Bracketology: Cinderella's Capable of Making Deep NCAA Tournament Runs

We have seen several Cinderella teams in recent college basketball history. George Mason, Butler and Virginia Commonwealth come to mind of recent tournament runs. 

This year's mid-major Cinderella's could be as deep as ever. Here are three teams that I believe have an opportunity to make a deep tournament run. 

Xavier

Xavier was a top-10 team in college basketball before they were in a brawl against Cincinnati. Since that time, the Bearcats went north and the Musketeers went south. 

Regardless of what happened on Sunday in the Atlantic 10 Championship Game, this team is as dangerous of a low seed that you will find in the 2012 NCAA Tournament.

They have extremely talented guards like Tu Holloway and Mark Lyons to go along with role players like Dezmine Wells and Kenny Frease. 

What concerns me about Xavier is their one-on-one mentality that they can fall into. It could be their downfall but it also makes them dangerous in a one-game elimination tournament because they could get hot. 

Holloway and Lyons have what it takes to take this team to the Final Four. Xavier has a tradition of making noise in the NCAA Tournament and I wouldn't be shocked if they played well again. 

Long Beach State

Casper Ware, Larry Anderson, James Ennis and several others get at you defensively for the 49ers. This is a talented group of veterans that won't be afraid to play anybody in the NCAA Tournament.

The Beach went to Pittsburgh, North Carolina, Kansas and Louisville this season. 

Talk about challenging your team. They had the best non-conference strength of schedule in the country.

Ware is the Big West Player of the Year, Anderson (who should be ready for the tournament) is the Big West Defensive Player of the Year and Ennis is lengthy and athletic—this team is very talented.

Other role players step up and understand what they provide to the team to make it a well-oiled machine. 

Virginia Commonweath

Don't sleep on the Rams and Shaka Smart. We could be looking at the Brad Stevens of last season. Butler wasn't expected to make it to back-to-back NCAA Championship games, but they did because Stevens is a whale of a coach.

Smart is equally as fantastic.

VCU will get at it defensively for three-quarters of the floor. They pressure and cause turnovers unlike many teams in the country. 

They will use their experience of their deep run last season and implement similar swagger this year. 

Last season they got hot from beyond the arc. They made 252 three-pointers this year and multiple players are capable of knocking down shots. We could be looking at a similar situation.

Bradford Burgess and Juvonte Reddic are due for a great tournament. Don't count out Smart in a one-game elimination tournament.