March Madness Cinderella Picks: Three Teams Ready to Bust Brackets

College basketball programs are handing out more money than ever to stack their rosters. Kentucky reportedly spent $22 million to keep four players from last year’s Sweet 16 squad and lure eight new ones.

Admittedly, the Wildcats aren’t a great example of maximizing your dollars considering they settled for a No. 7 seed in this NCAA Tournament, but many schools have learned how to marshal their ample resources to build the most efficient machines in college hoops history.

As recently as 2022, Gonzaga (+32.97) was the only school who entered the NCAA Tournament with a KenPom efficiency margin above the exalted plus-30 threshold. Only 15 teams exceeded the plus-20 mark.

As this year’s Tournament begins, we have eight schools higher than plus-30 (Duke, Arizona, Michigan, Florida, Houston, Iowa State, Illinois and Purdue) and 32 schools better than plus-20.

The rich are going to keep getting richer, smarter and stronger. Their coaches are de facto CEOs. Their conferences are transforming into oligarchies.

But they’re never going to find a way to stamp out Cinderellas.

Last year, we had Drake (No. 11 seed), McNeese (No. 12) and Colorado State (No. 12) ousting the big dogs in the first round.

In 2024, we enjoyed Duquesne (11), Grand Canyon (12), James Madison (12) and Yale (13).

In 2023, 15th-seeded Princeton barged into the Sweet 16 while Furman (13) and Fairleigh Dickinson (16) fostered more than their share of March Madness.

In 2022, 15th-seeded Saint Peter’s came up one win shy of the Final Four.

So which schools are going to smash their glass slipper over the head of a power conference school that looks too big and blustery to fail?

We’ve got three for you. For starters, keep in mind that in three of the last four NCAA Tournaments, two 12 seeds have upended No. 5 seeds in the first round.

This year? Those schools will be High Point, which battles Wisconsin on Thursday afternoon, and Akron, which faces Texas Tech on Friday afternoon.

This is no shade on the Badgers (though they have lost their last three first-round games as the 5 seed) or the Red Raiders. It’s just that High Point and Akron have the profiles to pull the upsets.

High Point, which boasts all the confidence in the world thanks to the nation’s longest active winning streak at 14 games, ranks third nationally in scoring at 90 points per game. The Panthers are decent from 3-point range (35.6%) and feature three good scorers led by senior wing Terry Anderson (16.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg), but their superpower is their turnover margin. Only McNeese, another 12 seed with a legit chance to win Thursday, enjoys a better turnover margin than High Point’s plus-7.1 per game.

As for Akron, this marks the Zips’ third straight trip to the NCAAs. They’re old. They’re athletic. They push the pace. Oh, and they feature SIX legit 3-point shooters ranging from Shammah Scott (42.2%) to stretch five Amani Lyles (37.9%). They’re not particularly big, but neither is Texas Tech with All-American JT Toppin out for the year.

So who’s the third team destined to be Cinderella?

No. 13 seed Hofstra should give No. 4 Alabama a fright, but the Crimson Tide will be on extra high-alert (no pun intended) after losing No. 2 scorer Aden Holloway (16.2 ppg) on Monday when arrested for possession of marijuana not for personal use — a felony.

It says here Furman, the 15 seed, will strike just like in 2023 even though the Paladins’ resume isn’t anything special. They finished fifth in the Southern Conference. They didn’t face any power conference teams, but they lost to NCAA Tournament entrants High Point, Troy and Northern Iowa by a combined 45 points. They only shoot 32.7% from 3-point range.

It’s all the perfect guise to lull UConn into complacency.

The Paladins have a star freshman point guard in Alex Wilkins (17.7 ppg, 4.7 apg), they have size and experience everywhere else and they get to face a UConn squad with two inexplicable losses in the last month (Creighton and Marquette) and two shellackings at St. John’s hands.

Don’t like this idea? Then how about No. 14 Wright State taking out Virginia? No. 13 Cal Baptist stunning Kansas in its first NCAA Tournament game? No. 13 Troy preventing Nebraska from collecting its first NCAA triumph?

Give us one Cinderella. Give us six Cinderellas. In this case, there’s no such thing as too much of a good thing.