If this college basketball season has foreshadowed anything for March Madness, it's to expect that nothing will go as planned.

Sure, there are some familiar names topping the NET, KenPom and other rankings. But if anyone tells you they had San Diego State and Dayton, neither of which made the NCAA Tournament a year ago, as potential No. 1 seeds, they're either lying or immediately need to be buying Powerball tickets. 

The tournament, even in some of its more chalk years, always has a few surprises in store. Think UMBC in 2018, George Mason in 2006, Middle Tennessee State in 2016 and Missouri in 2015. This year, no upset would be all that shocking considering the volatility of nearly every top team in the country. But we think there's a few teams to look out for when you begin filling out your bracket. 

Stephen F. Austin

The Lumberjacks burst on to the sleeper scene in 2013-14 with an upset of No. 5 seed VCU in just their second tournament appearance in school history. What Brad Underwood started—before bolting to Illinois—has been kept running by head coach Kyle Keller, who has SFA rolling this year.

The 'Jacks are 27-3 overall and 18-1 in the Southland. Oh, they also beat top-ranked Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium in November. But don't write this group off as one-hit upset wonder. 

Keller's squad leads the country in steals, averaging a touch above 10 of them per game. They're seventh in both field goal percentage and scoring offense, and they get to the free throw line at a rate higher than all but three Division I teams. They're led by two experienced scoring guards—Kevon Harris (17.8 PPG) and Cameron Johnson (11.3 PPG)—who can fill it up on any night. For the wrong top-four seed, SFA could be a matchup nightmare. 

North Texas

There have been few better freshmen this year, in or outside of the power conferences, than North Texas guard Javion Hamlet.

The Memphis native has been an absolute terror for opposing defenses in Conference USA, averaging 17.9 points and 5.3 assists, while shooting 53 percent from the field, 40 percent from the three-point line and 88 percent at the charity stripe.

His scoring ability, along with that of running mate Umoja Gibson's (14.5 PPG) make the Mean Green exactly the type of team you don't want to see in the round of 64. 

Belmont

A significant drop-off was expected when legendary Belmont coach Rick Byrd retired last April. He led the Bruins from Atlantic Sun pretender to a perennial NCAA Tournament contender, winning at least 20 games in 13 of his final 14 seasons helming the program.

But new head man Casey Alexander, previously the head coach at Winthrop, has picked up where Byrd left off, leading Belmont to 25 wins and a regular season Ohio Valley Conference title. This year's iteration is led by sharpshooting guard Adam Kunkel, who has knocked down 82 three-pointers while averaging 16.6 points per game. 

The Bruins share the ball better than anyone in the country—they're No. 1 in assists—and are in the top-20 nationally in field goal percentage, three-pointers made, defensive rebounds and scoring.

Much like North Texas or Stephen F. Austin, the Bruins present a dangerous matchup for potential No. 4 and No. 5 seeds with their shooting ability. And as shown by UMBC knocking off No. 1 Virginia two years ago, it takes just the right shooting night to get Cinderella's slipper to fit. 

Follow Keegan on Twitter @ByKeeganPope. Statistics courtesy of Sports Reference. 

After hitting the game-winning layup in overtime of Stephen F. Austin's shocking 85-83 upset win over No. 1 Duke on Tuesday, SFA guard Nathan Bain was met with a big surprise.

According to the Associated Press, a GoFundMe set up by SFA Compliance on behalf of Bain and his family two months ago saw a massive spike in donations. The GoFundMe was created after Bain's family in Freeport, Bahamas, lost "nearly everything of value" as a result of Hurricane Dorian.

The GoFundMe had raised only around $2,000 before Tuesday's game, but it is currently over the $48,000 mark, which is close to the $50,000 goal.

In addition to Bain's family losing their possessions, his father is a minister, and the church he runs in the Bahamas suffered "extreme damage."

Prior to the win over Duke, Bain was a little-known fifth-year senior guard. He averaged a career-high 5.8 points and 4.0 rebounds per game last season and is averaging 5.2 points and 2.0 rebounds per game so far this season for the 5-1 Lumberjacks.

Bain finished Tuesday's game with 11 points, five rebounds, three steals and two assists, and he will forever be known as the player who shocked the 27.5-point favored Blue Devils in their own building. He also ended Duke's 150-game nonconference home winning streak in the process.

The loss was the first of the season for Duke, which had previously beaten big-name schools such as Kansas, California and Georgetown this season.

SFA's win was made even more shocking by the fact that it went just 14-16 last season, although that was an outlier since the Lumberjacks were among the best small-conference teams in the nation the previous six seasons with at least 27 wins in five of them.

Bain and Stephen F. Austin will look to build upon the momentum gained Tuesday when they face Arkansas State on Saturday. They also have an upcoming challenge against SEC foe Alabama on Dec. 6.

The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks and Thomas Walkup exited the NCAA tournament like champions.

