Five Teams Who Can Ruin Your Bracket
By Justin Donofrio
The NCAA Tournament is finally back and every year, there are always few teams that ruin everyone’s bracket. These are my top 5 five teams that I think have the best chance to advance to the round of 32 or farther.
The first team comes in at 23–1. They are led by 6’7 point guard junior college transfer Chandler Vaudrin. He is the only player in college basketball this year to record a triple double and he leads the team in points, assists and rebounds. Like most point guards, he is the one that makes this team go. They love to space the floor out and run pick and rolls for Vaudrin. Down low, they have Tennessee transfer DJ Burns. He is a handful to guard around the paint and shoots 58% from the floor including going 11 for 12 from the floor in the Big South Champion game. The Eagles play fast and are good at getting turnovers. The Eagles ran roughshod through their conference tournament, winning all three games by at least 20 points. They also crash the glass really well especially on the offensive end averaging 13 offensive rebounds a game. Especially playing a banged up Villanova team the Eagles have a very good chance to pull off the upset.
The next team to watch out for are the Ohio Bobcats. The last time Ohio was a 13 seed, they made the Sweet 16 in 2012. Ohio also gave 1 seed Illinois all they could handle back in November losing by 2. All five starters average ten or more points a game. The top two guys are Jason Preston, who had 31 points vs Illinois and who is first on the team in scoring, assists, and second on the team in rebounding. Preston is an NBA prospect who knows how to run an offense and is good at controlling the pace of the game. The other top guy for Ohio is Dwight Wilson. He is great around the rim and shoots sixty six percent from the floor. Ohio is 17th in the country in points per game averaging 80 points a game. The worries I have for the Bobcats is they have trouble getting stops defensively and only I have one reliable scorer off the bench Mark Sears averaging 9 points a game as a freshman. Their coach Jeff Boals played at Ohio from 1991 to 1995 and was a captain on the 1994 team that got to the tournament. Playing Virginia if Ohio can speed up Virginia the Bobcats can be a tough out and with Virginia having to quarantine back home this week so they won’t be able to practice until Thursday or Friday.
On to UC Santa Barbara, who is in the same region as Ohio and could face off in the round of 32. One of their top guys, Ajare Sanni, is questionable because of an ankle injury he suffered last Saturday in the Big West Conference Tournament final. The Gauchos have a lot of veteran leadership with eight upperclassmen. UCSB also has a couple of transfers that have come in and one is their leading scorer JaQuori McLaughlin from Oregon State. He is averaging 16 points per game, he is a sharpshooter shooting over 40% from 3, and he also has really good court vision. They also have a couple of guys in the front court that are solid, Amadou Sow and Miles Norris, an Oregon transfer. UC Santa Barbara is twenty first in the country in field goal almost shooting 50% as a team. The Gauchos also did not have to go through a Covid-19 pause as well this year. UCSB is a team if Creighton is not careful and can send them home very quickly.
The fourth team is out of the Patriot League is the Colgate Raiders. Back in the 2019 tournament, as a 15 seed, they gave all Tennessee they could handle losing 77–70. They did not play any non-conference games this year, so this is a big step up in competition. The Raiders will spread you out and shoot the three ball really well. They average 86 points a game, which is second in the country, and they are third in the country in three point shooting hitting 40% of their shots. The Raiders are also good at limiting turnovers, as they are in the top 10 in the country for fewest turnovers a game. Colgate also defends the three point arch really well. Their top player is Jordan Burns, a senior guard who averages 17 points a contest. He is 1 of 4 Raiders who averages double digit points. Do not be surprised if this team beats Arkansas both teams love to shoot three pointers and Colgate can definitely beat them at that game with Arkansas’s struggles on the defensive end.
The final team is the Liberty Flames out of the Atlantic Sun Conference. In 2019, the Flames knocked off the number 5 seed Mississippi State in the 1st round of the NCAA Tournament. Liberty’s top player from that team Caleb Homesley and most of that team from two years ago has graduated, but they still have one of the best mid major coaches around in Ritchie McKay. Coach McKay worked with Virginia’s head coach Tony Bennett and his team plays just like Virginia. They are a great defensive team and are top 3 in the country for fewest points given up per game. The Flames also love to slow down the pace of the game and keep the scores in the 50s and 60s. Liberty has a lot of upperclassmen on the roster. They challenged themselves in the non conference beating Mississippi State and South Carolina and losses to TCU, Missouri and Purdue but hung around in all three of those games. Liberty’s leading scorer this year and conference player of the year is Darius McGhee a junior. Blake Preston the Flames big guy is someone who can get a double double any given night. Going up against Oklahoma State in the first round a team that likes to push the tempo if the Flames can make the Cowboys play in the half court and be able to slow down Cade Cunningham they have a very good shot of pulling off the upset.
Justin co-hosts a weekly podcast called Sports Talk with R & J. It airs Wednesday’s at 2pm with Clovercrest Media Group. You can learn more about it here:
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