Everything wrong with the initial March Madness rankings

A few Mid Major squads are receiving some deserving March Madness love

No. 3 Seeds:
(3) Clemson – ACC
(3) Rhode Island – Atlantic
(3) Texas Tech – Big 12
(3) Gonzaga – WCC

Even though the Atlantic Conference has been a super dud as a whole, Rhode Island has proved dominant — with coach Dan Hurley leading a veteran and deep ball club. Undefeated in conference play and boasting one of the top backcourts in all of the College Basketball world — with Jared Terrell leading the Rams — this team may be a sleeper to reach the Final Four. Don’t hold their first conference loss against them, with St. Bonaventure securing an at-large bid with a tremendous resume-building win against the Rams.

Another team who is peaking at the right time is Gonzaga, who earned sweet revenge from their in conference foes Saint Mary’s, and now sit in the driver seat for a top-three seed. Never count the Zags out this time of the year — especially with Mark Few leading the charge.

You would expect Kansas to be in this group instead of Texas Tech, but if you look closely at the numbers, Tech is far more deserving than the overrated Jayhawks. First off, Tech handled in-state Texas at Allen Fieldhouse by double digits and boast an 11-4 record against the RPI Top 100.

Their only glaring weakness is their non-conference strength of schedule, which brings their RPI down to 14, but, the Red Raiders pass the eye test and have enough quality opponents left on their table to improve their current RPI deficiencies.

Clemson is a team flying a bit under the radar, but are very dangerous come March Madness time. Even though they’ve hit recent speed bumps in ACC conference play, the combination of Marcquise Reed and Donte Grantham make them a tough out come March. Including that dynamic duo, the Tigers boast five double-digit scoring members on their roster. Talk about a balanced approach.