March Madness 2012: Powerhouse Teams That Will Make Early Tournament Exits

Conference tournaments have started, which means that we are only days away from Selection Sunday. The best day of the college basketball season always brings with it plenty of surprises, but the shocks this year will come as a result of the upsets we see. 

While there are a few dominant teams at the top of the rankings as always, it remains to be seen who the truly great ones are. Even Kentucky and Syracuse, each sitting pretty with just one loss, have flaws that can be exploited in the tournament. 

In preparation for the major conference tournaments that get underway next week, and the mid-majors that have already started, here are the teams sitting at the top of the rankings now that won't have strong showings once the madness of March begins. 

Duke Blue Devils

As has become tradition with Duke, the team is putting together a fantastic regular season that does not get talked about enough simply because we are so used to it. 

Another tradition that we have gotten used to is the Blue Devils flaming out early in the NCAA tournament. Aside from their run in 2009, which was helped by a ridiculously easy slate of games, they always seem to find the banana peel in the Sweet 16. 

They are still not a great inside team, relying more on their guards to score, which is going to hurt them against bigger and longer squads in the tournament. 

Baylor Bears

It has been quite a year for Baylor in both football and basketball. The Bears are currently No. 9 in the Associated Press rankings, and sit behind Kansas and Missouri in the Big 12. 

Don't be fooled; they aren't that good. All of their wins have come against mediocre competition. In their four biggest games of the year—two against Kansas, two against Missouri—they have come up small. 

They don't play defense and aren't strong enough on offense to defeat quality teams. It will be a quick exit for the Bears come tournament time. 

Georgetown Hoyas

In a lot of ways, the Hoyas are a throwback team. John Thompson III has built this team around ball control and defense, which has led to a lot of regular season success and some tournament success.

That style, while it is their greatest asset, is also their greatest curse. They have had significant defensive lapses throughout the season that showed the true colors of their offense when it was asked to keep up. 

Their game against Notre Dame on Monday was arguably their best effort of the season, but the odds of them playing at that level for the next six weeks are slim. 

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