Kyle Dodd: Pac-12 teams got tough draws, UA may be best hope

March Madness kicks off Tuesday night and the tournament might be the cherry on top of a crazy sundae of a year.

Former Arizona State guard and current Sun Devils radio analyst Kyle Dodd joined Doug and Wolf on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Tuesday morning to try and bring focus to this year’s bracket.

“It’s been a crazy year,” Dodd said. “Obviously the Pac-12, I’ve seen that and that’s just been unbelievable crazy.

“That’s a microcosm of what we’ve seen nationwide this year. It’s one of those years where it’s unprecedented. Every team that’s been No. 1 or in the top five has lost about six, seven, eight games and it’s not something we’ve seen before.”

This season has either shown an increase in parity across Division I, or a lack of star talent. There have been six different No. 1 teams this season, and only four teams in Division I have fewer than five losses entering the tournament compared to 10 teams in 2015.

“It could very well end up with the usual suspects, you’ve got North Carolina, you’ve got Michigan State, teams like that that could end up in the Final Four, but you can also end up with people out of the realm of the normal March Madness that could jump in there,” Dodd said.

Pac-12 fans hope one of their record seven tournament-bound teams might end up being one of those ‘out of the realm of normal March Madness’ teams to end up in the Final Four.

The Oregon Ducks are a trendy pick, earning the first No. 1 seed in school history. The Ducks won both the regular-season conference title and the Pac-12 Tournament, beating NCAA-bound Utah by 31 points in the championship game.

“With as well as they’re playing, I think if they play like they did last week in the Pac-12 Tournament they can beat anybody in the country,” Dodd said. “That being said, they didn’t necessarily get a great draw. I think every team in the Pac-12 got a really, really tough draw, a lot of teams got a really tough first matchup.”

Although the Pac-12 has seven teams in the tournament, Dodd believes the conference could possible be down to one or two after the first weekend.

“I don’t think the committee did them any favors,” Dodd said. “You look at teams like USC, who’s on a bounce back year, ultra-talented, they get Providence in the first round. Even California, as a No. 4 seed, has to play Hawaii, a No. 13 seed, but they’ve won 27 games this year. I think a lot of these first-round and potential second-round matchups just don’t bode well for the teams in the Pac-12.”

If No. 8 seeds Colorado and USC manage to get past their respective opponents in No. 9 seeds Connecticut and Providence, they’ll run into a pair of buzzsaws in No. 1 seeds Kansas and North Carolina in the second round.

Seventh-seeded Oregon State may be the higher seed in its matchup against No. 10 VCU, but the Beavers are winless in their last five NCAA Tournament games, and making their first appearance in the Big Dance since 1990. VCU has made the tournament each of the past five seasons.

“For as good of a year they’ve had as a conference as a whole, it could be one of those years where you don’t see teams get deep into the tournament,” Dodd added. “If the conference wants to really be taken seriously as the best conference, or one of the best conferences in the country, they need to start getting over the hump. They’re going to rely heavily on a team like Arizona or Oregon or even a team like Utah to get to the Final Four.”

Should it come down to picking between Arizona, Oregon or Utah, the former Sun Devil is taking the Wildcats to go the farthest.

“I think this year it’s one of those years where no one is expecting anything from Arizona and the size and the talent they have, they have Final Four talent,” Dodd said. “I think when they’re motivated and when they play hard, I think they can beat anybody. So I’m picking them in my Final Four.”