Each March, there is always an NCAA tournament team which is obviously more dangerous than the others on its seed line.
It could be a mastodon seed n ° 1 which is the crushing favorite to cut the nets. Or a mid -level team that had trouble at the start of the season but fell in March. Or a proven but criminally undermajeur tournament with a story to make life miserable for the very praised teams of a power conference.
The purpose of this now annual column is to identify potential opponents that NCAA tournament teams should want to avoid at all costs. Two years ago, we managed to identify the Arkansas before the razors of the eighth seeded overturned the Kansas in the second round. Last year, we made large swings and they did not really go. (Conversely, here are some opponents that you should to want see.)
The list of this year includes four teams with little in common in addition to the potential to induce groans of the opponents who must face them.
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Cougars byu
Record: 24-9, 14-6 Big 12 | Eastern sole 6
Only a month ago, Byu was on the sidelines of the NCAA tournament bubble. The cougars had followed a disappointing performance without a conference with a start of 6-6 for the Big 12. They entered the second week of February with a victory against a caliber opponent of the NCAA tournament and four defeats against teams who do not give the field of 68.
Since then, Byu has caught fire, in shock from nine victories in 10 games. The only loss came against Juggernaut Houston in the semi-finals on Friday 12. This sequence went bankrupt the cougars from the outside of most of the projections of supports at a seeded n ° 6 in the east. Among the teams by Byu beat: Iowa State, Kansas, Arizona and Virginie-Western. Only Duke played better than the cougars during this section, according to the Bart Torvik ranking.
There are some key differences between Byu Pre-Win Streak and current cougars. In attack, Byu performs Kevin Young’s modern scheme perfectly and benefits from Richie Saunders flourishing in the real threat of a must -see score that the program had previously missed. In defense, Keba Keita has become an elite edge protector and Mawot Mag turned out to be a scope of perimeter capable of keeping anyone, from the points of points to the big wings.
Duke Blue Devils
Record: 30-3, 19-1 ACC | East 1 sole 1
Assuming that the sprained of Cooper Flagg, the left ankle heals in time for the NCAA tournament, the Duke section of the support is that to be avoided. Blue Devils are dream crushers. They are favorites of the national title, they are responsible for high -level talents and they dispute the story that a first -year team cannot win a championship in the era of senior wearing and 24 -year -old transfers.
Duke took advantage of an ACC besieged, winning 12 conference games per 20 or more and accumulating a differential differential and historic points in the championship game this season. It is the biggest in the history of ACC and among the most important in the history of university basketball, According to Stathead Basketball. The last team to publish a larger score differential at a conference was Gonzaga 2016-17 (plus-471). The last power conference team to do was 1953-1954 Kentucky (Plus-503).
Even without Flagg and Maliq Brown, Key Reserve Maliq Brown, Duke will play for the title of the ACC tournament on Saturday evening against Louisville. The Blue Devils took a 24 -point lead on the North Carolina Friday evening, then hung on while the Tar Heels launched a desperate rally.
Yes, the ACC is broken this season – in fact, in fact – but that is not the only reason why Duke destroyed all his way in the section. Ask the Illinois. Illini faced Duke in a rare non -conference match at the end of February at Madison Square Garden … and lost by 43.
Gonzaga Bulldogs
Record: 25-8, 14-4 COE | Midwest seed n ° 8
A seed top two unluckiness will be unhappy with a potential match with Gonzaga in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The ZAGS have a curriculum vitae worthy of an intermediary seed, but Kenpom and other predictive metrics classified them in the top 10 of the country before even beating Saint Mary’s in the match for the Coe title on Tuesday evening.
The gap is partly a product of the proximity of the eight losses of Gonzaga. Three of the eight were prolonged. The other five came by 24 combined points. All except two came against opponents linked to the NCAA tournament. The average Victory of 24.1 points of the Zags also makes a difference. Only four of their victories were all seasonal were less than 10 points. They beat Baylor at 38, Clobber Indiana by 16 years old and won in San Diego State by 13.
Gonzaga entered En Marche after having done nine Sweet 16, corresponding to the North Carolina (1985-1993) and Duke (1998-2006) for the longest sequences since the NCAA tournament extended to 64 teams. This Gonzaga team has the experience of talent and the NCAA tournament to extend this sequence. The ZAGS only have to close the tight matches better than they did in the regular season.
Uconn Huskies
Record: 23-10, 14-6 Big East | Western n ° 8 sole
The Uconn season has changed more than four months ago, Dan Hurley complaining from the double reigning national champion classified only 3 in the AP survey. Then the Huskies went to Maui and dropped three games in three days. Then they struck another gross patch at the start of the conference and fell from the top 25 AP in total.
This is far from being as formidable from a UCONN team as the previous two, but the consecutive national champions will always be a frightening draw for someone. The Huskies stop in form at the right time thanks to the health of Liam McNeley, Alex Karaban returns to his entirely American pre-season and Tarris Reed form making progress in defense without inferant.
Upon entering the Big East tournament, Uconn had the chance to play the 8-9 range with two or more victories at the Madison Square Garden. The Huskies mastered Villanova, but their second half rally failed against Creighton.
Even thus, Hurley does not give up.
As he said recently, “it’s Mars, and that’s when we play our best in Uconn.”
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