Given the two regions so far, I think I've found out where most of the whiter teams ended up.
West Region
#1 Gonzaga – Mark Few has the Zags dancing for the 19th straight year. Recently, Few’s teams have alternated between white-friendly, and not so much. This is one of those not so much squads, although the future looks bright. Their two best white players are unfortunately pigeon-holed at the center positon. They are two good ones though. 7’0 senior Przemek Karnowski is an absolute beast. He’s a mountain of a man, but has slimmed down a bit this year and is very quick on his feet. He’s second on the Zags in both scoring (12.6PPG) and rebounding (6 per game). He’s become one of Gonzaga’s best players. Usually filling in for Karnowski is bouncy 7’0 freshman Zach Collins. Collins is a bit different than Karnowski; being a lot more quick, athletic, and agile than the senior. He brings an entirely different game against opposing defenses. Despite playing only 15-20 minutes in a given game, he’s fourth in scoring (10.6 PPG) and 3rd in rebounding (a shade under 6 per game). The other white freshman that gets time is agile forward Killian Tillie. Tillie has been playing 10+ minutes per game, and he’ll be a good one next year. He can play both inside and out, and has the highest 3pt.% of anyone in the regular rotation at 47%. In any other region, these Zags might not be a bad choice, but it’s going to be hard to root for them in any of the games they’ll be playing.
#16 South Dakota State – The Jackrabbits upset their way to the Summit League autobid, defeating the regular season champions, South Dakota, as well as they #3 seed Nebraska Omaha to punch their ticket. The Jackrabbits have four white starters this season. Actually, this might be the worst South Dakota State team in a few years at least record-wise, but they are still VERY dangerous. This is due to Mike Daum. Daum, a 6’9 sophomore forward who's had the highest scoring Division 1 game this year with 53 points, is one of the most dominate players in the country. He’s currently second in nation in PPG, averaging over 25 per game!! He also leads the Jackrabbits in rebounding at 8.2 per game. He’s an inside out player, shooting threes at over 41%, and he’s also clutch from the free throw line, shooting over 87%. Daum is a mismatch problem who’ll give Gonzaga fits, and he gives SDSU a chance in any game they play. After Daum, their next best player is small forward Reed Tellinghuisen. The 6’7 junior is second in both scoring (12 PPG) and rebounding (4.7). His shooting has been a little off this year, but when he’s on, Tellinghuisen is deadly from anywhere on the court, able to knock down threes in bunches as well as get to the basket. Tellinghuisen is also a great defender, and is 1st on the team on blocks and 2nd in steals. Guards AJ Hess and Michael Orris make up the rest of the white contingent in the starting lineup, putting in 10 and 8 points per game respectively. They’re both decent defenders and “glue guys” for the main two players on the team. Orris is first on the team with 4 assists per game. The two white Jacks you’ll see off the bench are forward Ian Theisen and wing Lane Severyn. If Daum and Tellinghuisen both play well, these guys have a chance against Gonzaga. It’s not likely, but possible: this could be the #16 seed to make history. They’ve got a better chance than most.
#8 Northwestern – You’ve undoubtedly heard it by now: this is the first time Northwestern has been to the Big Dance. They faltered a bit down the stretch, but still won a couple games in the Big Ten Tournament to get an 8 seed. This team revolves around point guard Bryant McIntosh, who’s the team leader, only white starter, and the main reason the Wildcats are in the Dance. McIntosh is the Wildcats leading scoring (14 PPG) and also their leading assist man (5.2 per game). His shooting percentage has been down, but he’s still capable of lighting it up. The Wildcats bring two white players off the bench in forwards Gavin Skelly and Nathan Taphorn. Skelly is the “energy” guy who does the dirty work and is capable of stuffing a stat sheet, and Taphorn is in the game to shoot threes, which he does very well, leading the team in 3 point FG% at 45%. Skelly and Taphorn have been getting about 15-20 minutes per game lately, making Northwestern a decent team to root for, if they weren’t in this bracket.
#9 Vanderbilt – The Commodores caught fire late in the season, winning seven of their last nine to play their way into the Tournament. Their 3 game sweep of Florida comprises most of their good wins, and is the reason they got in. These guys live and die by the three-point shot, and have been making them in most recent games. The Commodores reshuffled their lineup during the season, and currently have three white starters. The highlight of the group is 7’1 senior forward Luke Kornet. Kornet is very athletic and agile, able to play a lot of different ways. He’s second on the team in both scoring (13 PPG) and rebounding (6.2 RPG). He’s also a great defender, easily leading the team in blocks with 68 on the season, which averages out to 2 per game. Kornet is a great free throw shooter, and is able to step out and shoot threes as well. Point guard Riley LaChance has been playing some of the best basketball of his career lately. The junior leads the Commodores is 3 point %, shooting nearly 50% from beyond the arc! He’s also a great passer, averaging nearly 4 assists per game, again leading the team. The third white starter is guard Nolan Cressler, a senior from Cornell who ascended into the starting lineup midway through the season. He leads the team in FG%(52%) and is second in 3pt. % (43%). He can knock down some big shots for Vanderbilt. No whites play off of the bench for the Commodores. These guys all play 24+ minutes per game, making Vanderbilt a team to support.
