Tickle City Bracket Tip O'-The Day - Midwest Region

2009 NCAA Basketball Men's Brackets

It was a year of college basketball that was supposed to be fairly straightforward, UNC was expected to roll through the season mostly uncontested. Instead, a number of worthy competitors have challenged and made strong arguments as to why they will be the team to cut down the nets in Detroit on April 6th.

Now with the selection process complete, we wait until Thursday for the most dramatic and action-packed weeks in sports to commence. While intrigue and excitement is flowing through all corners of the bracket, the Midwest Region especially impressed the Tickle City O'-The Week Award Committee.

The Midwest has overall number one seed Louisville, but their road to the final four will be anything but a cakewalk. Michigan State and Kansas represent two more power conference regular season champions. Wake Forest has looked like final four material at several times throughout the season and boasts three potential NBA first rounders in Teague, Aminu and forward James Johnson.

The Midwest also has the possibility for some serious upsets. It would be tough to name a better 12 seed in recent years than Arizona, teeming with NBA talent and lead by stars Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill. North Dakota State is a mid-major that can light it up from beyond the arc (fifth in the nation in 3 pt. %) but also has the size to match up against tough opponents. USC will bring a huge amount of talent to their 7-10 matchup with Boston College, and their highly touted freshman DeMar Derozan has been great down the stretch. Cleveland State won the Horizon League over Butler and have a couple big wins on their resume.

Midwest region, looking very ticklish!