Opinion: Potential Bracket-Buster teams

Ty Sugick

The NCAA basketball tournament is set to begin on Thursday, as 68 teams will compete to be the 2016 national champions. Millions of people every year fill out brackets, attempting to predict which team will pull off an upset.

This season, more than any before may be more difficult to determine the champion in your bracket due to the inconsistent play of premiere teams. In past years, there usually would be a team that is clearly far more superior than the rest, but not this year. Anyone is able to go down at anytime, even the number one overall seed Kansas Jayhawks.

The eight teams playing in Dayton on Tuesday and Wednesday competing for the last four spots in the tournament have a combined 11 final four appearances, and a solid opportunity to create more damage than Donald Trump’s campaign.

The most intriguing match ups out of those eight teams are the four teams playing for the 11 seed in the tournament.

The first match up is (19-13) Vanderbilt vs. (24-8) Wichita State; both teams are strong and have the opportunity to give Arizona a tough challenge in the first round. Wichita State is the team who most people have slated to win this match up and for good reason.

The Shockers have an extensive recent history of being a pesky tournament team. This team has been a bracket buster for years and I don’t expect this season to be any different.

The only reason the Shockers have to play to get in the tournament is because they lost to Northern Iowa on a buzzer beater in the Missouri Conference semi-finals.

Another game that could break brackets would be the (22-12) Michigan Wolverines vs. (20-11) Tulsa Golden Hurricanes. This match up will be fun to watch, and it’s very hard to predict who will win the final spot in the tournament, but either team has the ability to knock off the six seed Notre Dame.

The Fighting’ Irish have shown at times that they can be very lack luster and if they bring that attitude into the tournament they will have a very short postseason stint.

The last team to look out for would be Florida Gulf Coast University, better known as FGCU, which captured the heart of colligate basketball fans three years ago and hopes this team can achieve that goal yet again by defeating North Carolina.

For those who filled brackets out for this tournament, may the odds be ever in your favor.

Ty Sugick is an opinion columnist for The Kent Stater. Contact him [email protected].