NCAA basketball "sleepers"
 

Which teams do you like pulling off the upset in the early rounds?

My four are - St.Joes, Siena, Baylor & Arizona.

A team I sort of like is Winthrop. I think they will give Wash St a very very good game. St Joe's v Oklahoma is an interesting game as well.

Davidson over Gonzaga. But what about the Mayo v Beasley matchup.

Temple over Mich State and St Mary's over Miami

Baylor over Purdue

All 4 opponents of higher seeded big 10 teams. 2 of them minimum will win and most likely 3 of them will.

I 2nd that. I also toss any team that Illinois played well against. Arizona being one of them. Maybe they are a different team now but when Illinos played them Az was not the better team.

I have Baylor making a pretty deep run, just have a feeling.

I agree with that one also.

I have them beating Xavier
but I have Marquette going crazy

or is it me

Villanova

Purdue, South Alabama and Oral Roberts to play Pitt real tough. St. Mary's should handle Miami.

I am obviously bias to Memphis being that they are a $1600 payday for me but my final four is....

North Carolina, Memphis, UCLA and Georgetown....

I think UConn will give UCLA a run in the Sweet 16, Purdue will give Duke a run in that other game. Georgetown should destory Kansas in that round, if Kansas even makes it that far, Clemson is no joke this year and could beat them, and NC does not have an easy run as in their bracket there are many teams that can really drain (Tennessee, Louisville, Butler, Notre Dame) and how about them possibly having to play Indiana, who was ranked like 5th at one time this year, all they are lacking is focus, which sometimes gets turned on when it is tourney time.

I think Memphis drew pretty well all things considered, there are no world beaters in that bracket.

Baylor will lose opening round

My first round upsets:

Winthrop over Wash St
Kansas St over USC
Davidson over Gonzaga
St Mary's over Miami

W. Ky over Drake
Mt. St. Mary's over Miami (a 7 seed??)
Ky over Marquette
St. Joes over Ok

I agree with W. Ky.

I have no idea where Drake came from. Valley is very weak this year.

You are out of your mind with KY.....

I'd be surprised to see Kentucky lose to Marquette. All they have to do is guard the perimeter.

My only really wacked out bracket pick was CS Fullerton. I have them winning two games for unspecified and unknown reasons. I can't imagine why I would do that...but for some reason they kicked me in the face!! (that and actually picking all 4 big 10 teams to lose first round!) (oh yes...Fullerton playing a big 10 team first round...that's why!)

Your crack smoking totally makes sense to me. This explains tons. However, I have no excuse.

I gotta disagree about Drake. They can shoot like hell and their point guard is a great assist man. I bet em at -4. Good Luck to everybody that plays any of these games. KP

I don't know much about Drake...only saw a chunk of their conference final against Ill st and they looked ok!! And if you go to Butler's gym and win handily as they did on one of the bracket buster weekends...you do something right. I have them in the sweet 16. Tough draw in S Alabama playing them in Birmingham however. They matched a lot of these top mid majors against each other in round one...Gonzaga/Davidson another.

I'll second that one.

USC is my biggest sleeper team to make it to the Elite 8. My other one would have been Kansas State but they play each other in the first round. In today's watered down game, one superstar can take a team a long way.

I'd like USC a whole lot more if they basically didn't have to play a road game against K-State

I want to warn anybody right now that likes Baylor in the first round to change their picks ASAP. As a Mizzou alum, I follow the Big 12 very closely and I assure you that Baylor made this tournament based solely on their early-season accomplishments.
When they beat Texas A&M in that ridiculous 5 OT game near the end of January they improved their overall record to 16-2. Since then they have been 5-8 which includes a loss to a pretty pathetic Colorado team in the Big 12 tournament.
In addition, Jerrells simply hasn't looked like himself in the last five game.

I know the Big 10 isn't particularly strong this year, but Purdue seems to be significantly better now than they were at the begining of the year, while the opposite holds true for the Bears.

I'm not a Big Ten guy and have no allegiances to any school there, but I think they get dumped on in the tournament unfairly. They may have qualified too many schools a few years, but if you look at the Final 4's (and I'm guessing), I think they have been represented quite well.

I have a tough time backing any six seed that lost at home to Wofford. Losing to Illinois first round in their tourney doesn't exactly inspire confidence that they improved a ton. It is just too bad they drew Baylor. Neither of them belong in the round of 32. Why couldn't we have got USC-Baylor and Purdue-KState? Georgia may have the easiest path to the Sweet 16 of any 14 seed ever.

