NCAA basketball: Pick your bracket buster for March Madness

The 2012 NCAA basketball tournament bracket came out Sunday, so now everybody can start getting ready for their office pools.

Every year there’s a handful of lower-seeded teams that pull off some unexpected victories and cause many an office bracket to make its way into the recycling bin by the end of the first weekend of the three-week tournament.

2012 NCAA tournament interactive brackets

So the trick becomes predicting just which teams are going to emerge as the bracket busters. Last year did anyone really pick VCU to advance from a midweek first-round game against USC all the way into the Final Four?

Probably not many, but the Rams might be a popular choice to break a bracket or two as the No. 12 seed in the South Region this year. Another 12 seed -- Long Beach State in the West -- might also get a lot of love from office poolers after the 49ers’ strong showing against a rigorous schedule this season.

But what if those two teams are one and done, and their first opponents -- the No. 5 seeds Wichita State and New Mexico -- go on to cause some damage of their own? As you can see, this is pretty risky business. Pick the wrong bracket-buster and your bracket could be, well, busted.

Our experts from the Tribune Co. newspapers will do their best to help you out with their early round bracket busters. Check back throughout the day for their responses, and feel free to submit your own bracket busters in the comment section.

[Updated at 10:42 a.m.:

Todd M. Adams, Orlando Sentinel

This time of year, when searching for upsets, I like to look for low-ranked teams from big conferences that enter the tournament hot.

To that end, I’d pick 11th-seeded North Carolina State as my bracket buster for the first weekend.

Before narrowly losing to North Carolina (one of the NCAA’s No. 1 seeds) in the ACC semifinals this past weekend, the Wolfpack had won four straight games. That included a victory over NCAA Tournament team Virginia.

While it probably lacks enough depth to make a real deep tourney run, N.C. State has a very athletic group of seven core guys, including five that average more than 10 points a game. They have great balance, led by C.J. Leslie (14.6 ppg, 7.5 rpg), Lorenzo Brown (12.7 ppg, 6.4 apg) and Richard Howell (10.7 ppg, 9.3 rpg).

The Wolfpack opens with a very beatable sixth-seeded San Diego State team, and then would most likely play third-seeded Georgetown.

David Teel, Newport News Daily Press

Attention, shoppers: While our competitors offer a mere single upset to bank on for the office pool, we’re offering a 2-for-1 special. Virginia Commonwealth will defeat not only Wichita State but also Indiana to reach a South Regional semifinal against Kentucky. Think CBS could milk that matchup for a few promos? The Rams proving last year’s unfathomable Final Four run was not a fluke vs. the top-ranked Wildcats striving for Coach John Calipari’s first national championship.

Yes, Wichita State is first-rate, and no, VCU isn’t as good as 2011. But Shaka Smart’s full-court pressure still orchestrates a hectic, turnover-rich pace, and after last season’s Final Four and this month’s Colonial Athletic Association tournament title, Smart and veteran players such as Bradford Burgess and Juvonte Reddic know how, and expect, to win.]

[Updated at 1:50 p.m.:

Mike Hiserman, Los Angeles Times

Inquiring about a “bracket buster” is just a trendy way of asking which team might be this year’s tournament Cinderella. So we’re going to get provincial here and go with the team located only a few miles from Cinderella’s Castle at Disneyland in Anaheim.

That would be Long Beach State -- the long-shot school from the long-shot conference that hasn’t made an NCAA tournament splash since the days of Jerry Tarkanian and the original Runnin’ Rebels of University of Nevada, Las Vegas. (Long before they ran off and joined the Mountain West.)

Long Beach is regular season and tournament champion of the Big West Conference, which should strike fear into … no one.

However, the 49ers played the kind of nonconference schedule that has left them confident of competing with anyone. They had a win at Pittsburgh and another over Xavier in Hawaii. They also played tough in tight losses on the home courts of NCAA participants San Diego State, Montana, Louisville, Kansas and North Carolina.

A big concern for the Beach is the health of guard Larry Anderson, one of four senior starters. Anderson has a sprained right knee, and his availability is unknown. The 49ers still have Casper Ware, though, and he’s the type of veteran point guard who typically shines this time of year. Ware averages 17.4 points, is a deft ball-hander and a good defender. Long Beach also has forward T.J. Robinson (12 points, 10.1 rebounds per game) to match up New Mexico’s best player, Drew Gordon, in the second round.

Once past the Lobos, the 12th-seeded 49ers should then be able to take down 13th-seeded Davidson, which will upset Louisville in a second-round game.]

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