NCAA Bracket 2012: North Carolina and Top Teams on Upset Alert in Sweet 16

Call it what you want, but the Sweet 16 of the 2012 NCAA Tournament is bound to be sour for at least a few of the favored seeds to survive the first weekend of March Madness.

Whether for injuries, ineligibles or a lack of depth, these three teams, in particular, figure to fall on hard times on Thursday and Friday, be it in close-shave victories or disappointing defeats.

North Carolina

What's not to like about top-seed North Carolina? John Henson is back in full force, Tyler Zeller and Harrison Barnes are scoring at will and all that stands between the Tar Heels and the Midwest Regional Final is a date with a Cinderella-ish Ohio squad on Friday.

Wait...what's that? Kendall Marshall can't play on account of a fractured wrist? Well then, that changes everything.

Good luck to freshmen P.J. Hairston and Stilman White as they attempt to contain the Bobcats' dynamic backcourt duo of juniors Walter Offutt and D.J. Cooper.

No, really. They'll need it.

Kansas

Elsewhere in the chaotic Midwest, second-seed Kansas could be due for its comeuppance in Kansas City against a talented North Carolina State team.

The Jayhawks have overachieved all season, thanks to Bill Self's brilliance on the sideline and Thomas Robinson's emergence as a Player of the Year candidate, and were fortunate to slip past 10th-seed Purdue on Sunday. 

But where the Boilermakers faltered, watching Robbie Hummel go cold and turning the ball over down the stretch, the Wolfpack figures to succeed, with five players averaging 10.6 points or more.

Robinson and Tyshawn Taylor will have their hands full with C.J. Leslie and Lorenzo Brown, respectively, while the Jayhawks' reliance on Connor Teahen and Kevin Young to produce off the bench will prove to be too much of a burden for KU to overcome.

Syracuse

UNC-Asheville seemed to scare top-seed Syracuse straight into a beatdown of Kansas State on the way to the Sweet 16.

Whether fear will be enough to push the Orange past hot-shooting Wisconsin is another story entirely. Jim Boeheim's vaunted 2-3 zone will be left vulnerable against a Badgers bunch that jacked up 33 three-point shots against Vanderbilt on Saturday, knocking down 10 of them.

And with Fab Melo out of the mix in the middle, Syracuse will need Kris Joseph and Dion Waiters to come up big, though that may not be such a slam dunk against 'Sconsin's stingy defense.

That is, if the struggles of Vandy's John Jenkins and Jeffery Taylor may be considered at all illustrative.

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