If there is any criticism to the March Madness festivities this year, it’s the distinct lack of the classic Cinderella story. The scrappy kids from the no-name school that everyone doubts and yet captures the hearts and minds of America for a few weeks. They may not always win it all, but their presence unquestionably makes for a better March. It’s the reason outsiders of the tournament who only watch come tourney-time faintly remember the Wichita State team of 2013 or Florida Gulf Coast of that same year.
And that’s why this year has been somewhat of a dud so far. In the Disney Princess department, this installment of the NCAA tournament is a bit lacking. Gone are the Julia Louis Dreyfuses of Northwestern and Middle Tennessee, a school so under the radar it hasn’t even earned a cardinal direction. It takes quite a bit of mental gymnastics just to convince yourself on any of these teams having an “Us against the world” mentality that is actually genuine.
So I present to you a viewer guide to help make sense of the madness and find out which of these underdogs is the pick of the litter.
16. North Carolina — We’re about as far from Cinderella as we can get. The Tar heels made it to the championship game last year and were one all-time-great-buzzer-beater-lucky-bounce away from being champions. They’ve come back even better than before. Hooray.
North Carolina has one of the most ubiquitous fanbases in all of college hoops, and as one of three 1 seeds left in the tournament, so rooting for these guys feels like rooting for big business. They’re the antithesis of “The little guy”.
15. Kansas — The other remaining 1 seed happens to be Kansas, another tournament main-stay. Kansas has not missed the tournament since 1989, when Perry Ellis was just a freshman.
They were one of the best teams in college basketball because of the long, lanky freshman and potential soon-to-be NBA star Josh Jackson. Frank Mason III is a prime candidate for all the player of the year awards at the end of the season. Kansas has been a titan of college basketball since the programs birth, and it has become a machine for this entire century. The only reason North Carolina gets the nod as the anti Cinderella (a pumpkin?) is because of their appearance in the championship last year.
14. Baylor — There may be no other school in the country that leaves a taste as sour as Baylor right now. Their student misconduct saga has been well documented and the damage control has been fumbled badly by seemingly everyone involved. Very un-princess like if you ask me.
Trying to keep it to just basketball however, and you still have a compelling case to steer clear of Baylor. Though Baylor’s success has been fairly recent, it has been a strong past couple of years for the Bears. Again, here you have one of the better teams all year. You could convince yourself that this is a long suffering program (“How DOES Yale out-rebound Baylor?”)and a run this year could be a feel-good story, albeit one that doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.
Speak nothing of the fact that they have one of the most hideous eyesores of a uniform I have ever seen. And my god, how does nobody stop the process of making “Baylor Mentality” shirts in the wake of all that has been uncovered in the past year? Nobody in that organization has better judgement? From warm-ups to final buzzer, no team looks worse at the big dance than the Baylor Bears.
13. Arizona — My pick to win it all this year. Arizona hails from the Pac-12, a conference notorious for never sending any serious players into the NCAA tournament in terms of teams that could win it all. Arizona is the latest team (but not the only) to carry the sins of the Pac-12 to the sweet 16.
When I filled out my Chaos-bracket (My ONLY bracket) this year, I had a good feeling about the Wildcats.
Led by 7 footer Lauri Markkanen, Arizona puts up gaudy numbers on the offensive end, the first to score 100 in the tournament this year. Alonzo Trier is also an athletic point guard who is as likely to jam the ball through the hoop as he will shoot it over you. They’re very fun, and a reminder that good teams don’t have to be evil.
When you watch Arizona, you watch for Lauri. He’s not just the best shooting big man in the tournament. He’s not just the best shooter shooter on his team. Lauri Markkanen is and was the best 3 point shooter in college basketball this year. Does having a player like this combined with their high seed take them out of Cinderella status? Unfortunately, I think so.
12. Kentucky — Big Blue Nation is the most recent champion out of the remaining field and are firmly placed in the center of the college basketball each and every year because of the bevy of NBA prospects on the team every single year. Success in the tournament has been somewhat mixed for Kentucky, but they’ve often been a powerhouse, almost maintaining an undefeated season a few years ago.
For my money, Kentucky might be the most exciting team left. Three elite college players, in Monk, Fox and Briscoe (Two of which will be high lottery picks in the summer) and a throwback rim rattler in Bam Adebayo (His nickname acquired when he flipped over a table while watching the Flintstones, which is awesome)
This is a somewhat weak Kentucky team compared to one’s in years past but they’re still Kentucky, one of the greatest programs in the history of the sport and they will continue to make the tournament until the end of time.
