5 most intriguing March Madness teams that aren’t No. 1 seeds

Not every top seed features a compelling storyline.

Not every 16-seed is fit to wear Cinderella’s slipper.

No Men’s NCAA Tournament is without its share of intrigue, but the storylines hardly are limited to those teams who populate the top- and bottom-seed lines.

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Here are five teams, slotted as high as No. 2 upon the onset of March Madness and relatively mid-tier as the West’s No. 7-seed, to consider among this tournament’s most intriguing.

Arkansas

The SEC tournament champion. John Calipari. A potential lottery pick.

Might this Arkansas squad that’s won five straight games have enough to give Calipari a fourth program in the Final Four and the Arkansas program its first run to the semifinals since 1995?

Well, Darius Acuff Jr. is a consensus projected NBA Draft lottery pick; he’s riding SEC tournament MVP honors into the next wave of March basketball. The 6-3 freshman guard on Sunday became the first player in SEC history to score 30 points and dish at least 10 assists after he closed with 11.

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Trevon Brazile and Billy Richmond III bring frontcourt presence for the Razorbacks, who don’t have a deep bench but do count former McDonald’s All American game MVP D.J. Wagner among their reserves.

Only two teams in college basketball — Alabama and Miami (Ohio) — scored more than the 90 points per game Arkansas averaged.

Iowa State

The Midwest’s No. 2 seed didn’t drop its first game of the 2025-26 season until a mid-January road trip to Bill Self’s Kansas Jayhawks.

The Cyclones have three players who score in double digits, with Milan Momcilovic pacing things at 17.1 ppg, and eight players averaging 4.5 ppg or more.

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Iowa State enters the tournament with the nation’s No. 12 scoring defense (65.1 ppg).

Miami (Fla.)

College basketball’s largest year-over-year turnaround belongs to the Miami Hurricanes and first-year coach Jai Lucas.

After closing the Jim Larrañaga era amidst a 7-24 season, the Hurricanes already own an 18-win improvement and get No. 10 seed Missouri to open the NCAA Tournament.

Malik Reneau,…

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Publish date : 2026-03-16 08:35:00

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