The 2019 NCAA Tournament bracket has been revealed. There will be 68 teams, beginning Tuesday, that have a shot at claiming their “One Shining Moment” in a couple of weeks.
With all the seeding decided there are some teams that might not have been given the proper credit for the resumes that they put together over the course of the year. After reviewing the brackets, here are the five most underrated teams in the 2019 March Madness field.
Auburn (5 seed Midwest)
The Auburn Tigers are fresh off of winning the SEC Tournament. They finished the regular season a disappointing fifth in the conference. The Tigers were inconsistent all year –they battled Duke and Kentucky in close games but also lost to the likes of North Carolina State and Ole Miss (twice). However, when clicking, and connecting from behind the arc, Auburn has the ability to hang with any team. In a survive-and-advance tournament like March Madness, this is a team that not many others will want to square off against.
Belmont (11 seed East & First Four)
The Belmont Bruins were on the bubble since suffering a loss to the Ja Morant-led Murray State Racers in the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament championship game. However, the committee had enough faith in the work that they accomplished over the course of the year that they earned one of the 68 bids for this year’s NCAA Tournament. They were almost in the NIT, but have a date in Dayton against the Temple Owls awaiting them. Just last year, Syracuse rode the momentum from playing in the opening games to a Sweet 16 birth. Belmont could replicate what the Orange did a year ago.
Buffalo (6 Seed West)
The Buffalo Bulls exploded onto the national radar quickly this season. After starting the season ranked 25th in the nation, they ran off 11 straight wins (including road wins over West Virginia and Syracuse) before losing on the road to Marquette. The Bulls won both the MAC regular season and conference tournament titles and have just three losses for the entire year. As a mid-major team it’s easy to accept them as a six seed, but when you dig deeper you find a team that has played some of the best basketball of any team in the nation this year.
Iowa State (6 seed Midwest)
The Iowa State Cyclones made noise early in the Big 12 when they upset the 14-time repeat conference champion Kansas Jayhawks in their second conference game this year. Yet, they wouldn’t be able to bring that same gusto throughout the duration of conference play and ended up as a fifth seed in the conference. The Cyclones got hot again during the Big 12 Tournament and once again knocked off the Jayhawks in the title game. Steve Prohm’s team has a roster full of talent and can be a real thorn in the side of a lot of the teams that enter March Madness ranked higher than them.
Nevada (7 seed West)
Could history repeat itself for the Nevada Wolfpack? Last year, the Wolfpack entered the NCAA Tournament as a seventh seed after losing in the semifinals of the Mountain West Tournament to the San Diego State Aztecs. This year, the Wolfpack are once again a seventh seed and loss to the Aztecs in the semifinals of the Mountain West Tournament. To start the year, Nevada carried over the momentum of last season’s Sweet 16 push to go 14-0. In conference, they stumbled and once again fell short of claiming the Mountain West Tournament championship. However, this team might be even more talented than the one that was a Loyola-Chicago game-winner away from the Elite Eight.