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Jon Rothstein reacts to & picks every game in 2026 NCAA Tournament Bracket!

·36 min·2 clips

Rothstein picks Purdue out of the West, tying Braden Smith's class to UConn's 2004 and Florida's 2007 late-season surges.

1. Inside College Basketball Now, hosted by Jon Rothstein, devotes its Selection Sunday episode to the 2026 NCAA Tournament bracket, with picks for every region through the national title game. 2. Rothstein, a college basketball broadcaster who hosts the show on CBS Sports Network Mondays at 1 p.m. Eastern, records from Brent Stover's dressing room. 3. His thesis is that the committee did an "outstanding job," and he names each region: East "Blue Bloods," South "pressure," West "floor generals," and Midwest "innovation." 4. In the East he has Duke beating Siena, TCU beating Ohio State, and St. John's beating Kansas in the first Bill Self versus Rick Pitino meeting as power-conference coaches, then UConn beating St. John's for a Final Four spot. 5. In the South he takes Troy over Nebraska, Vanderbilt over Troy, and Florida beating Vanderbilt in the Sweet 16, before Houston wins the region over Illinois, with the Toyota Center giving it a home-court edge. 6. In the West he has Arizona over Villanova and Wisconsin, Purdue over Miami and Gonzaga, and then Purdue beating Arizona in San Jose, calling himself "a sentimental person." 7. In the Midwest he picks Georgia over Saint Louis, Akron over Texas Tech, Tennessee over Virginia, and an Iowa State versus Tennessee Sweet 16 "bloodbath," with Michigan advancing from Chicago. 8. He compares Purdue's late-season surge to UConn in 2004 and Florida in 2007, and traces Braden Smith's class from the Fairleigh Dickinson loss through the 2024 title game to this year. 9. In the chat he calls Akron and Troy his double-digit seeds to watch, and says the ACC may get only one team, Duke, into the second weekend, with Virginia facing Tennessee in the round of 32. 10. Suited to college basketball fans filling out brackets before Thursday.

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