March Madness will start in less than three weeks and College Basketball fans should be hyped up for the start of the greatest tournament in the entire world. While some teams await their fate on the tournament bubble, others are hoping to take home a national championship. But there are some teams that nobody seems interested in talking about, and it's a bit hard to understand why. Let's take a look at three teams that are being underrated by the public right now.
1. Cincinnati Bearcats.
Mick Cronin's team could easily be the most underrated team in the entire nation.
The Bearcuts have a record of 25-3 right now and own victories over Iowa State, Xavier, and SMU. They've lost only once at home and none of their losses have come outside the RPI top 50. But most bracketologists aren't willing to give Cincinnati a seed better than four, and Joe Lunardi suggests that they are only a five. Any team that draws the Bearcats in the first round will face an extremely tough matchup against a team that plays physical and knows how to win.
2. SMU.
The theme here is that the American Athletic Conference is underrated. SMU currently holds first place in the AAC with a record of 24-4. The unfortunate thing for the Mustangs is that they own just one quality victory over Cincinnati at home.
Still, winning that many games requires a lot of fortitude and SMU probably isn't too happy that they didn't get a shot at the tournament last season.
3. Gonzaga.
It seems weird to put a team that is currently ranked number one in the nation on this list, but it makes sense. The tournament committee revealed that Gonzaga was ranked fourth of all the number one seeds and the public has a generally negative perception of the Bulldogs.
It's a little hard to understand why they aren't clearly seen as the best team in the nation. Gonzaga has quality wins over Florida, St. Mary's, Iowa State, and Arizona, so it's not like they played a weak schedule. Mark Few's team is unfortunately hampered by the weak quality of their conference, which makes college basketball fans continually underrate this squad.
