Florida Gators Get a Break in Midwest Bracket of NCAA Tournament

Florida is the defending NCAA Basketball Tournament champion. How did the Gators follow that up? How about with the overall No. 1 seed in the 2007 NCAA Basketball Tournament. Not bad for an encore.

With that No. 1 overall seed come some perks. Not only will Florida stay close to home, they also benefit when it comes to the Midwest Bracket.
The Gators are far and away the favorite to advanced through to the Final Four.

Along with the South Regional, where Ohio State is the No. 1 seed, the Midwest give a clear edge to the Gators, a team that earned a breather after closing the season with a remarkably easy run through the SEC Tournament.

While the bracket isn't loaded, there are several teams that could make noise. No. 2 seed Wisconsin and Florida have identical 29-5 records and two of the Badgers losses have come to Ohio State, which closed out the regular season as the No. 1 team in the country. Wisconsin has played just five ranked teams - including Ohio State twice - and there is a good chance that the Badgers will run into trouble in the second round with either UNLV or Georgia Tech.

Oregon, the No. 3 seed in the Midwest brings plenty of momentum into the NCAA Basketball Tournament. The Ducks cruised through the PAC-10 Tournament and led USC by as many as 40 points in the championship game. The Ducks are going to hard for either Wisconsin, Georgia Tech or UNLV to get past in the Sweet 16.

At the top of the bracket, Florida will match up with the Arizona-Purdue winner in the second round. Neither team should offer much of a challenge to the Gators, but Butler or Maryland could be lurking around the corner. The team may be out of a small conference, but they have been ranked in the top 15 for the last two months. On the other hand, Maryland has banged heads with Duke and North Carolina so the Terps will be ready for anything.

There are a few darkhorses in the Midwest bracket.
Davidson brings a Midwest bracket-best 29-4 record into the NCAA Basketball Tournament, but the team will face a heavily favored Maryland team in the opening round. Elsewhere, No. 6 seed Notre Dame will face a No. 11 Winthrop team that many believe can make a surprise run to the final four. No. 12 Old Dominion takes on No. 5 Butler and No. 14 Miami (Ohio) faces Oregon in the opening round.

While there are some chances for minor upsets, don't expect Florida to be one of the No. 1 seeds to fall before the Gators reach their second straight Final Four. If anyone's going to trip up Florida look for Georgia Tech and Oregon to pull off the upset.