#5 Notre Dame – The Fighting Irish are playing great ball again under Mike Brey, and have been on fire lately following a mid-season lineup reshuffle. Notre Dame will start three white players, and will often have four on the court for periods of the game. The best of which is senior guard Steve Vasturia. Vasturia has been a mainstay for the Irish since his freshman year, and has only gotten better. He’s a great defender, and is also a double digit scorer at 13.3 PPG. He hurts you in a variety of ways, whether it’s driving to the basket or by the three point shot. Matt Farrell is one of the main reasons why Notre Dame has been so good. The firey junior point guard is one of the most improved players in the country, and is averaging 14.4 PPG on the offensive end. He also leads the team in assists at 5.5 per game! He’s a deadly outside shooter as well, able to rain threes down on opposing defenses. Bouncy sophomore Rex Pflueger began starting during the middle of the season, and has been the “glue guy” for the most part this year. He’s been a mainstay in the lineup, and plays lockdown defense, but can ball when given the chance. Off the bench for Notre Dame are forward Matt Ryan, the 3 point sniper, and Martinas Geben, who started for a good chunk of the year before being benched as Notre Dame went to smaller lineup. Both Ryan and Geben have been playing a bit more as of late, and have been playing good. Center Bonzie Colson is only 6'6, but is actually really fun to watch as he navigates and scores against players much taller than him. The Irish are a great free-throwing shooting team, hitting from the charity stripe at 81%. Notre Dame is one of our best teams to support; go Irish!
#12 Princeton – The Tigers went undefeated in Ivy League play and have been playing good ball, surviving the loss of two of their best players in Henry Caruso and Hans Brase. Princeton still has three white starters, although their depth has taken a hit without those two. The Tigers still have two all Ivy League players in forwards Steven Cook and Spencer Weisz. Both of these guys are double digit scorers, and are the team’s two leading rebounders. They can hurt you in a variety of ways on offense, while playing good defense on the other end. These two will usually be the only white players on the court, as senior center Pete Miller and his backup Will Gladson combine for about 24 minutes. They aren’t anything special, since they get eschewed for a five-guard lineup more often than not. I’d be cheering for Princeton if they were playing nearly anyone else but Notre Dame.
#4 West Virginia – Bob Huggins and “Press” Virginia have had a great season. As the name states, the Mountaineers’ game is predicated on pressing and forcing the tempo. Nathan Adrian is the only white starter, and the only white man who sees significant time. I’m glad to see Adrian carved out a good role for himself this year, averaging 10 PPG and leading the team in rebounding at 6 per game. Barring foul trouble, he’ll be the only white guy you see on the court for WVU. No need to ever cheer for this team, especially in this bracket.
#13 Bucknell – I’ve not seen the Patriot League Champs play this year, so I can’t comment from personally watching on how they play. They do have two white starters in point guard Kimbal MacKenzie and stat stuffing forward Zach Thomas, who’s the team’s leading scorer at 16 PPG. Both of these guys are among the best players on the team. Three white guys come off the bench in the Bison’s ten deep. Those are: center Nate Sestina, guard Matt O’Reilly, and forward DJ Macleay. They play a slower tempo than West Virginia, and if they can control that and avoid committing turnovers, they have a chance to pull the upset.
#6 Maryland – The Terps have had a very inconsistent year and are hard to predict, mostly due to the fact that their “star” Melo Trimble is a ball hog, although less so than previous years. Maryland has one white starter in freshman phenom guard Kevin Huerter. He’s a great athlete, and is fourth on the team at 9.0 PPG. He can also get up, having blocked a Georgetown shot at the buzzer to preserve a win earlier in the year. Due to injury to forward Michel Cekovsky, Ivan Bender is the lone white man who comes off the bench for Maryland, but his minutes have been steadily increasing as of late. He’s becoming a better player down low, and has had games where he’s been in double digits in scoring. Bender is actually second on the team in FG% at 66%. Given their inconsistent season, they’d normally be ripe for an upset pick, but the 11 seed they’ll be playing has been much worse down the stretch.
#11 Xavier – The Musketeers lost guard Edmond Sumner to injury, and have been in absolute free fall down the standings as of late, going from a 4-5 seed to squarely on the bubble, with only a win against Butler in the Big East tournament and avoiding losing to DePaul keeping them in the field. The Musketeers have one white starter in mercurial guard JP Macura. Macura can absolutely light up opposing defenses from three, and is one of Xavier’s best players. Or he can be cold and not factor in very much. Center Sean O’Mara comes off the bench, and has been playing well in limited minutes, usually getting a few baskets in his time on the court. He’s a tough out on the blocks. Their only non-Depaul win in over a month has been Butler, and this is clearly a team trending the wrong direction. They aren’t going far.
