El Fuerto's Cinderella Previews

As an avid fan of college basketball who counts down to March every year, if I had to pick my favorite part of March Madness, it would probably be Bill Raftery's voice at 12:00 on the first Thursday. But, watching a tiny school slay a giant is up there too. These are the games where 10 years later, when all the players are used car salesmen, people still tell stories about them. Northwestern St over Iowa. Hampton over Iowa St. Winthrop over Notre Dame. Vermont over Syracuse. These are chances for a team nobody has ever heard of to knock out a team with title expectations on the first day. And a chance to ruin a lot of brackets, also. With that said, here is El Fuerto's list of nobodys who could potentially win a game or two next week.

Murray St At 30-4 the Racers are looking at a potential 12 seed. What makes this team so dangerous is their wide array of scoring options. Their starting five averages 10.6, 10.5, 10.4, 10.4, and 10.3 points per game. And their sixth man averages 9.5. While the Racers lack a big name win, they took Cal to the wire when they were ranked number 12.

Oakland Grizzlies coach Greg Kampe made news when he announced that the Sweet Sixteen was in the future for his Oakland squad following their win over IUPUI Tuesday night. It sounds very crazy for a team whose biggest win came against a 5 letter acronym, but Summit teams have put up fights in the past. Just ask a Jayhawks fan if North Dakota St was a walk in the park.

North Texas The Mean Green roll into the Big Dance with 11 straight wins, and opponents should watch out for a tough backcourt consisting of Juniors Josh White and Tristan Thomas.

Siena The Saints are technically a low-major team, but their recent results say otherwise. Siena has bounced Vanderbilt and Ohio St (ONIONS! DOUBLE ORDER!) from the tourney in the past two years. This years's version boasts superstars Alex Franklin, Eddie Ubiles, and Clarence Jackson, as well as Ronald Moore whose big time shots knocked out the Buckeyes last year. Look for the Saints to continue their big game dominance and play into the second weekend this year.

East Tennessee St The Buccaneers finally seem to have things together and look to be a dangerous matchup for a National Title contender. Tommy Hubbard is playing well down the stretch, but what makes the Bucs dangerous is their defense. ETSU is 14th in the country at forcing turnovers, and will bring a lot of pressure on whoever they get pitted against.