Purdue's freshman hit the wall in the conference tournament, first time being there, excitement. Baylor relies heavily on the outside game and that is where purdue excels. Chris Kramer may be the best on the ball defensive player in the country, which makes up for his lack of offense. Purdue was getting better as the year went on and baylor was riding the coattails of its early season victories. I think purdue wins this by 8. Beyond that didn't baylor get bounced by colorado in its conference opening round....

Why does the Selection Committee make rules for structuring the bracket and then blatantly disregard them when putting it together? They are never supposed to give a lower seed homefield advantage in the first round yet they have 10 seed South Alabama playing in Birmingham against Butler and 10 seed Davidson playing in NC against Gonzaga. That should never happen. The most ridiculous part of it is that they could have simply switched South Alabama and Davidson and eliminated the issue. It isn't like moving them would have violated other rules and forced them to shuffle around the entire bracket. And it isn't like the games aren't selling out where they need regional teams to draw interest.

Can sometimes be of slight value when filling out your brackets, not a ton to get here this year but a few things worth noting.

Combined record between NIT and CBI:

MVC 4-0
SEC 3-0
ACC 2-0
CUSA 3-1
P10 2-1
MAC 2-1
A10 2-2
B10 1-1
B12 1-1
BEast 1-1
MWC 1-2

The Butler seeding is bizarre beyond belief. I was looking back at last year and they were 27-6...didn't win the Horizon LEague tourney...I'm not sure even if they won the regular season outright?? But they were a 5 seed. This year they go 29-3...win the regular season outright...conference tourney and are a 7 seed playing an Alabama team in Alabama...after making the sweet 16 last year giving Florida their toughest game. And no bad losses either...lost by 1 point and 4 points on the road to the two other 20 win teams in their conference (clev state and wright state) and to Drake.

Their situation is quite odd to say the least. How they were seeded two slots higher last year than this year makes no sense. I thought they and Drake were 4 or 5 seeds at the lowest this year both of them. Butler by far got the biggest shaft in the NCAA tourney this year.

Their RPI was also 17 this year compared to 27 last year. They are #10 in one poll and #11 in the other. Getting a 5 would have been a tough seeding. Getting a 7 and a road game is a joke.

Take the points with Temple and run. Dionte Christmas and company will try to prove their worthiness. A week ago, the stories around here were that no team in the BIG 5 was going to get into the dance. We now have 3 going, all with a chance at some buzz, save St. Joe's. Look for NOva as well to put on a good showing, Jay Wright has a tough little team.

Go Owls!! Go Wildcats!! (Not homerish picks, I swear):eek:

Had the worst game of his career and down goes my alma mater...In flames....Fran Dunphy should teach these kids to not pick up their dribble every time down the court. Horrible effort...

Miserable tourney so far through the first set of games and first half of 2nd games. Nothing but chalk and no really even interesting games other than Georgia/Xavier. Marq/Kent ok so far but not much of an upset if Ky wins.

(my big 10 losing theory is proving to be working out quite well!! :mad: )

I fail to see how that makes it miserable. Higher seeds should win most of the games.... thats why they are higher seeds in the first place. The big ten had a down year but come on temple... they beat exactly no one this year.

I think it's been just fine so far for me. The Xavier game was exciting, it seems like the teams who should be winning are winning, and I got to see my alma mater play in the NCAA tournament for the first time in history....or at least a few minutes of it, not that it was worth watching anyway :)

It doesn't. That's just me. I find it boring if the favorites win every single game. To me the "upsets" is what coined the whole phrase "March Madness". If the chalk goes wire to wire the whole tourney what's "mad" about that??

Kentucky is killing me. Marquette is complete garbage like I expected them to be but nobody but Crawford wants to shoot. It's a horrible game.

I guess you went to Portland State? I actually saw them live this year....had a nice team (I go to about 4-5 Idaho State games a year for no particular reason!). Big Sky is pretty much overmatched in these things however almost yearly. Weber State has had a couple moments and Montana won a game a couple years ago. For the most part zero shot however.

Yep. I am also okay with Marquette doing well as I started college there, but spent the good part of college at Portland State. I was thrilled that they snuck in, even while realizing they were going to get a 16 and head out right away.

At least they managed to keep it kinda close for what, about six minutes? :D