March Madness: Sleepers to Monitor (Seeds 5-12)
As Christmas Eve is upon us in the form of the Big Dance, 32 teams in the 5-12 spots enter this weekend thinking they have a shot at making a run. Though half of those will be over before the weekend even ends, at least a couple are all but guaranteed to sneak into the Sweet 16.
Before any games tip-off, let’s take a look at teams who have the ability to turn some heads as the bracket turns into next week.
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#6 USC Trojans
(22-7 SU, 16-13 ATS, 15-14 O/U)
Led by their pair of freshman big men brothers in Evan and Isaiah Mobley, the #6 Trojans have the talent to make some serious noise in the West bracket. After drawing the winner of Wichita State/Drake in the opener, the Trojans will likely get a shorthanded Kansas team to advance to the Sweet 16.
From there, the Trojans just need to rely on their stout defense, which through the season held opponents to 42.2% from the field, ranking them #2 in that category.
It’s often stud players whose team makes the biggest splash in March, and the Trojans have just that in the younger Mobley (Evan). In his freshman campaign, Mobley brought home the Pac 12’s Freshman of the Year, Player of the Year, and Defensive Player of the Year.
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#12 Oregon State Beavers
(17-12 SU, 18-9-1 ATS, 17-11 O/U)
There might not be a hotter team in the country than the Beavers, plain and simple. Including going on a historic run to win the PAC-12 Championship last week, the Beavers have won six of their last seven, covering each game of their conference tournament in spades.
With the tournament win, the Beavers went from bubble team to a 12 seed with a winnable open round game against Tennesee and arguably the easiest of the regions (Midwest). Though they had an up and down season, the Beavers still covered at a 64% clip to lead the PAC-12 in ATS%.
If the Beavers can continue their blistering pace from 3, which saw them shoot 44% to win the Pac-12 tournament, there’s no doubt this team could go on another historic run, this one in the Big One.
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TJ Perun is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from TJ, check out his archive and follow him @JohnnyCovers.