The history is there. Players who come back with the expressed goal of winning a national championship have done so this decade - Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson did it with North Carolina a year ago. Florida repeated as champion in 2006 and 2007 when Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Corey Brewer returned.

That’s been the plan for Kansas all season when Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich returned.

And while their road won’t be easy - besides Bill Self, six coaches in the Midwest Region have taken a team to the Final Four - the Jayhawks have annihilated many of the teams they played. It’s why I feel comfortable taking Kansas to win the national championship despite playing in the toughest region.

Think I'm right? Think I'm dead wrong? Keep reading on to find out how to challenge me.

The biggest challenge to Kansas in the Midwest is Georgetown, the No. 3 seed that, if seeds hold, will probably play the tournament’s most memorable game in the Sweet 16 against Ohio State. But the Buckeyes won’t have anyone that can deal with Hoyas’ center, no matter how good Ohio State coach Thad Matta is at planning against stars.

So who joins Kansas in Indianapolis?

In the West, there was an immediate chuckle. In 2005, I had the best start I’d ever had to a bracket, correctly picking the first 28 games and on my way to what seemed like a perfect first round.

Then Tom Brennan and Vermont came around, completely wrecking my bracket by knocking out then-fourth-seeded Syracuse, which I had in the Final Four.

I have Syracuse in the Final Four again, but who is the Orange’s first-round matchup? Vermont. These Catamounts aren’t nearly as strong, though and the toughest game for Syracuse on the way to Indy will be in the second round against Gonzaga.

The bottom half of the West will fall away like one region does every year, with Xavier knocking off Minnesota and Pittsburgh and No. 7 BYU taking care of Florida, second-seeded Kansas State and then Xavier en route to essentially a home game against the Orange in Salt Lake City for a Final Four berth.

Syracuse wins that.

Out East, the best first-round matchup of the tournament unfolds between No. 5 Temple and No. 12 Cornell. Neither team should be in its seed, with the Owls more like a three or four seed to me and the Big Red more like a No. 7.

But take Cornell to beat Temple and lose to Wisconsin in the second round. And just pencil Kentucky into the Elite Eight. On the other side of the bracket, don’t be surprised to see No. 11 Washington beat Marquette in round one before falling to New Mexico.

No one, though, is in the class of West Virginia. Despite Bob Huggins’ well-known NCAA tournament struggles when he has highly seeded teams, he has a major playmaker in Da’Sean Butler - one who can rival Kentucky’s John Wall.

And he’ll do that in the Elite Eight, knocking down a buzzer-beater to send Huggins to the Final Four with his alma mater.

In the final region, the South, Duke has an easy road to the Elite Eight by playing teams in Louisville and Texas A&M that are underwhelming.

But a nightmare team for Duke sits on the other side. Baylor has the inside-outside game to cause teams fits. If the Bears get by multi-paced Notre Dame in the second round, look for them to reach the Final Four with Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games in Houston.

And yes, Ekpe Udoh, the former Michigan player, will be a household name.

Baylor’s run, though, comes to an end in Indianapolis with West Virginia. The Mountaineers’ defense flusters the Bears’ guards, Tweety Carter and LaceDarius Dunn, and they advance to play Kansas in the title game.

And while it’ll be closer than last year when North Carolina blew out Michigan State in Detroit, the national championship game won’t be nearly as exciting as the month prior to it.

Kansas will reach the title game and then spend 25 of the 40 minutes in a giant coronation party in the middle of the state of basketball.

Think you can beat me? Some other potential special guests? Well, join our bracket challenge and let's see what happens.

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.