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Charles Barkley just made a lot of friends in Gainesville. Or maybe not, based on some of his prior predictions.
Whichever is the case, the Auburn basketball legend and former NBA star turned broadcasting icon has picked Florida to cut down the nets on April 7 as the national champion.
Barkley released his full NCAA Tournament bracket on Thursday, as March Madness got going in full after the First Four games in Dayton provided the usual appetizer. Barkley has the Gators getting out of a stacked West Region and facing none other than his Auburn Tigers in the Final Four.
Barkley believes that Auburn will win the South Region and clash with Florida in an SEC showdown of No. 1 seeds. Florida won the SEC Tournament last week after Auburn captured the SEC regular-season title, so if Barkley’s prediction comes true it would be sort of a rubber match to determine who gets the last laugh and plays for the national title.
While Barkley is going with chalk on that side of the bracket, he picked 2 surprises coming out of the East and Midwest regions. Barkley has No. 4 seed Arizona taking out Duke in the Sweet 16 and winning the East Region. He raised even more eyebrows in the Midwest, where he has No. 8 seed Gonzaga shocking Tennessee in the Elite Eight to get to the Final Four.
Barkley goes with Gonzaga again in the Final Four semifinals, taking the Zags to go all the way to the national title game, where he believes they’ll fall to Florida.
Here are Barkley’s full bracket selections:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
