NCAA Tournament: Ranking all 68 teams in the Big Dance

Not to take lightly in the first round

56. Georgia State Panthers (24-9, 13-5 SB) – No. 14 seed

Behind the play of D’Marcus Simonds, Georgia State is one of the more dangerous teams on the No. 14 line. Simonds is an elite star who can fill up the basket in a hurry. Additionally, the Panthers shoot the ball extremely well in general as they are hitting on 38.4% of their 3-point shots so far this season. Georgia State’s issue, though, is that they really struggle on the glass and that was against Sun Belt competition. If the Panthers let it fly from deep and catch fire, they could pull off a big upset.

55. Saint Louis Billikens (23-12, 10-8 A10) – No. 13 seed

Saint Louis landed the automatic bid from the Atlantic 10 for taking down four straight teams in four days at the conference tournament. This was certainly an extremely impressive performance by the team but also one that many thought was possible at the beginning of the year. On the whole, the Billikens disappointed slightly this year relative to the level of talent on the roster but they are now starting to hit their stride. Saint Louis’ offense features some dreadful shooting percentages but they do offensively rebound well and get to the free throw line. On the defensive end, they do a little bit of everything.

54. Northeastern Huskies (23-10, 14-4 CAA) – No. 13 seed

After starting just 1-2 in CAA play, Northeastern really turned it on over the past two months of the year. They have won 16 of their last 18 games and there is definitely reason to believe in them as a potential Cinderella team. The Huskies own one of the nation’s most efficient offenses and they are really hard to stop because of how effective they are scoring both inside and outside the arc. Oh, and it is always hard to stop a team that moves the ball as well as Northeastern and shoots the three at such a high rate. Their high defensive rebounding rate is also a positive.

53. Liberty Flames (28-6, 14-2 ASun) – No. 12 seed

Liberty was not necessarily the favorite to come out of the Atlantic Sun this year but they are still a really strong team. The Flames, in general, are a well-balanced unit that can win with either their offense or defense but largely relies on an incredibly slow pace. Liberty plays at the fourth-slowest tempo in the country and they can really take opponents out of their rhythm overall. For the season, one of Liberty’s biggest advantages has been dominating in the paint – they are seventh nationally in 2P% – but that might not translate against high-major competition.