NCAA Tournament 2025: Top Sleeper Teams Heading into Men's March Madness Bracket

The hunt to find the perfect sleeper team to surprise everyone in the NCAA men's basketball tournament is on.

A handful of the top mid-major programs showcased their talents in the past week across the early conference tournaments.

The Drake Bulldogs and High Point Panthers put themselves in a spotlight and showed off the intriguing parts of their respective games that could be threatening to programs that cruised into the Big Dance.

Some of the best sleepers for the 2025 version of March Madness will be in the No. 10-13 seed range.

As much as everyone loves to find the super underdog that will pull off an upset, there's a higher chance of the top-tier mid-major programs winning from the top half of the double-digit seed lines.

Drake suffered a single loss dating back to January 8.

The Bulldogs are locked into the field of 68 through their Missouri Valley Conference tournament title. A strong argument would have been made to include them as an at-large team if they fell to the Bradley Braves on Sunday.

Drake was a popular sleeper pick a year ago, but it fell short in the opening round as a No. 10 seed against the Washington State Cougars.

Drake is currently projected to land a similar seed, as Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller has it as a 10 seed.

However, that is the only similarity between last year's Drake team and this year's version.

First-year head coach Ben McCollum brought over four players from Division II Northwest Missouri State, where he won four national titles.

The only true criticism of Drake is that a majority of its players haven't experienced March Madness at the Division I level, but the counter to that is winners win and that's what McCollum has done so far in Des Moines.

Some programs in High Point's situation would just be happy to reach March Madness.

The Panthers earned the first-ever NCAA tournament bid in program history on Sunday in the Big South tournament final.

However, getting to the Big Dance is the minimum expectation for the Panthers, who own the nation's longest winning streak of 14 games.

High Point consistently scored in the 80s thanks to a strong guard lineup, led by Kezza Giffa, and an enforcing paint presence in Juslin Bodo Bodo.

Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller currently has High Point as a No. 13 seed.

High Point can run with any team if its offense is clicking, and at minimum, it could push a higher seed to the brink in a high-scoring first-round affair.

UC San Diego is a popular team among the college basketball diehards.

However, the majority of casual fans will look at the Tritons as a possible No. 10 seed, as Miller projects, and do a double take.

After all, the Big West typically doesn't produce teams seeded that high. Usually the conference champion is on the bottom half of the double-digit seed line.

UC San Diego's metrics are far better than most typical mid-major conference champions. The Tritons rank 39th on KenPom and have an offense that ranks in the top 50 in most major offensive categories on KenPom.

The Tritons enter the Big West tournament on a 13-game winning streak and they are expected to cut down the nets in Henderson, Nevada.

If the Tritons lose, though, a serious discussion could be had if they deserve to be an at-large team over some struggling power-conference sides.

But wait there's more from the Big West!

For the first time in years, you could make the case that the Big West deserves to put two teams in the Big Dance due to the success of UC San Diego and the UC Irvine Anteaters.

UC Irvine went 17-3 in the Big West regular season to earn the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament.

With the way the Big West tournament is structured, UC San Diego and UC Irvine just need to win one game to reach the final.

The Anteaters split the regular-season series with UC San Diego, so it is possible the 66th-ranked team on KenPom pulls off another win.

The best argument for a two-bid Big West is for UC Irvine to beat UC San Diego in the Big West tournament final.

If that happens, the Anteaters could be a dangerous No. 12 or No. 13 seed. Miller has them as an at-large No. 12 seed in the First Four in his latest projection.