March Madness bracket busters 2024: 5 high seeds who will go down early
Looking to avoid chaos in your March Madness bracket? Steer clear of these five bracket busters who will go down early in the dance.
The NCAA Tournament field has officially been revealed and the work begins for everyone trying to fill out the perfect bracket. After the carnage of 2023, when all four No. 1 seeds were knocked out before the Elite Eight, anyone expecting chalk to carry the day in March Madness is in for a rude awakening.
The regular season routinely saw Top 10 teams lose on the road to unranked foes, setting the stage for some high seeds to get toppled in dramatic fashion.
Let's take a look at the five likeliest candidates to bust your bracket by flaming out early in March Madness, beginning with Duke.
Duke Blue Devils
A trendy title-winning pick in the preseason, things haven't gone according to plan for the Blue Devils of late. Duke stumbled down the stretch, losing twice to North Carolina and getting beaten at the ACC Tournament by NC State, a team they blew out by 15 in early March.
The rotation is also very thin for Duke, which has six players average over 25 minutes a game with only one other player averaging over nine minutes a game. That lack of depth makes it hard for Duke to overcome either foul trouble or a sluggish performance from one of its stars, setting the stage for a potential upset in March.
Duke will head to Brooklyn to face off against America East champion Vermont, an experienced March Madness participant, before a showdown against either Wisconsin or Cinderella candidate James Madison. There needs to be a lot more consistency from the Blue Devils if they hope to survive that gauntlet and get to the Sweet 16 where a date with No. 2 overall seed Houston would await.