NCAA Tournament 2012 Bracket: Which High Seeds Have the Worst Odds?

The NCAA Tournament bracket has just been released.

You now can spend the next several hours slaving over stats, rankings and player matchups to try and put together the best bracket possible. There are so many things that factor into predicting which teams will win, and one of them is picking the favorite in majority of the games.

Although picking chalk isn't exactly the way to go because it is March Madness, it is a method that will earn you many victories. After all, there may be several upsets throughout the tournament—not every highly ranked team is going to lose to a lesser team.

When you first look at the bracket, you normally pencil in the higher seeds to make a decent run in the tournament. But several of the favorites do have their fair share of weaknesses to be aware of.

Here are a few of the higher seeds that have terrible odds to win the tournament, and teams you should shy away from when filling out your bracket.

East: Ohio State

Teams in their region they should worry about

Gonzaga/West Virginia

Florida State

Cincinnati

Wisconsin

Vanderbilt

Syracuse 

Why you should worry

Besides the amount of good teams in the East region, the Buckeyes just simply haven't looked that great over the past month or so. They've lost four of the last 10 games and didn't look that convincing in victories over Michigan State and Northwestern.

Another thing to worry about is that the Buckeyes struggle from the line—they shoot under 70 percent as a team. They're also ranked 238 in the country from beyond the arc, and average under five three-pointers a game.

Ohio State still has a great big man in Jared Sullinger and an underrated guard in Aaron Craft, but this is a team that can be beaten in the second round against the winner of Gonzaga and West Virginia.

That's not including all of the other solid teams in this region, just to reach the Final Four. 

South: Kentucky

Teams in their region they should worry about

UConn/Iowa State

Wichita State

Indiana

Duke

Baylor 

Why you should worry

Picking a high seed with overwhelming odds in this region was a little difficult, considering it's not exactly the strongest group of teams in the bracket. But if I had to pick, I'd go with the Kentucky Wildcats because they are an extremely young team. They also will have a tricky matchup in the second round against either Connecticut or Iowa State.

The Cyclones shoot lights out from beyond the arc, and the Huskies are the defending champions. At times in the year, they look like they can beat anybody in the country.

Keep in mind the last two times they played Syracuse they only lost by a bucket.

Wichita State is a veteran team that can win in several different ways, while Baylor has great size and Duke is...well, the Blue Devils always have a shot.

I know many of you are picking the Wildcats to win it all, but they are a very young team like many Kentucky teams are. They've only advanced past the second round twice in the last five years for a reason.

West: Louisville

Teams in their region they should worry about

Michigan State 

Murray State

Marquette

Missouri

Florida 

Why you should worry

Louisville is a feisty team, which we found that out in the Big East Tournament when they won the conference and earned a No. 4 seed in the tournament. This is a team that plays fantastic defense, but let's not kid ourselves, they won't be as successful in the NCAA Tournament.

For one, the Cardinals just played four games in four days, which isn't a good thing as far as fresh legs are concerned. Louisville also doesn't shoot the ball well from the field (42.5 percent) and doesn't make their free throws—they shoot under 69 percent from the line.

They also turn the ball over 14.4 times a game, which doesn't exactly make me confident about picking them for a run in the tournament.

Louisville won their conference and turned some heads while doing so, but don't be surprised if they get upset by the winner of New Mexico and Long Beach State in the second round.

Midwest: Georgetown

Teams in their region they should worry about:

North Carolina

Temple

Michigan

Belmont

Kansas 

Why you should worry

Georgetown is a sleeper team that could end up making a deep run and has the talent to even sneak into the Final Four. But, that won't happen as the Hoyas have their fair share of weaknesses and didn't get a favorable matchup in the first round.

The Hoyas play some of the best defense in the country, and will go as far as it takes them.

But, they don't have a dominant scorer that can take over the game and may struggle to come back if they put themselves in an early hole. Belmont is a 14 seed that could pull off a first round upset because they shoot the lights out of the gym and average over 80 points per game.

Georgetown will be in a dogfight all game long in Round 1, and if they're fortunate to move on, they'd still have to get past Kansas, North Carolina and several other solid teams. 

For your printable bracket for the 2012 NCAA tournament, click here