2014 NCAA Tournament: 3 Sleepers That Will Win Your March Madness Pool
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The Bruins won the Pac-12 tournament, and will make a lot of noise in the NCAA's. (Twitter/@UCLAMBB)
(If you have any questions that you want answered about filling out your bracket, hit me up on Twitter: @TheMaxMeyer)
UCLA
The fourth-seeded Bruins are coming off a very impressive run in the Pac-12 tournament. Steve Alford's team beat three NCAA tournament teams in three consecutive days, including beating Arizona in the Pac-12 championship, who in my opinion is the top team in the country.
But enough about the past, let's look at the team now. Kyle Anderson and Jordan Adams are the two stars of the team, and Anderson won the Pac-12 tournament Most Outstanding Player. Anderson is a 6'9" guard who averaged 14.9 points per game, and led UCLA with 8.8 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game. In fact, he was the closest to averaging a triple-double out of all players in Division 1 college basketball. Adams leads the Bruins with 17.2 points and 2.7 steals per game. Those two give UCLA the star power that can go up against any team in the country. Anderson especially is a matchup nightmare since both guards and forwards have trouble guarding him. Just ask Arizona, who tried putting Aaron Gordon and Nick Johnson on him during the Pac-12 championship, and Anderson still put up 21 points on them.
UCLA also has the Wears, David and Travis, who big men have trouble guarding because of the twin's offensive perimeter games. Junior guard Norman Powell emerged as a very solid third option in the Pac-12 tournament, averaging more than 15 points per game. The Bruins have a very solid bench as well, led by the coach's son Bryce Alford, big man Tony Parker and freshman Zach LaVine. Alford is very intelligent and he's dramatically improved as a basketball player since the beginning of the season. LaVine has tailed off at the end of the season after a promising start, but he still averaged 10 points per game.
Sure, the Bruins aren't the best rebounding team and they aren't amazing defensively, but they have so many other strengths. UCLA had the 10th-highest field-goal percentage in the country. Their free-throw shooting is outstanding. That played a huge difference against Arizona, and it will be a big factor if they play Florida, since Florida is also one of the worst teams in the country from the charity stripe. They have many good ball handlers, which is one of the reasons why Oregon's press did not work against them in the Pac-12 tournament. If UCLA plays VCU in the third round, I would expect them to win handily. Steve Alford has had a bad history of losing early in the NCAA tournament, but with this collection of players and UCLA's offensive firepower, they have a realistic chance of making it to the Final Four.
New Mexico
How ironic, Alford's former team and another team in the South Region. Many people were very surprised to see New Mexico fall to a seven seed, but they received a very nice draw out of it anyway.
The Lobos have three outstanding players, including two which made up a top-five frontcourt in the nation. Senior forward Cameron Bairstow may be the most improved player in the country this year. He averaged 9.7 points per game last year, and jumped up that total to 20.3 this season. He's added a wide array of post moves, and he's become an extremely efficient scorer. Junior seven-foot center Alex Kirk built off of a monster sophomore campaign to become a better interior defender and low-post scorer this year. Kirk averages 13.6 points, 8.7 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game.
Most successful teams in March also need a floor general, and the Lobos have that in senior point guard Kendall Williams. Williams hit an extremely clutch three-point shot to give New Mexico the Mountain West Conference championship over San Diego State (their second win against them in three contests) in the tournament final. Williams is a very good outside shooter and distributes the ball effectively to his big men. The Lobos also shoot free throws very well (73 percent as a team), which will give them an edge in close games.
MORE: 2014 NCAA Tournament: 2 Cinderella's That Will Win Your March Madness Pool
Stanford could be a tough draw for New Mexico in the round of 64, since their forwards are extremely versatile on offense. Chasson Randle is one of the best guards in the Pac-12 as well. The Cardinal, however, do not have any depth and will have trouble defending Bairstow and Kirk down low. Kansas-New Mexico would be a very intriguing #2-#7 draw, and the Lobos have a great chance for an upset in that battle. They lost to the Jayhawks by 17 earlier this season, but that was a completely different game. Kirk played for only 18 minutes due to foul trouble, one of only three games in which he didn't play at least 23 minutes. Kansas also had super freshman Joel Embiid in that game. He scored 18 points in that game and frustrated Kirk immensely on both sides of the ball. With Embiid out for the first weekend of the tournament, expect New Mexico's big men to take advantage.
New Mexico's favorable section within their region leads me to believe that they can make for last year's disappointing NCAA tournament appearance by making an Elite Eight run in this one.
Oregon
I promise it's not Pac-12 bias, blame the committee for giving the top-three Pac-12 teams (Arizona has a nice path too) very favorable draws which will allow them to make very deep runs this tournament. Oregon was on an eight-game winning streak, which included wins over UCLA and Arizona in the regular season, until they ran into the UCLA freight train in the second-round of the Pac-12 tournament. The Ducks were very competitive in the first half, but the second game on a back-to-back took its toll in the final 20 minutes. Oregon has a great coach in Dana Altman and incredible depth, as 10 players averaged more than 10 minutes per game this season.
Oregon's top three scorers are Joseph Young, Mike Moser and Jason Calliste. All three are upperclassmen, shoot very well from three-point land and are very efficient from the floor in general. Johnathan Loyd is very quick and consistently drives well to the hoop. Damyean Dotson and Dominic Artis may have taken steps back from their electric freshman seasons, but still provide Oregon with more solid guard play. Artis looked like he was turning a corner in the Pac-12 tournament, averaging 7.5 points and four assists in only 22.5 minutes of play. Dotson still averaged more than nine points per game this season. Richard Amardi, Ben Carter and Waverly Austin all give the Ducks big men depth. Elgin Cook is an athletic forward who also provides Oregon with key minutes.
In case you haven't noticed by now, I like teams that are good from the free-throw line to advance far. The Ducks are sixth in the country (and the second-best in the tournament behind Providence) at shooting free throws at an extraordinary 76.6 percent clip. They also scored the 11th-most points per game this season, tying UCLA by putting up 81.8 points per contest. The Ducks like to play quickly on offense and defense, and they will give Wisconsin fits. The Badgers rely so much on timing, and Altman will pull out all the stops to disrupt them. If Oregon plays Creighton in the Sweet 16, it may be the highest-scoring game in the tournament (outside of maybe Oregon-BYU in the first round, but the Ducks should take that game easily). But, I think the Ducks have too many weapons for Creighton to handle and match up extremely well with them. If Oregon takes on Baylor or Nebraska instead, I don't think either team is consistent enough on offense to beat the Ducks. Also, does anyone really trust Scott Drew to advance past, or even make, the Sweet 16 at this point?
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