Stephen A. Smith reveals Final Four picks in his March Madness bracket

ESPN personality Stephen A Smith

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Matthew Couden

By Matthew Couden

Contributing Writer

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The March Madness bracket reveal on Sunday has everyone scrambling to make their predictions for the NCAA Final Four and champions.

That includes ESPN's well-known personality, Stephen A. Smith, who shared his picks for the Big Dance on Monday afternoon. However, Smith had to bring attention to another matter first: St. John's getting the short end of the stick with their placement.

"You know what I got a problem with? Why the hell does St. John's have it so tough?" he asked during "The Stephen A. Smith Show."

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He referred to Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino as "outstanding" and mentioned they lost by almost 40 points to UConn over a week ago. However, St. John's made a statement by winning the Big East Conference and then their conference tournament with a resounding 20-point win over those same UConn Huskies.

ESPN personality Stephen A Smith

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Along with that, he mentioned St. John's became the first team in Big East history to win both the regular season and conference tournament titles in back-to-back seasons. With that, he believes St. John's deserved better than a No. 5 seed, possibly a No. 4 or No. 3, and if not, they should've been in a different region.

For his Final Four picks, Stephen A. likes two of the No. 1 seeds: Duke and Arizona. He called the Wildcats possibly the nation’s best team heading into the tournament.

Along with those two, he has the No. 2 seed Houston Cougars and No. 2 seed Iowa State joining them. Like Arizona, those teams represent the Big 12 Conference, which would put three teams from the same conference in the Final Four, if the ESPN star is correct.

“I got Duke coming out the East Region. I got Houston coming out the South. I got Arizona coming out of the West. I got Iowa State coming out of the Midwest,” he stated on his show.

“I’m just not a believer in Michigan. I believe Michigan is too erratic,” Stephen A. said about the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region.

For a while, the Big Ten's Michigan Wolverines were the No. 1 team in the nation and looked unbeatable. However, that has changed, as they lost guard L.J. Cason to a tough season-ending injury, and just recently, lost the Big Ten Tournament to Purdue.

Stephen A. appears to be one of several individuals who believe that the Wolverines will struggle in their latest tournament run, although there are also many people picking three or four of the No. 1 seeds to reach the Final Four.

That said, it all comes down to single-elimination games now, and anything is possible in March Madness.