NCAA Tournament Dark Horses - Part 1
In the NCAA tournament, sometimes teams come out of nowhere and surprise people. I am counting teams as “Darkhorse’s” that could make a run to the elite 8 that are below a 4 seed. I will be picking a team from 2 regions.
Oregon
John Locher/AP
The Oregon Ducks check-in as a 7 seed and they will take on VCU. Oregon got off to a rough start. Their center N’Faly Dante was lost for the year due to a torn ACL, they had two COVID pauses and starting guard Will Richardson missed the 1st 12 games due to a thumb injury. Oregon has probably the 2nd best player in the PAC 12 in Chris Duarte (G) who is an excellent shooter and solid defender scoring 16.7 points a game and shooting a 52.4/43/80.3 line.
Eugene Omoruyi (F) who sat out last year after transferring from Rutgers, is a very good undersized big, he was an all PAC-12 first-team player. He is really tough, physical and can put in on the deck.
LJ Figueroa (G), a transfer from St. John’s, scores 12.3 points per game and is tied for the league's leading rebounder at 6.1 boards a game. He’s a quick, strong fearless guard that does a good job getting to the rim.
This Ducks team can make a run in the tourney, even though they just lost to Oregon State. Oregon was playing like a top 25 team before they lost to Oregon State and had an awesome chance to pull the upset against Iowa. I’d be really surprised if anyone beat Gonzaga before the final 4 but Oregon could make the elite 8.
LSU
via LSU
The LSU Tigers are an 8 seed and they will play St Bonaventure. The Tigers are a really interesting team. They have a (G) Cameron Thomas who is one of the leading scorers in the country at 22.8 points per game that has a good chance at getting picked in the first round.
Trendon Watford is one of the better bigs in the country contributing 16.2 points and 7.4 rebounds.
Ja’Vonte Smart scores 15.7 points a game and is the team's leading assist guy at 4 per game. He’s also a very good three-point shooter at 41.9 percent.
Darius Days is another double-digit scorer at 12.1 points per game and is the teams leading rebounder at 7.7.
Outside of LSU’s 4 double-digit scorers, there is a huge drop-off with their 5th leading scorer only scoring 3.8 points per game. According to Kenpom, LSU checked in with the 5th best offense in the country but struggled defensively at 125th. The Tigers don’t do a great job on the glass, ranking 325th in offensive rebounding percentage out of 347 teams.
With LSU being an 8 seed they would have to play the 1 seed in their region, Michigan, in the 2nd round. With Michigan losing Isiah Livers due to injury that could be an interesting 2nd round matchup. But regardless, LSU is a team you should watch.
