Mythical March Madness 2020: 5 teams who were totally gonna bust your bracket anyway

March Madness is canceled so we don’t have a bracket to fill out, but if we did, these teams would have totally left our brackets busted beyond repair.

The effort to contain the coronavirus led the NCAA to cancel March Madness, leaving us to wonder what could have been once the field of 68 began playing games.

While the NCAA will not release a ceremonial bracket, ESPN’s Bracketologist Joe Lunardi did just that, making a full field based on the action that occurred before the sports shutdown.

Using Lunardi’s bracket as a guide, let’s take a look at the five teams who would have wrecked your bracket if the tournament proceeded.

Baylor

The Bears did not end the season well, losing three of their final five games, with one of the two wins being a three-point escape against Texas Tech. One of the bigger causes of concern for Baylor is their offense, which ranked No. 193 in the country in terms of points per game. The Bears would have moved past Winthrop but ran into major problems in the second round, where they would have drawn either Saint Mary’s or Rutgers. Either squad would have stood an excellent chance to take down the Bears and score a massive upset in Omaha.

Duke

The offense wouldn’t have been a problem for Duke, which had the third-best scoring output in the country this season. The bigger issue for the Blue Devils was their youth and awful defense, which gave up 101 in a loss to Wake Forest and 88 in a defeat at NC State. Even though Duke would have a massive homecourt advantage by playing the first and second round in Greensboro, they would have drawn a very hard second-round date against either Iowa or East Tennessee State. The Hawkeyes would bring center Luka Garza, one of the biggest matchup problems in the country, while East Tennessee State’s upperclassmen laden roster won 30 games this season and would have no fear of the Duke mystique.

Villanova

This has not been a vintage Villanova team and Jay Wright deserves a ton of credit for keeping the Wildcats inside the top 20 for most of the year. Even though Lunardi gave the Wildcats a no. 3 seed, they draw a very dangerous 14 in Hofstra which upset UCLA at Pauley Pavilion and has star power in Desure Buie and Eli Pemberton. Even if Villanova survived Hofstra in the first round, they’d be vulnerable in the second against either Penn State or the First Four winner. That matchup features UCLA, one of the hottest teams in the country, and NC State, which has proven capable of slaying dragons on several occasions this season.

Auburn

Bruce Pearl’s squad went to the Final Four a year ago, but the odds of Auburn repeating that performance were slim to none. The Tigers drew a No. 5 seed in Lunardi’s bracket and their reward would have been a Liberty team that is loaded with experience and won 30 games in the regular season. To make matters worse, Auburn would have had one of the worst travel situations in the field, flying all the way out to Sacramento for their first two games. Assuming the Tigers got by Liberty they wouldn’t have a great matchup against Wisconsin, which won eight straight to end the year with a share of the Big Ten’s regular-season crown.

Michigan

The Wolverines were a tournament team this season but people forgot this team peaked in November when they beat Gonzaga in the Battle 4 Atlantis to go 7-0. Since that game Michigan went just 12-12 but still earned a five seed in the bracket, setting up a matchup with Yale, the Ivy League’s regular-season champ. The Bulldogs are a very tricky matchup and if Michigan were to win it they’d have to deal with Oregon’s explosive offense in Spokane. The Ducks would have a massive home-court advantage and their offense would crush Michigan’s suspect defense, which gives up 68.3 points per game to rank 146th in the country.

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