Before the March Madness Kicks In, Popular Analyst Reveals His Top NCAA Bid Stealers

The much-anticipated month of March has arrived for the passionate college basketball fans. However, as the Madness will surely get the fans off their feet, the NCAA bidding session is also set to cause quite an amazement. While 32 teams will get an automatic qualification by winning the postseason conference tournaments, all eyes will be on the teams who will grab the at-large bids.

This is the time when basketball analysts pick their favored choices from the rest of the 36 teams. As it turns out, one such observer has quite a list.

Andy Katz names his NCAA bid stealers

Popular college basketball analyst for the Big Ten Network Andy Katz laid down his views on the upcoming NCAA bids. He went on and said, “ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big 10 and SEC. I don’t see a bid stealer from any of those major conferences.” Teams like UNC and Duke are the table-toppers in the ACC. At the same time, Houston, defending champions UConn, Purdue and Tennessee headline the rest of the leagues.

The analyst mentions the leagues as well as the teams who have the potential to pique the interest of fans. Andy further added, “But, there could be some bid stealers in other leagues. The American, FAU has the metrics to get in. South Florida wins at least a share of the title. Memphis certainly has the talent to win. Could that league get two bids? It may. The A-10. Dayton has the metrics to be an at-large. But, Loyola Chicago and Richmond certainly could get in as the AQ. Maybe one of them as an at-large. We shall see.”

Andy turned his attention to another noteworthy conference that might steal the most number of bids. He said, “The Mountain West Conference. There are six schools that have all taken turns in the field, but there’s a seventh, the host. UNLV certainly could be a bid stealer.” 

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The analyst expressed his high hopes for Mick Cronin’s team in the Pac-12. He said, “In the Pac 12, believe it or not, a bid stealer could be UCLA. The Bruins aren’t in the field as an at-large but they certainly could win the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas.” 

It will be interesting to see which teams from Andy Katz’s list made the final cut. Awaiting the start of the business end of the tournament, fans are in for a lot of thrill and excitement to treat themselves this month.

Which teams make your list? Let us know in the comments section.

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