Tick…tock…just hours until March Madness betting begins. Can’t wait. Now that we’ve covered all the regions, it’s time to explore some tournament sleepers and potential Cinderella teams.
It’s important to list and distinguish between sleepers and Cinderellas. A sleeper is an under-the-radar team with actual potential to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament. You could actually throw down a sports betting long-shot pick on a sleeper to win it all. A Cinderella is an obscure, low-seeded squad with potential to pull off a huge upset or two. But it’s important to remember that, as much as the Valparaisos and George Masons of the world win our hearts, they never go all the way. Cinderellas are better for game-by-game picks.
SLEEPERS
Purdue Boilermakers
In the Southwest Region, powerhouse Kansas gets all the love from sportsbook bettors. Notre Dame and Louisville also have a decent contingent of supporters who swear by Big East teams. But Purdue has sleeper potential. The Boilermakers knocked off No. 1 Ohio State earlier this year and I love their senior tandem of JaJuan Johnson and E’Twaun Moore. Don’t sleep on Purdue.
BYU Cougars
No matter how many good teams across multiple sports BYU fields, it never seems to get taken seriously. Maybe it’s the Mormon thing? I mean, the Mormon thing got BYU’s third-leading scorer, Brandon Davies, booted from the team. Many people are writing the Cougars off as a result – but not this sports betting blog. Jimmer Fredette is so dominant that he could singlehandedly carry BYU to a date with Pittsburgh in the Elite Eight.
Arizona Wildcats
I know they’re caught in the dreaded No. 5 spot, a seed that has been upset a whopping 51.4 per cent of the time. But I still like Arizona for two reasons. One is Derrick Williams. The other is that, aside from Duke, every other contender in the West Region is flawed. I see Arizona reaching the Sweet 16 before bowing out against Duke.
CINDERELLAS
Bucknell Bison
Ooh, this is my favorite Cinderella pick. Everybody’s leaping on the UConn bandwagon, right? Kemba Walker is God! Connecticut is the Big East Tournament champ! The Huskies won five games in five days! That’s why I like Bucknell to do the unthinkable. Connecticut will be exhausted, as will Walker, and the Huskies are nothing if he goes cold. Go for it! Pick Bucknell!
Belmont Bruins
The upstart Bruins went a respectable 30-4 and, while they had the advantage of breezing through the weak Atlantic Sun, they had encouraging showings in non-conference affairs. These guys are great shooters and Wisconsin, a very common bust pick among pundits, has a devil of a time defending the three-ball. Watch out for Belmont.
USC Trojans
USC looks like a solid bet to survive a few rounds. First, it has to get past VCU in the play-in, but that should be no problem. After that, I really like the Trojans to upset Georgetown, which won’t have Chris Wright. USC is peaking just in time for the tourney and has an intriguing offense-defense tandem in Nikola Vukevic and Alex Stephenson.