Written by Jake Curtis at BleacherReport.com
With the start of the NCAA tournament less than six weeks away, the contenders for the 2016 national championship are beginning to come into focus.
However, teams outside the group acknowledged as the cream of the crop could make an impact in a season that features a lot of good teams but no great teams. Those sleeper teams lie outside the Top 25 at the moment, and most of them are still battling just to get into the NCAA tournament. Some of them are capable of doing damage if they get in, though, and we selected 10 unranked teams that could make waves in the NCAA tournament.
The teams are presented in ascending order of their likelihood of winning a few NCAA tournament games, with the team with the most postseason potential featured last.
(Statistics are valid through games played Feb. 3, with NCAA.com and NCAA.org used as the source for those statistics unless otherwise noted.)
Michigan Wolverines
Michigan did not look like an NCAA tournament team in its poor performance on Tuesday against Indiana, which blew the Wolverines away 80-67 on Michigan’s home court. But Michigan has won four of its past five games and is still in the Big Ten race with a 7-3 conference record. More importantly, they seem to be playing better basketball, the Indiana loss notwithstanding.
Guard Caris LeVert, the team’s best player, has missed the past nine games with a lower-leg injury but is expected back soon. That should give him enough time to regain his rhythm before the stretch run. The Wolverines have gone 6-3 without LeVert, but they need him to make the NCAA tournament and have some success when they get there.
Guard Derrick Walton Jr. has picked up his game, averaging 15.4 points over the previous seven games before his mediocre, seven-point performance against Indiana.
The Indiana loss was indicative of Michigan’s season. When the Wolverines lose, they lose badly. Every one of Michigan’s six losses was by a double-digit margin. When the games are close, though, Michigan finds a way to win. The Wolverines are 5-0 in games decided by seven points or less, and that includes victories over Texas and Maryland.
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