{"id":10750,"date":"2011-03-15T20:11:13","date_gmt":"2011-03-15T20:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/?p=10750"},"modified":"2011-03-15T20:11:13","modified_gmt":"2011-03-15T20:11:13","slug":"ncaa-tournament-bracket-picks-sleepers-and-cinderella-prediction-big-dance-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2011\/03\/ncaa-tournament-bracket-picks-sleepers-and-cinderella-prediction-big-dance-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Tournament Bracket Picks: Sleepers and Cinderella Prediction Big Dance 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tick…tock…just hours until March Madness betting<\/a> begins. Can\u2019t wait. Now that we\u2019ve covered all the regions, it\u2019s time to explore some tournament sleepers and potential Cinderella teams.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to list and distinguish between sleepers and Cinderellas. A sleeper is an under-the-radar team with actual potential to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament. You could actually throw down a sports betting<\/a> long-shot pick on a sleeper to win it all. A Cinderella is an obscure, low-seeded squad with potential to pull off a huge upset or two. But it\u2019s important to remember that, as much as the Valparaisos and George Masons of the world win our hearts, they never go all the way. Cinderellas are better for game-by-game picks.<\/p>\n

SLEEPERS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Purdue Boilermakers<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the Southwest Region, powerhouse Kansas gets all the love from sportsbook<\/a> bettors. Notre Dame and Louisville also have a decent contingent of supporters who swear by Big East teams. But Purdue has sleeper potential. The Boilermakers knocked off No. 1 Ohio State earlier this year and I love their senior tandem of JaJuan Johnson and E\u2019Twaun Moore. Don\u2019t sleep on Purdue.<\/p>\n

BYU Cougars<\/strong><\/p>\n

No matter how many good teams across multiple sports BYU fields, it never seems to get taken seriously. Maybe it\u2019s the Mormon thing? I mean, the Mormon thing got BYU\u2019s third-leading scorer, Brandon Davies, booted from the team. Many people are writing the Cougars off as a result \u2013 but not this sports betting blog<\/a>. Jimmer Fredette is so dominant that he could singlehandedly carry BYU to a date with Pittsburgh in the Elite Eight.<\/p>\n

Arizona Wildcats<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know they\u2019re caught in the dreaded No. 5 spot, a seed that has been upset a whopping 51.4 per cent of the time. But I still like Arizona for two reasons. One is Derrick Williams. The other is that, aside from Duke, every other contender in the West Region is flawed. I see Arizona reaching the Sweet 16 before bowing out against Duke.<\/p>\n

CINDERELLAS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bucknell Bison<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ooh, this is my favorite Cinderella pick. Everybody\u2019s leaping on the UConn bandwagon, right? Kemba Walker is God! Connecticut is the Big East Tournament champ! The Huskies won five games in five days! That\u2019s why I like Bucknell to do the unthinkable. Connecticut will be exhausted, as will Walker, and the Huskies are nothing if he goes cold. Go for it! Pick Bucknell!<\/p>\n

Belmont Bruins<\/strong><\/p>\n

The upstart Bruins went a respectable 30-4 and, while they had the advantage of breezing through the weak Atlantic Sun, they had encouraging showings in non-conference affairs. These guys are great shooters and Wisconsin, a very common bust pick among pundits, has a devil of a time defending the three-ball. Watch out for Belmont.<\/p>\n

USC Trojans<\/strong><\/p>\n

USC looks like a solid bet to survive a few rounds. First, it has to get past VCU in the play-in, but that should be no problem. After that, I really like the Trojans to upset Georgetown, which won\u2019t have Chris Wright. USC is peaking just in time for the tourney and has an intriguing offense-defense tandem in Nikola Vukevic and Alex Stephenson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tick…tock…just hours until March Madness betting begins. Can\u2019t wait. Now that we\u2019ve covered all the regions, it\u2019s time to explore some tournament sleepers and potential Cinderella teams. It\u2019s important to list and distinguish between sleepers and Cinderellas. A sleeper is an under-the-radar team with actual potential to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament. … Continue reading NCAA Tournament Bracket Picks: Sleepers and Cinderella Prediction Big Dance 2011<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports_betting_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10750"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10752,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10750\/revisions\/10752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}