NCAA Tournament 2018: Projecting Bracket-Busters Before Conference Tournaments

Everyone's favorite pastime in March is picking Cinderella teams that provide shocks on the first weekend of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Although bracket-busters are usually mid-major teams, power conference sides Xavier, Florida and South Carolina stole our attention a year ago in March Madness.

In 2016, mid-majors Stephen F. Austin, Northern Iowa, Hawaii and Yale shook the tournament to its core with upsets in the round of 64.

Given the chaotic nature of men's college basketball this season, you should be prepared to see some unfamiliar names advance far in the tournament.

Below is a look at the teams with the best chances to earn the bracket-buster tag.

Vermont

Let's start with a team that has been in the upset discussion in the past.

The Vermont Catamounts earned their biggest NCAA tournament victory in 2005, when they upset Syracuse as a No. 13 seed before falling to Michigan State in the round of 32.

Vermont has made three tournament appearances out of the America East since 2010, with its most recent coming a year ago, when it fell by 10 points to Purdue in the round of 64.

A year after going 16-0 in the America East, the Catamounts dominated conference play once again, recording a 15-1 mark to earn the top seed in the America East tournament.

And if you thought the team couldn't get scarier, Vermont got Anthony Lamb back in their regular-season finale.

If Lamb, who averaged 16 points per game before his injury layoff, returns to 100 percent, the Catamounts could be dangerous, as Jon Rothstein of CBSSports.com noted:

Vermont could follow a classic formula to an upset in the NCAA tournament, as it carries a plethora of battle-tested upperclassmen and a sophomore star in Lamb.

If the experienced players like seniors Trae Bell-Haynes, Drew Urquhart and Payton Henson show no fear against a power conference team laden with underclassmen, we could be talking about Vermont a good amount during the first weekend of the Big Dance.

Loyola-Chicago

Just because Wichita State left the Missouri Valley Conference doesn't mean the league lacks a potential Cinderella team.

Loyola-Chicago topped the Missouri Valley with a 15-3 conference record and took the next major step in earning a trip back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1985 with a quarterfinal win over Northern Iowa on Friday.

The Ramblers are led by Missouri Valley Player of the Year Clayton Custer, who is confident his team will get into the Big Dance as an at-large if it falls in the MVC tournament, per Steve Greenberg of the Chicago Sun-Times:

Custer isn't wrong since the Ramblers have a comparable resume to some bubble teams, and they have achieved much more success than the squads struggling to finish conference play such as Alabama, Texas and Mississippi State.

Loyola enters Saturday's Missouri Valley tournament semifinal clash with Bradley on an eight-game winning streak and with one loss since January 3.

If the Ramblers run the table in the Missouri Valley, they should receive a favorable seed based off their in-conference performance and their win over then-No. 5 Florida in December.

Loren Orr/Getty Images

Custer isn't the only player with the potential of thrusting himself into the March spotlight, as four other players average more than 10 points per game.

With Custer receiving much of the attention from opposing defenses in March, look for freshman Cameron Krutwig and senior Donte Ingram, who both average more than 10 points and six rebounds per game, to be matchup nightmares.

Middle Tennessee

Two teams from Conference USA have the potential to wreak havoc on your brackets and advance to second weekend of the NCAA tournament.

While Western Kentucky gains attention for the high-profile names on its roster, Middle Tennessee is an experienced bracket-buster with an NCAA tournament resume that should strike fear into any of its opponents.

The Blue Raiders are looking to win a game in the round of 64 for the third straight year after knocking off Michigan State as a No. 15 seed in 2016 and defeating Minnesota as a No. 12 seed a year ago.

The 24th-ranked team in the nation is in the middle of an 11-game winning streak, and it could earn a higher seed than it had in the past two years, as Yahoo's Brad Evans pointed out:

"

Middle Tennessee, loaded with veterans and showcasing an elite defense, a team no high-major wants to draw. Beating up on WKU. Likely to extend its Round of 32 streak a third year. Projected seed: No. 10.

— Brad Evans (@YahooNoise) March 2, 2018"

Although they didn't beat Auburn, USC or Miami in nonconference play, the Blue Raiders lost to those teams by a combined 14 points.

If Middle Tennessee ends up as high as a No. 10 seed, it could draw another power conference opponent in the round of 64, and it would have the opportunity to shock one of the blue bloods of the sport in the round of 32.

As we have seen the last two years, Kermit Davis is going to have his team ready to play, and with two valuable seasons of NCAA tournament experience, the Blue Raiders will be one of the sexy upset picks when brackets are filled out.

Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90.