March Madness: 5 biggest questions for mid-majors in 2019 NCAA Tournament

3. Which 12-seed mid-major is best suited to pull off the 12-5 upset?

Logan Butts

New Mexico State was going to be my go-to pick here, but Auburn is blazing hot right now. Instead, I’ll pick Murray State over Marquette in the battle of the point guards between Ja Morant and Markus Howard.

Connor Hope

I would say the between New Mexico State and Murray State, let’s face it Liberty isn’t beating Mississippi State, the Aggies are more likely to pull an upset. While Auburn and Marquette are both unreliable teams, the Aggies can attack the Tigers in a variety of ways and have one of the best defenses in the country. If they can limit Auburn’s three-point success, and use their location advantage to fuel their offense, they could pull off the upset. Murray State, on the other hand, relies too much on Morant. He would have to have an unbelievable game to unseat Marquette in the first round.

Stu Luddecke

Murray State, but Oregon is a close second. As far as the other two 12’s, NMSU got the toughest draw of them all in a white-hot Auburn team that’s fresh off of an SEC championship, and it’s hard to see Liberty having the size or the physicality to hang with Mississippi State. Ja Morant and Murray State drew a relatively soft 5-seed in Marquette that has lost five of their last six and are overly-reliant on Markus Howard for success.

If Morant can outplay Howard for forty minutes, which is certainly fathomable considering that Howard is coming off of an injury, that could be enough for the Racers to pull the upset. Unfortunately for Oregon, Wisconsin is a more complete and well-rounded team than Marquette, but Dana Atman and the Ducks have been here before and they have the momentum of a PAC-12 Tournament title behind them.

Jason Burgess

Liberty. Balanced on offense and defense facing a Mississippi State team that gets a little impatient offensively.