The NCAA men’s basketball tournament promises to be the most unpredictable and wide-open version of March Madness in recent memory. Simply put, there appear to be a lot of good teams this year but no great ones. Every squad in Division I in the six biggest conferences have at least five losses and Houston has three, so clearly no one is invincible. This means it is unlikely there will be an odds-on favorite to be cutting down the nets in Houston when the bracket is unveiled.
Somebody has to win it, of course, and given the struggles of several of the sport’s blue-blood programs and the high number of teams capable of getting hot at the right time, there’s a strong possibility a first-time champion will be crowned at the tournament’s conclusion.