Although a demoralizing 76-75 loss to the No. 6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish meant the No. 14 Lumberjacks fell just one point short of continuing their Cinderella journey into the Sweet 16, the Stephen F. Austin student body ensured they were welcomed home like heroes.

At around 2 a.m. on Monday morning, players descended from the team bus to applause, camera flashes and plenty of "axe 'em" hand signs.

Surveying the scene alone, it'd be impossible to tell that the Southland Conference champs failed to secure the title, let alone more than a single tournament victory.

But in placing their school firmly on the map through their passionate play, in a sense, Walkup and Co. had done so much more.

[Stephen F. Austin men's basketball]

Stephen F. Austin, and the F is for 14.

The No. 14 Lumberjacks trumped the No. 3 West Virginia Mountaineers in the round of 64 on Friday, icing the 70-56 win with this Thomas Walkup dagger from downtown.

Check out those handles, though.

No. 14 Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks (24-7, 13-3 Southland) vs. No. 3 Syracuse Orange (26-9, 11-7 Big East)

NCAA Tournament First Round—South Region
Friday, March 20—3:20 PM EST on CBS

Preview

Stephen F. Austin won the Southland East conference regular season, and then made a run through the conference tournament to secure the automatic bid. This is the first trip to the Big Dance for the school.

For the Orange, this is their first trip to the NCAA Tournament since the 2005-06 season, when they last won the Big East Tournament.

They made it to the Big East finals of this season after playing seven overtimes in two games (a record six against UConn). They were clearly spent as Louisville ran away with the win.

The last time the Orange were a three seed was in 2003, when they won it all. Big East Tournament MVP Jonny Flynn will be hoping to repeat that achievement this year. Flynn was also named to the All-Big East Second Team this season.

While his teammates have not received the same sorts of accolades, they have been instrumental in Syracuse's success this season.

Andy Rautins is a three-point machine (he kept them in the game against UConn), and Eric Devendorf is a quality guard (he hit the would-be game winner against UConn at the end of regulation, but it was then taken away when the ball was deemed to still be touching him as time expired).

Paul Harris, who was a high school teammate of Flynn's, is averaging 12.6 PPG in the frontcourt, and he is joined by Arinze Onuaku (with 10.3 PPG) and Rick Jackson (with 8.1).

The two key players for the Lumberjacks reside in their frontcourt—Matt Kingsley is averaging a team-high 16.2 PPG and 7.8 RPG, and Josh Alexander adds 14.5 PPG and 5.4 RPG.

Kingsley was named as the Southland Player of the Year (in addition to being on the All-Conference First Team), and Alexander was named to the All-Conference Second Team.

By The Numbers

Stats Leaders

Prediction

To continue reading and for Ryan's FREE Pick Against the Spread, please head over to CBBPlace.com!

For those of you who don't know who NDSU is, It stands for North Dakota State University. Yes that's right, NORTH DAKOTA. In what could very well be the first time ever, a basketball team from North Dakota will be dancing somewhere in this month's Madness, starting on the 19th.

The No. 1 seed and the champions of the Summit League, NDSU won a hard-fought comeback victory against Oakland University two nights ago.

After being down by as many as 14, NDSU put together a late rally to knock off the third-seeded Golden Grizzlies with a leaning jumper by Ben Woodside.

NDSU clinched an NCAA Tourney Birth when Woodside received the in-bounds pass with eleven seconds left, dribbled down the court, went left off of a Lucas Moorman screen, and drilled a leaning jumper from the left side of the free-throw line.

Oakland's Johnathon Jones took the ball downcourt with three seconds left and lofted a desperation three point shot that went hard off the back of the rim as time expired. Jones could've gotten a better shot, but was anxious to get the ball away before time expired.

When time did expire, crazed fans wearing green and gold, stormed the court and Woodside to celebrate and congratulate the victory and their superstar, respectively.

Ben Woodside is a five year veteran and this years Summit League Player of the Year. He averaged 23 points a game and was the leader of a veteran Bison team ranked 1st in the Summit League with a 26-6 overall record and a 14-2 conference record. 

Woodside is an explosive offensive playmaker and is capable of going off for huge chunks of points in any game. Earlier in the year, Woodside exploded for SIXTY points against Stephen F. Austin in a thrilling triple-overtime battle in which NDSU lost by one point.

ESPN and CBS Sports.com are projecting NDSU as a thirteen seed in the tournament. Which will likely have them slated against either Missouri or Wake Forest.

In their first year of eligibility, the North Dakota State University Bison Men's Basketball team clinched an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

This is quite an achievement considering it hasn't happened since 1970, when Long Beach State achieved the same feat under head coach, Jerry Tarkanian.

It is a fitting end to this article to quote Ben Woodside himself in saying, "We're goin' dancin' baby, we're goin' dancin', that's all that matters!"

Good Luck green and gold, make some noise for North Dakota in the NCAA Tourney.

GO BISON!!!