#3 Florida State – The last time FSU was in the tournament, they actually played three white guys for large amounts of time, with one of them even been one of the Seminoles’ best players. This time around? Leonard Hamilton has put the ax on any white boys seeing meaningful time on his roster! They play no whites in their 12 deep. Sometimes however, shooter Brandon Allen may sneak past the coaching staff and check himself in as the 13th man for a couple of minutes. This odious team is one to avoid.
#14 Florida Gulf Coast – Former Kansas assistant Joe Dooley has really blackened this team up from the Andy Enfield and Dunk City days. One white athlete in the super-athletic guard Christian Terrell starts. He’ll more than likely be the only white player seeing the court. Freshman guard Christian Carlyle may see a little time, or not. Hopefully they can make themselves useful and knock off the Seminoles.
#7 St. Mary’s – The only all-white starting 5 in the tournament is a good one. Randy Bennett has the Gaels back in the Tournament after getting shafted last year. If you’re a fan of team ball, watch the Gaels. They are a very methodical team who don’t turn it over and can hurt you in a variety of ways. They are led by super center Jock Landale, who leads the Gaels in scoring (17 PPG) and rebounding (9.3 RPG). He’s a great low post player, and often dominates his competition on the blocks. St. Mary’s has a great backcourt filled with two good players in senior Joe Rahon and junior Aussie Emmett Naar. The Gaels are the only team in the country that has two people averaging over 5 assists per game in Rahon (5.7) and Naar (5.8). They are also good scorers, each putting in between 9 and 10 PPG on average. Forwards Calvin Hermanson and Evan Fitzner round out the starting 5 for St. Mary’s. These guys are the team’s main three point shooters, with Hermanson taking the most on the team and converting them at a good (44%) rate. Fitzner also shoots 44% from three. Off the bench, senior forward Dane Pineau provides a great spark for the Gaels in the low post, averaging 7 and 6. Guard Tanner Krebs and forward Kyle Clark can also shoot it and round out the regular rotation. St. Mary’s is a fun team that makes you defend for 30 seconds and plays great team ball, always seeming to find the open man, especially on cuts towards the basket, or kicking it out for an open three. The Gaels have the potential to make the Sweet 16, and I hope it happens. As the only all-white starting five in the tourney, go Gaels!!
#10 VCU – In perhaps the starkest caste matchup that’s been played in the NCAA Tournament in quite some time, all-white St. Mary’s will be going up against all-black VCU, who prefers to recruit their players from ghettos around the country. Outside of one Egyptian, there’s no other non-black players, and certainly no room for any white players, as they would take away from the “amazing diversity” of this team. There’s not even a GPA-boosting white walk-on to be seen on this team of alleged student-athletes. The only white guy you’ll see for this team is head cuck(coach) Will Wade. Of course, VCU still plays their “havoc” style of play that a white team would foul out in one half playing. They love to press, which usually involves grabbing and other overly physical play that is of course not called. If St. Mary’s can slow the game down on these guys, they’re done. I don’t think there’s another game I want more this weekend than this one. Go Gaels!! I hope these racists are on the flight home after their first game.
#2 Arizona – The Wildcats are a trendy Final Four pick, and for good reason. They have played great basketball most of the year, and just won the Pac-12. They play some good defense to go along with good offense. Arizona has two white starters, who are two of the better players on the team. The best player on this team is freshman sensation Lauri Markkanen. The 7’0 freshman sensation from Finland is truly the entire package, and will likely be off to the NBA next season. He’s second on the team in scoring at over 15 PPG, and gets his points both inside and from beyond the arc. Markkanen also leads the team in rebounding at over 7 RPG. He’s got great handles for a big man as well. He’s the key for Arizona this year. If he plays well, the Wildcats advance. If he doesn’t, they could lose next round. The other white starter is 7’0 center Dusan Ristic. Ristic is a solid player in the low post, averaging over 10 PPG, to go along with nearly 6 boards per game. Besides these two, no other white players see the floor. However, Markkanen’s star power makes this squad worthwhile to root for.
#15 North Dakota – Unlike the other three Dakota schools, North Dakota does not see it fit to recruit many white athletes that the other three schools have had success with, nor give much playing time to the ones they do get. The winners of the Big Sky start exactly one in forward Conner Avants. Center Carson Shanks gets a few minutes off the bench. That ends the involvement of white players for the politically correct “Fighting Hawks.” The only thing in this team’s future is pain.
Clearly, most of the white teams have been pigeon-holed into this bracket. Out of 16 teams, there’s 29 white starters, to go with many more guys off the bench! Only VCU and Florida State are completely all-black teams in this bracket. The fairest 1 seed in Gonzaga is here, along with St. Mary’s, Notre Dame, Arizona, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, South Dakota State, Princeton, Bucknell, and even Maryland. These are all decent choices to support. I’m thinking the teams with the best chance in the West are: Arizona, Notre Dame, and Gonzaga. The Irish aren’t a bad sleeper pick to the Final Four, while St. Mary’s could get to the Sweet 16 or Elite Eight. I feel the most likely scenario is Arizona winning the region, but that’s why they play the games.
