- Florida Gulf Coast: One year after captivating the nation with their improbable Sweet 16 run, these scrappy long shots won’t let the fact that they’re not in the tournament keep them from going all the way
- Creighton: With his team’s March Madness fortunes resting on his shoulders, Bluejays star forward Doug McDermott must make sure to fade away into obscurity after the tournament and not before it
- Louisville: Provided someone steps up and suffers a grotesque leg injury to rile up the team, the Cardinals stand a very strong chance of winning back-to-back national championships
- Coastal Carolina: Count out these underdogs
- Eastern Kentucky: The Colonels should be a very popular pick among people who mistake them for regular Kentucky
- Michigan: This Wolverines team might just have what it takes to live up to the Fab Five’s accomplishments in the early 1990s
- North Carolina: A strong showing would do a lot for a program still clinging to the legacy of Michael Jordan, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, Tyler Hansbrough, James Worthy, Robert McAdoo, Larry Brown, Brad Daugherty, and Walter Davis
- North Dakota State: Probably the most dominant of the North Dakota schools in this year’s tournament
- Harvard: Like most of the smaller schools, administrators are just hoping a tournament appearance will boost their university’s national profile and increase applications
- Duke: Nah