11. Oregon — What is it with bright, neon uniforms? Does looking like Buzz Lightyear during his rave fase really get the people going? I am so over it.
Oregon was responsible for some undeniably great moments this year, battling it out with UCLA trading buzzer beaters with them and generally providing some entertaining late-night basketball for east coasters. They win a lot, but they’re still like able.
Factor in the fact that they lost their best player in Chris Boucher right before the tournaments start, and you have a team that you can trick yourself into believing is an underdog, if only for a moment.
10. West Virginia — The delightfully nicknamed “Press Virginia” are another team similar to Baylor in the middle of a golden age for it’s program. They’ve made the sweet 16 twice in three years now, and have hung their hat on a pestering brand of team defense in lieu of a star player to elevate them.
Bob Huggins has orchestrated a phenomenal three guard attack that has lifted the Mountaineers past a Notre Dame team that probably would have ranked quite high on this list.
It’s a shame that their brand of basketball and overall mystique to the team doesn’t lend itself to compelling story-lines. Defense first teams are rarely fun. It’s hard to make a strong case for them beyond the last spot in the top 10.
9. Butler — The Bulldogs came into the tournament as a four seed behind three of the top teams in the country this year in North Carolina, UCLA and Kentucky. They were good enough to gain a higher seed if they were in a different region, surely, but their place on this list is largely based on projection.
Butler has the misfortune of playing North Carolina, the hottest, best, and most boring team left; The bad guys.
Beating them would flip the script on a ton of narratives this year and would propel them to the front of this list. There isn’t a team more likely to be knocked out in this next round than Butler despite the great squad they put together. There will be many people around the country hoping to see the Butler do it.
4. Florida — Florida entered as a four seed, but similar to the Wisconsin ranking, that just didn’t make a ton of sense.
On the 10 year anniversary of their 2007 championship, Florida looked like a team that was decent, but hard to love going forward into the tournament. They’ve since gone on a eye catching run, beating the breaks off a Virginia team that looked like a problem this year.
Florida is a bit of a wildcard in all of this. They could just as easily fall apart in the next round or continue this hot streak (I placed 1st in the “No duh” Olympics). They were probably the second best team in the SEC this year but never really looked like a March powerhouse at any point during the year, making that 4 seed feel all the more undeserved. Exactly how the Gators want it.
7. UCLA — This was by far the hardest team for me to rank.
UCLA is THE premier college program in mens basketball. Though they haven’t been dominant like they have been in years past, they embody everything about the juggernaut that people love to root against. The movie stars and pretty boys in sunny California who don’t play defense.
And yet, you’d be hard pressed to find a majority of people who hate UCLA this year.
Lonzo Ball is electric with his funky shooting form, creative passing and ability to yam it on opponents heads, he’s the most exciting player in the country on the most exciting team. They may not be the highest scoring team left, but in style points, they stand above the rest.
People who haven’t payed attention to college hoops in years were tuning in to see the first of the Ball brothers, a potential new royal family in the basketball world. Add in the Lavar Ball intrigue and you have a team that has unquestionably captured the minds of America in spite of their history.
Ball’s cast of supporting characters are fun too, with a strong rim running partner in TJ Leaf and a wildcard big man off the bench in Ike Anigbogu.
Lonzo Ball is the heavy favorite to win the Wooden award for the nations best player, the award named after the old UCLA coach because they were so damn good. It’s bizarre to look at UCLA in this light, and while they don’t check every box of your typical Cinderella, they certainly have our attention like one.
6. Xavier — Now we’re cooking with gas.
The Bill Murray championship tour has finished it’s victory lap with the Chicago Cubs and has now spread to the NCAA tournament. That really should be enough to sell you on why they’re a decent team to root for. Act like seeing Bill burst into tears wasn’t one of the coolest things ever. More of that, please.
Xavier, while a March regular at this point, lost their starting point guard to an ACL injury before the tournament, capping off a disastrous month of February for the Musketeers.
So as an attempt to right the ship, their coach lit a calendar on fire and kept the ashes in a glass jar because when they sent a graduate assistant to pick up an urn, the store was out of them.
I have not fabricated any part of that story.
It didn’t even work, Marquette came into town the next day and shot 57% from the field and beat them. Sports are wild.
Xavier is 5–1 since that Marquette loss, including a 25 point drubbing of Florida State, my personal favorite team this year. As such, Xavier has absorbed their coolness through osmosis. Or highlander.
