Upsets are what make the NCAA Tournament and the excitement of a non-blue blood beating a blue blood. It’s something like any other as you won’t be able to see a Non-Power 5 powerhouse face a Power 5 blue blood in the postseason in football in a playoff format. It’s what makes College Basketball unique.
This season has not been perfect by any means as there is really only one to two truly dominant teams. Even Duke without one player can be poor and shoots really bad from 3.
With that shortage of dominant and nearly impossible teams, it makes the built up chaos for this season even more as people prepare to fill out their brackets. Before you do though, take a look at the top seeds that could be on upset alert.
Tennessee:
The Opponent: #7 Cincinnati:
The doubt has started to settle in for the Vols after getting crushed in the SEC Title game against Auburn 84-64. While Cincinnati is coming off a sweep of the AAC Tournament and has a favorable first round game against Iowa.
There have been flashes of this season when Schofield and Williams aren’t playing well, this team falls apart and that very well could be the case in the 2nd round.
Jarron Cumberland is the AAC Player of the Year and it should be a great matchup between him and Schofield. Rick Barnes has had a wonderful season at UT and it could be in line for more seasons like this further down the line.
It would not come too much of a surprise if Cincinnati wins this game and stuns Tennessee behind some incompetent shooting and clumsy turnovers from the Volunteers.
Gonzaga:
The Opponent: #4 Florida State
This isn’t considered to be a huge upset, and it’s not an early exit for the Zags. But it would be surprising to some. Syracuse is a plausible candidate as well, but their poor rebounding ranking and inability to make 3’s could be a problem for the ‘Cuse. Florida State has something Gonzaga does not have. Size.
Considering how tall he is, it’s very surprising how Christ Koumadje only has 5.6 Rebounds, but stands at 7’4. His shot blocking game has improved every year and is averaging 1.5 per game. That matchup between him and Hachimura will be very exciting and probably the one to watch out for.
Florida State is coming off of a close loss in the ACC Title game against Duke, but exceeded expectations in the conference tournament. Good enough to earn a 4 seed in the NCAA’s.
Florida State also has a chance to play Murray State in the 2nd round, which would be very interesting to see. If Ja Morant can get past Koumadje enough and be able to score against Trent Forrest and 6-7 Terrance Mann.
Kansas:
The Opponent: #12 New Mexico State
This pick is difficult, not because of KU winning. It’s because this opponent might not be in the Round of 32. New Mexico State was considered by some to be one of the top dark horse candidates in the NCAA’s, but start out with a tough round 1 matchup.
The Aggies have to face SEC Tournament Champs Auburn in the first round (a team that was a bit under seeded). New Mexico State is not like any other team, as there isn’t a main guy and 13 players on their roster play double digit minutes. Some teams don’t even hold 13 scholarship players.
6 players average 7 PPG per game or more and 3 average over 9 or more. The problem is they only have 2 players that stand 6’8 or taller (6’8 and 6’9). While Auburn has 4 of those. If they get past Auburn, I like their chances against Kansas.
This isn’t the normal Kansas team most people are used to as they’ve been riddled with injuries and the harsh reality of breaking the streak of regular season conference championships. Kansas only plays 7-8 players normally, and with a group of 13 that share the rock and are very old and mature, NMSU is a team to get behind and make a deep run this year. And that run might consists of running through Kansas.
Villanova:
The Opponent: #11 Saint Mary’s
“This isn’t the same Villanova team as we’ve seen in the previous 4 years”. That’s what most people would’ve said after they lost by 12 to Xavier on February, 24th.
Losing 4 of their last 5 and heading in the wrong direction. Until they turned a corner and won 2 of their final 3 regular season games and sweeping the Big East Championship.
Villanova is very reliant on Phil Booth and Eric Paschall for their point production. Almost half of their points comes from those two and Nova ranks 123rd in offense.
Saint Mary’s has probably one of the best wins in all of College Basketball with a victory over #1 Gonzaga. Randy Bennett has got one of the most underrated players in this Tournament in 3 Point threat Jordan Ford. The Junior is averaging 21 PPG on 42% from 3 and 52% from 2.
The guard matchup in this game is going to be insane and one of the more underrated potential matchups to see as the days go by.
Maryland:
The Opponent: #11 Belmont
This isn’t a bad Maryland team. It’s a Maryland team that is cold at the wrong time. Maryland has lost 3 of their last 4 games including an ugly loss in the first round of the Big 10 Tournament against 6 scholarship player Nebraska.
This pick is less of a shocker though in that Belmont is a good ballclub and the Committee made the right decision to put Belmont in the field, rather than an NC State or Texas.
Leading scorer Dylan Windler did not show up for the first round game from a scoring standpoint (2-7, 5 Points). He did make up for it on the glass with 14 Rebounds. But Kevin McClain did as he poured in 29 Points on 4-7 from 3 point range. Nick Muszynski was also effective as he poured in 16 Points on 8-11 from the field.
What makes Belmont dangerous isn’t that they have a main scorer. It’s that they have multiple guys that could go off and they can do it in many ways. Belmont was 9-23 from 3, but still 52% from the field and more effective in their shot selections.
Image Credit: https://www.bigeastcoastbias.com/2018/11/5/18062710/villanova-morgan-state-2018-time-tv-channel-watch-online
