-seeds. We should let the low-major teams that win their league automatically into the Round of 64 and slide every down the line to where all four games involve at-large teams playing to get the 11 or 12 seed in the Round of 64. Teams like Florida, Ohio State, Minnesota, Seton Hall or Iowa would have been in these games as opposed to Prairie View A&M, Fairleigh Dickinson, NC Central and North Dakota State. It would increase interest in the first games and create an added sense of urgency.

I’m well aware of what happened between UMBC and Virginia last year, but let’s be honest, those 16-seed games are teams we know nothing about playing to see which one will go get their head beat in by Williamson and Duke. At-large teams can sometimes have a real shot at winning a few games, or even making the Final Four like VCU did once upon a time.

Tom Crean’s first season at Georgia didn’t go as planned on the court. The Bulldogs struggled to a 2-16 record in SEC play. On the flip side, off the court could not have gone much better. Georgia set a school record for attendance this year as Crean has re-energized the fan base, and he also has the ninth-best recruiting class coming to Athens next season, which is the highest in the Rivals.com era for the Dawgs. Last weekend’s commitment from four-star small forward Christian Brown gives Crean a third four-star prospect in the class to go along with Anthony Edwards, the No. 2 overall prospect in the class and the top shooting guard. If Nicolas Claxton opts to come back for his junior season, the Bulldogs could be ready to make a serious move up the SEC standings next season.

I’m not on a great run of giving out great gambling picks, but let’s take another stab at it. The first pick I like is Belmont to upset Maryland as a 3.5-point underdog. Give me Baylor (+2.5) to beat Syracuse outright. I’m going with Ole Miss (-1.5) to win comfortably over Oklahoma. I have both Oregon (+2) and Liberty (+6.5) winning outright in my bracket, so throw some money down on those to hit. Lastly, Houston (+550) to make the Final Four seems like really good value if you want to make a future play.