5. Wisconsin — The team that knocks off the defending champions in a massive upset normally will catapult you into national relevancy. But let’s not make this into something it’s not.
Wisconsin was good this year. Really good. And they’ve been really good recently too. They were an 8 seed in one of the more bizarre seeding head scratches we’ve seen in quite a while. Their match up with Villanova should have come later and it shouldn’t have been met with the shock that it did if you’ve been paying attention.
Wisconsin is great and they’ve given us probably the best game of the tournament so far against Nova against all odds. I don’t want to be too hard on the Badgers. If nothing else, they’re a team not many people were aware of how good they were and they have a decent shot at actually winning this whole thing, which you might not be able to say for the rest of this list.
4. Gonzaga — A number 1 seed in the top five Cinderella Story candidates really says a lot about what kind of a weird year it’s been.
Yes, the Gonzaga Bulldogs have a valid case for being this high.
Gonzaga is so slept on and doubted that despite their one seed, they’ve swung thee meter all the way back in the other direction and are somehow an underdog in this fight.
Any time the tournament has come up since Selection Sunday, the topic has invariably shifted to how Gonzaga sucks or that they’re one of the worst 1 seeds they’ve seen. They admittedly had a cakewalk of a schedule this year and haven’t done much in the past to prove any doubters wrong.
Gonzaga had a top offense and defense this year, making them one of the most balanced squads yet. And still, people love to pile on the Bulldogs.
I’ll give you a personal example: In a bracket pool with my friends from college, there are 40 submitted brackets. The number of brackets with Gonzaga as the champion? 0.
Maybe you have to be an east coaster with no perception for just how good these guys were this year. But they’ve got a weird air about them that people don’t like.
Gonzaga has not looked good to start the year, which just adds to that ‘keep-chugging’ mentallity.
Also, Przemek Karnowsk is awesome. His post game is awesome, and his beard is most awesome.
3. Purdue — These aren’t your fathers Purdue Boilermakers (This isn’t even all of them)
Purdue went through a bit of a hibernation recently, not reaching the Sweet 16 for seven years. Purdue itself is a team that usually gets written off and isn’t payed attention to (The last relevant prospect they’ve sent to the NBA was probably E’Twuan Moore. And that’s a liberal use of the word “relevant”).
But these aren’t your father’s Purdue Boilermakers. (Those are different tweets, you can check. They won’t stop)
Purdue was the regular season champions of the Big 10 this year on the back of the tremendous season by Caleb Swanigan, one of if not the best big man in all of college basketball. Swanigan is also one of the easiest to root for players we’ve seen in a long time, with a dazzling display of post moved and a great story (He weighed 360 pounds and relied on homeless shelters before being named Indiana’s Mr. Basketball)
They have all the intangibles of a Cinderella team, and with a matchup vs the vaunted Jayhawks on the slate, they could write their own footnote in college basketball lore with a win.
2. South Carolina — Any time you win your first NCAA tournament game since Nixon was in office, people are going to take notice. It’s the gamecocks first time in the sweet 16 since 1973, a dry spell that rivals many major conference schools.
South Carolina are a plucky bunch, with a history of failure. It’s their first appearance in the tournament since 2004 and only their 9th appearance ever. Kansas has more this decade than they have all time.
Let’s be honest, all that is cool, but they hit the “Beat Duke” multiplier. They knocked out the most hated school on the planet. It’s like how even if you’re not that good of a team, if you win the conference tournament you get an automatic bid? They beat Duke. They’re our champions.
- Michigan — They’re the best we’ve got.
The Wolverines are the reigning Big Ten champions, but you would have never have guessed. You can go on twitter and dig with minimal effort and find a treasure trove of old takes calling Michigan done, pathetic, and a host of other things.
A massive comeback story in the middle of the season, not even a plane crash could throw off this meteoric rise. After finishing just 5th in the Big Ten, they stayed alive long enough to win the damn thing.
This is a team that has had doubters (myself included) at every point during the season. They’ve been projected to lose every game they’ve been in so far this tournament. They’ve given us a nail biter thriller in the opening round vs Oklahoma State and then had a strong showing in a win over Louisville, the second most popular champion picked in brackets this year.
This year didn’t provide us with a small school playing with the big kids this year. Most of the high seeds have won convincingly and are still alive, and it’s becoming increasingly unlikely any of the top tier teams can be stopped.
It’s been a weird year for sure, but it’s nice to know that Cinderella still wears blue.
