Every year in March, some team you’ve never heard of will end up busting your bracket. That is why I plan on keeping you updated throughout the year on what teams are good among the mid-majors and possible Cinderella teams so you can win your office pool and act like you knew what you were doing all along.
1. Central Florida Knights (3-1)
UCF definitely is not the smallest school on this list, but they should be included, even though they are in the AAC. The 7’6 Tacko Fall seems may be the most improved player in the country so far. In his young sophomore season he is averaging 17.8 PPG and 12.5 RPG. There are not many teams in the country that have the size to guard this man. UCF has won both of their small school games handily, along with beating Mississippi State by 25 points and only losing to Villanova by 10. The only non-conference test may be against Temple at the end of December.
2.Winthrop (3-1)
Now it’s time for a school you probably haven’t heard of. The small South Carolina school was able to win by four points on the road against Illinois and only lost by 14 to Florida State on the road. Besides a December 3rd trip to Dayton, the Eagles could win out from that point on.
3. Valparaiso (4-1)
Valpo has been good for a few years now, but the departure of coach Bryce Drew left a shadow of doubt on that. The team has responded this year by beating Alabama by 8 and losing to Oregon, one of the top teams in the country, by 18. While this is not super impressive, the players on this team have tournament experience and still have remaining tests against BYU, Rhode Island, Kentucky, and Missouri State (see below) in the next month.
4. Monmouth (2-2)
Sure, America’s team may have come up short in both of their tests to this point, but they narrowly missed the tournament last year and have enough returning players that they could be really really good again this season. We should learn more about them in the December 13th game against Memphis.
5. Eastern Michigan (2-3)
They haven’t hit their stride yet, but it could be an encouraging sign that they only lost to Pittsburgh on the road by three points. Their next test is against Syracuse on December 19th
6. UC Irvine (2-2)
There seems to be a recurring theme here as they too came up close, but lost to #25 Cal by ten points on the road. This is another team that has been in the tournament before and could at least scare a team in the first round. They play #8 Arizona on December 6th.
7. Florida Gulf Coast (1-3)
Okay, everyone knows who FGCU is at this point and their 1-3 record is not impressive in the slightest, but they only lost by 9 at Baylor and 1 at Michigan State. They came close to pulling off two major upsets and on a neutral court in March, anything can happen.
8. Missouri State (4-0)
As mentioned above, the Missouri State Bears could be flying under the radar for a tournament berth. I may be a homer as this is my school, but they’ve been quite impressive in all of their games this season. In the second game of the year they set the school record for three pointers in a game. Just two games later they appeared on Sportscenter with a great alley-oop. Last year’s team was bogged down by injuries and now that they are at full strength, coach Paul Lusk is showing what his teams are capable of. We will learn more about this team as we go, but they may be, at the very least, the most exciting team to watch in this article.
