5 Cinderella Teams to Help You Win Your Bracket Contest
By Jason McIntyre
The NCAA Tournament bracket is out. We have a bracket challenge you should enter. Need help with your bracket? We’re here to help. Here are five Cinderellas to help you win your pool.
Wichita State (11) vs Vanderbilt; win and play (6) Arizona:
Sleep on the Shockers at your peril. Guards win in March; Wichita State has Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker. As freshman, they went all the way to the Final 4, playing wingmen to Cleanthony Early. As sophomores, after an undefeated regular season, they bowed out to Kentucky after getting shafted by the committee. As juniors, the underdogs knocked off Indiana and then 2nd-seeded Kansas. Are you really going to doubt this group against unimpressive Vanderbilt? If it advances to play Arizona, remember – this isn’t your older brother’s Wildcats, which reached the Elite 8 three of the last four years. Heck, Wichita State beating Miami wouldn’t surprise me. Gregg Marshall goes on one last run to the Elite 8 and then bolts for the Memphis job after it fires Josh Pastner?
St. Joseph’s (8) vs Cincinnati (9); win and play (1) Oregon
Ended the regular season with a thud, losing three of five, but got hot and won the A-10 tourney. The good news: wing DeAndre Bembry is a pro. Two years ago as a freshman he had 16 against eventual champ UConn in a 1st round overtime loss. Gave VCU 30 in the A-10 title game over the weekend. The bad: Brutal draw. Cincinnati is a Top 10 defensive team according to Ken Pom; loaded Oregon, winners of eight straight (four of them were against NCAA tourney teams) awaits. The Ducks, though, have the weakest defensive stats of the #1 seeds and did lose two road games to non-NCAA teams earlier in the season (UNLV, Boise State). As much as I like the Hawks, it’s troubling to see Phil Martelli hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 2004, when he had Jameer Nelson and Delonte West.
Gonzaga (11) vs St. Hall (6); win and play (3) Utah
One of the biggest disappointments in the country this season after last year’s Elite 8 trip, the Zags lost close games to Texas A&M and Arizona early in the season, then lost two regular season meetings against St. Mary’s. They were better offensively last year with point guard Kevin Pangos. And in December they lost their 7-foot center, Przemek Karnowski, for the season (back injury). Why the Cinderella potential? 1) Domantas Sabonis, one of the most talented interior players in the country (17.4 ppg, 61% FGs), and a 1st round pick if he comes out this year. 2) Kyle Wiltjer, the senior with inside-outside skills and studly slash stats: 49/42/86. 3) Eric McClellan, the WCC defensive player of the year, should relish the challenge of checking Isiah Whitehead, Seton Hall’s star. 4) Everybody loves Seton Hall, but the line swung from Gonzaga +1 to Gonzaga -2.5 fairly quickly.
Stephen F. Austin (14) vs West Virginia (3); win and play Notre Dame/Michigan/Tulsa
Stephen F. Austin has won 20 straight games! Haven’t lost in the 2016 calendar year! Eighteen of the 20 were double-digit blowouts! But we’ve seen this before. Last year, pretty much the same deal: From Thanksgiving up through the tournament, they lost one game. They did, however, beat Memphis out of conference. (This year, nobody.) In the 1st round last year, the Lumberjacks lost by seven (Utah was favored by six). This year they find themselves only five-point dogs against a scrappy-but-sloppy West Virginia team. Worth noting: in the first round in 2014, the Lumberjacks stunned press-happy VCU and Shaka Smart, 77-70.
Connecticut (9) vs Colorado (8); win and play Kansas (1)
The Huskies were ranked in the preseason Top 20, mostly because of all the talent on the roster: Leading scorer Shonn Miller transferred from Cornell; 2nd leading scorer Rodney Purvis transferred from NC State; Daniel Hamilton was a Top 15 recruit out of high school; Jalen Adams was a Top 25 recruit. They’re loaded. But the chemistry just hasn’t been there. Too much 1-on-1 play. What if chemistry emerges for a March run? Coach Kevin Ollie won a title in 2014 with Shabazz Napier, but this year’s team was on the outside of the bubble after losing three of five to finish the regular season. And if not for this Adams bomb, they’re in the NIT.