4 Longshots Worth A Bet To Win March Madness

The 2022 NCAA Tournament is a month and a half away. February is here, which means March Madness is just around the corner. There are obvious choices to win the tournament, but those are the favorites, the teams which will be seeded No. 1 or No. 2 in each of the four regions. What about the tournament’s No. 5 seeds or No. 6 seeds? Are any of those projected seeds capable of going all the way or at least making the Final Four? Let’s look at some candidates.

Alabama

Though Alabama at its worst is a bad team, Alabama at its best is a great team. The Crimson Tide are very volatile, but part of the package is that if they play well, they can beat anyone. They have already proved that. Alabama has beaten Gonzaga in Seattle – technically a neutral-site game but essentially a road game – and just did beat Baylor, the defending national champion, over the weekend. Alabama has therefore beaten the two teams which played in last season’s national championship game. Alabama has also beaten LSU and Tennessee, and it came very close to beating No. 1 Auburn.

The bad side of Alabama is that it has lost to both Georgia and Missouri, two terrible losses which will drag down the Tide’s seed to No. 5 or maybe No. 4. Yet, if Alabama is a No. 5 seed when the brackets are released, that is a No. 5 seed with the talent and coaching to get on a roll and make a very deep run in March Madness.

Miami

The Hurricanes probably won’t be seeded higher than No. 5, because the Atlantic Coast Conference doesn’t have many good teams. This means Miami could win a lot of games yet not rise on the seeding list because various ACC wins won’t carry a lot of analytical or metric-based value. Yet, Miami has experienced guards who should thrive in the NCAA Tournament. The Hurricanes have veteran shotmakers who will get clutch baskets and make this team a very tough out. Jim Larranaga is an excellent coach who has been to the Final Four before, with an underdog team: George Mason in 2006. Remember that Cinderella story? Miami has a lot more talent than that George Mason squad. The Hurricanes will be a team to watch in March.

Texas Tech

The defending champion Baylor Bears and the blue-blood Kansas Jayhawks get the attention in the Big 12, which is totally reasonable and understandable, but Texas Tech might actually become the team which gets hot and makes the Final Four. The Red Raiders did this in 2019. In 2022, they will probably get a seed around No. 4. They have the defense and the toughness needed to take out a No. 1 seed in the Sweet 16 and make a serious push at the national championship. They already beat Baylor and Kansas anyway, and they nearly swept the Jayhawks. This team is for real.

Illinois

Though this team lost last March as a No. 1 seed, it will still have a chance to make a run as a No. 4 or 5 seed. Kofi Cockburn is such a huge and imposing presence in the paint. Andre Curbelo is a terrific point guard. Trent Frazier and Alfonso Plummer are tough shotmakers. This team has a lot of pieces and will be a No. 4 or 5 seed which the top seeds will want to avoid in their bracket.