NCAA Tournament: Upsets to watch out for on lower seed lines
By Bryan Mauro
No. 16 seed: Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs
Last year’s NCAA tournament proved that a 16 seed could beat a 1 seed. It was the only time it has ever happened and probably won’t happen again this year. The top 8 seeds in the NCAA tournament are stronger than the rest of the field by an unusually wide margin. The top seeds in the tournament will only be challenged if they do not show up to play and sleepwalk through the game.
Virginia was the team who was beaten by a 16 seed in UMBC last season. The committee did them no favors this year by awarding them the best No. 16 seed in this year’s field. Gardner-Webb comes into the tournament after making a surprise run to the Big South tournament title, upsetting both Campbell and Radford on their way to their first ever NCAA tournament appearance. The Bulldogs have already beaten two ACC teams this year. Gardner-Webb is led by a trio of players but none more important than big man DJ Laster. Laster will have his hands full with Virginia. The Runnin’ Bulldogs have a high powered offense, averaging 78 points per game.
Virginia is hungry to not repeat the performance last season in the NCAA tournament, when they were ran out of the gym by UMBC. Gardner-Webb is going to pose an interesting challenge for the Cavaliers. Virginia was exposed last year by a great three point shooting team, and by a smaller athletic squad. Gardner-Webb checks both of those boxes. They are deadly from outside shooting at 39% as a team and they are athletic enough to keep this game tight. It would be shocking if Tony Bennett does not have Virginia ready to play this year, but as everyone saw, if Gardner Webb can get hot and make some threes early, doubt may creep in for Virginia.