College Basketball Title Contenders You Shouldn’t Write Off Yet
Posted by Eric Williams on Thursday,February 16, 2017 10:11, EDT in
If you’re looking for value-packed teams that aren’t among the perennial powerhouses like Duke, Kentucky, Kansas and North Carolina, but will have a really good chance of upsetting their more nationally known counterparts to win the upcoming 2017 NCAA March Madness national basketball championship tournament, then look no further!
Thanks to the expert analysis you’re about to get on five ‘under the radar’ teams that will have a good chance of making deep tourney runs, you could potentially cash in big for weeks. Let’s get started with the latest college basketball point spreads.
Analyzing The College Basketball Title Contenders You Shouldn’t Write Off Yet
No. 17 Florida State
The Seminoles have recorded bunch of impressive wins this season in beating nationally-ranked Florida, Virginia, Duke, Notre Dame and Louisville. Florida State is ranked a stellar 16th in scoring (84.3 ppg) and has a bunch of athletic players that can apparently beat any team in the country on any given day. For me, Florida State is the one team that none of the other elite programs want to play once March Madness rolls round.
No. 15 Florida
Florida has a solid offense that averages 80.4 points per game to rank 41st nationally and an equally solid defense that ranks 51st nationally by limiting the opposition to 66.4 points per contest. While the Gators don’t have a superstar they can lean on in the clutch, they do have good balance with three double-digit scorers and six more players that all average between 6.0 and 8.0 points per game. If I do have one area of concern, it’s that Florida has struggled to beat their more elite opponents this season while suffering losses against Gonzaga, Duke and Florida State, although they did give Kentucky an emphatic 88-66 spanking back on February 4.
No. 20 Creighton
The Bluejays have beaten nationally-ranked Wisconsin and Xavier and some other impressive wins over solid teams like Butler and Providence and I believe they’re going to be dangerous once March Madness gets underway because of the way they shoot the ball. Creighton is ranked 14th nationally in scoring (85.0 ppg) and has four double-digit scorers on their roster.
No. 23 Maryland
The Terps have some solid wins this season, but not single one jumps off the page as a real head-turner. The Terps will get into the March Madness tournament, but if I were looking for a tem to make an early exit, the Terps would be in my first group.
No. 25 Notre Dame
The Fighting Irish have recorded some quality wins over Louisville, Virginia Tech and Florida State and that tells me that Mike Brey’s ballclub will be a tough out and a dangerous opponent once March Madness begins. Notre Dame can score the ball with the best teams in the country as they put up 79.4 points per game (52nd) while limiting the opposition to a respectable 69.6 points per game defensively (109th). The Irish also have a true superstar (16.9 ppg. 10.7 rpg, 1.7 pg, 1.1 spg, 1.5 bpg) in do-it-all junior forward Bonzie Colson that can take over games at times.
