A season full of surprises, upsets and star players has set the stage for the road to the national championship as the NCAA men’s basketball tournament starting March 20.
Every year millions of people fill out brackets for March Madness hoping to finally be the first person to create a perfect bracket. Purely guessing or flipping a coin for the winner of each game gives you a one in 9.2 quintillion chance of getting a perfect bracket, while having some knowledge of the teams gives you slightly better odds at one in 120.2 billion.
With that being said, let’s take a closer look at some of the favorites, key players and potential Cinderella stories for this year’s tournament before everyone’s bracket is busted.
Favorites
Auburn University goes into the tournament as the No. 1 overall seed after going 28-5 despite losing two of their final three regular season games, one of them being a loss to fellow No. 1 seed Florida University in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
Johni Broome leads the way for the Tigers after having averaged 19 points and 10 rebounds over the course of the season while building his case as a potential nominee for this year’s Wooden Award. A cast of veterans surrounds Broome, giving the Tigers a real chance at the national championship despite the losses down the stretch.
While Auburn is led by an older team, Duke University became one of my favorites this year while being one of the younger teams in college basketball. Freshman Cooper Flagg averaged 19 points and seven rebounds while being one of the only two players unanimously voted to the AP All-American First team alongside Broome.
However, Flagg suffered an ankle injury in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament which forced him to miss the final two games of the tournament. Despite this, Duke head coach Jon Scheyer is optimistic that Flagg will return to play.
“From my perspective, it’s full steam ahead,” Scheyer said. “I want to get Coop back as quickly as I can, and he wants to do the same.”
Houston University is atop the Midwest region after going 30-4 with one of the best offenses in college basketball. Players such as L.J. Cryer, who was named to All-American 3rd team helped give the Cougars the 10th best offense in the country.
Leading the west region of the bracket is Florida, who went 30-4 and won the SEC tournament. The Gators had the third most efficient offense and the 10th most efficient defense, proving they are capable of winning games on both sides of the ball.
Head coach Todd Golden hopes to keep his team steady as a No. 1 seed this year after an early exit in last year’s Round of 64.
“We can’t let it change who we’ve been over the course of the season,” Golden said. “I’m pretty confident our guys will be good that way. I think this group enjoys being in an underdog role and kind of creating that mentality if it’s not there already.”
Underdogs
Twelve seeds have fared very well as of late, with a 12 seed winning at least one game in 33 of the past 39 tournaments and have split their first-round matchups with the five seeds in two of the past three tournaments.
The University of California San Diego for me is a 12 seed to watch as they have many of the ingredients needed to have success in March. The Tritons start five upperclassmen and are ranked eighth in 3-point shooting rate, averaging nearly 11 makes from beyond the arc.
“It’s been a pretty special season, you know?” head coach Eric Olen said. “These guys deserve all the recognition that has come their way. I knew we’d have a good team. I knew we’d be good. But his has been, you know, beyond my expectations of what was possible, to be in this situation, to play at this level for so long this season.”
Another potential Cinderella team that could go dancing in March is No. 13 seeded Yale University. The Bulldogs have won 16 of their last 17 games going into their first-round matchup against Texas A&M University. The Bulldogs also shoot the three well as they are ranked eighth in 3-point percentage, shooting nearly 39% from distance.
Senior guard Bez Mbeng was just named both the Ivy League Player of the Year and the Defensive Player of the Year for the third straight season and will give teams trouble on both sides of the ball.
As the NCAA Tournament tips off March 20, no one truly knows what will happen in sport’s most unpredictable tournament. Despite the lack of guarantees, I predict it’ll be Cooper Flagg and Duke cutting down the nets at the end of the national championship.
The only true guarantee is madness.
