March Madness 2012: Biggest Headaches of NCAA Brackets

While this year’s NCAA tournament hasn’t been quite as wild as last year’s, we’ve seen some pretty exciting games this year with a few unexpected upsets from the likes of Lehigh and Norfolk State.

Such unforeseen upsets have most likely inflicted some damage on your bracket, particularly if you had a team like Duke heading to the Sweet 16 or beyond.

Here are the biggest headaches of NCAA brackets this year.

Duke

After another good ACC regular season that included a road win against rival North Carolina, Duke fell in the Round of 64 against Lehigh.

Perhaps Ryan Kelly being sidelined for the game had an impact on the Blue Devils, and Lehigh’s C.J. McCollum had a spectacular performance (30 PTS 6 AST 6 REB), but as a No. 2 seed Duke should have pulled away in this one.

The fact that Lehigh was beaten significantly in its Round of 32 game against Xavier indicates that Duke should have beaten the Mountain Hawks or merely that Xavier was an underrated team as a No. 10 seed.

Duke shot poorly from beyond the arc (23 percent) and had four players in foul trouble on top of that, with two players fouling out.

Missouri

With a Big 12 tournament championship under its belt and a Top 10 ranking at the end of the regular season, Missouri fell in the Round of 64 to Norfolk State.

Despite scoring 84 points, the Tigers lost by two points and couldn’t contain the three-point shot or any other facet of Norfolk’s offense, as the Spartans shot 54 percent from the field and 53 percent from beyond the arc.

With significant momentum going into the tournament after having done well in the regular season and clinching its conference tournament, Missouri’s Round of 64 loss was very shocking.

Norfolk State went on to get wiped out by Florida in the next round, which had us all scratching our heads as to why Missouri couldn’t prevail against its No. 15 seed opponent.

Michigan

The Wolverines looked solid this year in a tough Big Ten conference and were co-champions of the conference. However, they couldn’t get it going in the tournament this year and lost in the first round to No. 13 seed Ohio.

Although Ohio proved to be a legitimate contender by reaching the Sweet 16, Michigan had plenty of chances to win the Round of 64 matchup late in the game with multiple three-point attempts but couldn’t come through in the clutch as it had all season.

Key wins against Ohio State and Michigan State during conference play gave the impression that Michigan was going to make a deep tournament run, but the Wolverines came up short in their first game.

Florida State

Florida State was one of the hottest teams in the nation going into this year’s tournament. Beating Duke at home, blowing out North Carolina and winning the ACC tournament made it appear as though the Seminoles were set for a solid tournament run.

Despite all the momentum, Florida State couldn’t get past Cincinnati in the Round of 32 and wasn’t able to come up big in the crucial final minute of the game.

Of all the high-seeded teams going into the tournament, Florida State probably had the most momentum and seemed an unrelenting team that would cruise through the first two rounds.

Although the Seminoles won their Round of 64 game, they barely won against St. Bonaventure, just squeezing past the Bonnies after trailing in the first half.

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