NCAA Tournament Preview: What to Watch For, Sleepers and Frauds

It's finally here, the 2013 NCAA tournament starts on Tuesday and for sports junkies like myself it's one of the most exciting times of the year. Here I will give you what to watch for as well as some sleepers and some frauds. This information should be just a bit useful in filling out your brackets. Here we go.

What to Watch For: Under seeded teams making a run. In this years tournament more than any other tourney that I can actually remember there are a ton of under seeded teams. How Oregon is a 12 seed after winning the Pac 12 and beating UCLA twice while UCLA gets a 6 seed is beyond me. Pittsburgh is definitely under rated as an 8 as well as North Carolina who is dangerous because right now they're playing their best basketball of the season. Oregon, Pitt and UNC can definitely make a cinderella run that will surely destroy your entire bracket. Upset Alert: Michigan. South Dakota State is a dangerous team as a 13 seed in this tournament and their point guard is the real deal.

Sleepers: Every tournament has a couple of sleeper teams that people don't exactly expect to make a deep run. This year there are more than a couple. Saint Louis as a four seed can be a very dangerous sleeper team as well as Creighton, Ole Miss, Notre Dame, VCU, and Minnesota. All those teams have either quality wins (Saint Louis, Notre Dame, VCU, Minnesota) or a star player who can absolutely take over a game (Creighton and Ole Miss).

Frauds: To go along with sleeper teams, every tournament has a couple of frauds who had a good year but aren't as good as their record says. Memphis is the first team that comes to mind playing in Conference USA and not being challenged all year long. UCLA is another team who just isn't that good and now with their best player out for the year I do not expect them to get very far. Lastly, I think Butler is a team who although has beaten a team like Gonzaga this year, they just aren't that strong. They didn't even win the A-10 and they showed when playing a consistently tougher schedule in a better conference, they're not as good as we all thought. Coincidentally I just realized that these are all 6 seeds.

My Picks: What good would a tournament preview be without some picks? So here I go. My Final Four is Louisville, Ohio State, Kansas and Miami. I have Louisville against Miami in the National Championship game with Miami winning it all. Why? Because they're lead by seniors and you can say what you want about Trey Burke from Michigan but Shane Larkin for Miami is in my eyes the best point guard in the country. I'm riding the Canes all the way to Atlanta cutting the nets down. Call me crazy, but that's how I'm seeing it.