March Madness bracket busters 2024: 5 high seeds who will go down early

Arizona Wildcats

Seeing the Wildcats here would have been hard to believe after the non-conference portion of the season, where Arizona stacked up a ton of big wins. Arizona won at Duke before beating Big Ten foes Michigan State and Wisconsin to peak at 8-0 before losing to Purdue and Florida Gulf Coast.

The Pac-12 was undoubtedly down in its final year as a power conference, which would have led one to believe Arizona would easily cruise to a league crown with 18 wins in league play. The Wildcats seemed to sleepwalk through the Pac-12 at times, finding ways to lose to Stanford, Oregon State and USC during the regular season before getting knocked out of the Pac-12 Tournament in their first game by Oregon.

Arizona's offense is elite, averaging 87.9 points per game, but you have to be concerned about their lengthy stretch of playing teams who weren't close to NCAA Tournament caliber. The Pac-12 got only four teams in March Madness, including the Wildcats, so it is fair to wonder if the Wildcats developed some bad habits that could get exposed against superior competition.

The first real test for Arizona will come in the Round of 32 against two elite mid-majors who got underseeded in Dayton and Nevada. That matchup might be the toughest draw a 2-seed gets in March Madness, making it worth a shot to declare the Wildcats as a serious bracket-buster candidate.