NCAA Basketball: Preview of all 31 autobids for 2021 NCAA Tournament

Grand Canyon Antelopes – WAC

Grand Canyon has finally done it, they finally beat New Mexico State when it counted. They faced the Aggies in the conference title game and the Antelopes took out all of their frustration on the Aggies and won the game going away. Head coach Bryce Drew was able to get his Grand Canyon team to the NCAA tournament in only his first season at the helm.

Anyone who follows college basketball knows how close Grand Canyon was under former head coach Dan Majerle, they just could never get over the hump of beating New Mexico State.

Best Player: Asbjorn Midtgaard

It’s hard to pin the success of a team on one player but Midtgaard didn’t play for Grand Canyon before this season. He previously played for Wichita State and was a seldom-used player. What he has transformed the Grand Canyon defense into is something you read about in books. The Antelopes have the 9th best scoring defense in the country.

Midtgaard is a load inside as he stands at 7’0” and 270 pounds. He is a great rebounder especially on the offensive end, shoots 73% from the floor, 72% from the free throw line, and averages one block per game. He also leads the team in points and rebounds. When paired with fellow starter Alessandro Lever they make up one of the tallest duos in the tournament as both are close to 7’0” tall.

Chance at Upset

Grand Canyon was perhaps slightly under-seeded at a 15. They are the tournament’s best 15 seed and should make their game fun. Midtgaard may be the traditional old-school center second big man Lever is a player who steps out and hits 40% of his shots from deep giving teams a different look. Grand Canyon has a ton of senior leadership as well and those guys have been through a lot.

Don’t be surprised if the Antelopes keep their game close the whole way. 15’s have beaten 2’s before and Grand Canyon does have some pieces that can make a top seed sweat. Chance at upset 40%.

Oregon State Beavers – Pac-12

This was not supposed to be the Beaver team that made the big dance. This team was picked to finish 12th in the league and early on with back-to-back losses at home to Wyoming and then West Coast Conference bottom feeder Portland it looked like the media was right. Then at the end of February, something clicked and the Beavers went on to win 6 of their last 7 games including the Pac 12 tournament.

All six wins were away from Corvallis. Oregon State makes its first appearance in the tournament since 2015-2016 and it was without former star Tres Tinkle. The Beavers shocked everyone by winning the Pac 12 tournament.

Best Player:  Ethan Thompson

Thompson was a highly touted recruit out of High School and could have gone anywhere but he chose to come to Corvallis to play with his brother, former Beaver Stephen Thompson. The point guard has started every single game since he arrived on campus four seasons ago. He has put in the work to make himself better and he makes his teammates better with his attitude and leadership on the floor.

The guard is a volume shooter but he gets fouled a good amount and does damage at the line. He is more potent driving to the lane than he is from outside, but Oregon State is going to run the offense through him and he is usually going to make something happen.

Chance at Upset

Oregon State earned a 12 seed and that is one of the seed lines that always seems to produce an upset. The Beavers don’t look like a team that is primed for an upset. They are not good at much as they are a middling team on offense and they sometimes lack focus on the defensive end. They must be doing something right though because they are in the tournament after coming out of nowhere to win the Pac 12 title. Chance of Upset 25%.