5 Smart Choice Cinderella teams for the 2023 March Madness bracket
1. Oral Roberts Golden Eagles
This is another recent Cinderella as the Golden Eagles were the darlings of the bubble in 2021. Oral Roberts made the Sweet 16 as a No. 15 seed before falling to Arkansas by a bucket, but this year’s edition of the Golden Eagles might be more terrifying.
Star guard Max Abmas, who was the leader of that team, is still around and averaging 22.2 points per game to lead the nation’s fourth-most explosive offense. The Golden Eagles are also dangerous from the perimeter, knocking down 36.9 percent of their 3-point attempts, meaning they could score points in bunches if they get hot from deep.
Only four teams managed to beat Oral Roberts all season, with three of them (Saint Mary’s, Houston, and Utah State) making the field while the fourth (New Mexico) was on the bubble all year long. The Summit League was no challenge for Oral Roberts, which went a perfect 18-0 in the regular season before sweeping through the conference tournament to end the year on a 17-game winning streak.
The Golden Eagles landed a No. 12 seed in the East region and will face a Duke team that is hot but is far from a vintage edition of the Blue Devils. Surviving Duke would mean a very winnable second-round game against either slumping Tennessee or No. 13 seed Louisiana, meaning another trip to the Sweet 16 is very much in the cards for Oral Roberts.
Next. 20 biggest upsets in the history of March Madness. dark
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