FanHouse Gonzaga

NCAA Tournament Bids

Portland State (23-9) | Big Sky | Automatic Bid
Why They Could Be Dangerous: The Vikings could be a classic pain-in-the-butt first-round opponent for some lucky major. They've got experience from playing in the tournament last year and they're not afraid to shoot the ball from long range. Some 45.2 percent of all their field goal attempts were 3-pointers. Get hot and some major will be awfully unhappy.

Steve C. Wilson, AP

Robert Morris Colonials (24-10) | Northeast | Automatic Bid
Why They Could Be Dangerous: The Colonials do the most important thing in basketball well -- shoot. They hit 40 percent of their 3-pointers (although they shoot it rarely) and 51.4 percent from inside the arc.

Gene J. Puskar, AP

Cleveland State Vikings (24-8) | Horizon | Automatic Bid:
Why They Could Be Dangerous: When Cinderella wears a Viking helmet, watch out. Third-year head coach Gary Waters has turned a 10-win program into the Horizon League champion predicated on tenacious perimeter defense. Cleveland State is fifth in the nation in steal percentage.

Darron Cummings, AP

Western Kentucky (24-8) | Sun Belt | Automatic Bid:
Why They Could Be Dangerous: Ask Louisville. The Hilltoppers beat the Big East regular-season champion in Louisville. By 14. They don't have Courtney Lee anymore, but they have four players averaging in double figures.

Danny Johnston, AP

Gonzaga Bulldogs (26-5) | West Coast | Automatic Bid:
Why They Could Be Dangerous: It took the Bulldogs time to live up to preseason expectations, but they're finally looking like a Final Four contender. The Zags have lost just once in 2009 and rank in the top 11 in both adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency.

Jae C. Hong, AP

VCU Rams (24-9) | Colonial Athletic | Automatic Bid
Why They Could Be Dangerous: Eric Maynor is back and he's got an equally dangerous frontcourt mate. Two years ago, the speedy point guard bounced sixth-seeded Duke in the first round. He's even better now (seventh in the nation in assist rate) and with forward Larry Sanders, this duo is as good an inside-out combo as any in the field.

Steve Helber, AP

Radford Highlanders (21-11) | Big South | Automatic Qualifier
Why They Could Be Dangerous: Radford doesn't have anything approaching an RPI top-100 win, but they do have the most dangerous Belarusian in the tournament. We think. Artsiom Parakhouski, a 6-foot-11, 260-pound lane-clogger scored 26 points as the Highlanders beat VMI in the Big South final and could be a matchup problem for the wrong two seed.

Don Petersen, AP

Morehead State Eagles (19-15) | Ohio Valley | Automatic bid
Why It Could Be Dangerous: Kenneth Faried. The sophomore is majoring in rebound. He's in the top 10 in the nation in both offensive and defensive rebound percentage and is third overall in raw rebounding, between two names you might be familiar with, Blake Griffin above and DeJuan Blair below.

Mark Humphrey, AP

Cornell Big Red (21-9) | Ivy | Automatic bid
Why They Could Be Dangerous: First, because you'll probably work for some of these guys one day and secondly because the Big Red can shoot. They're 21st in the nation in effective field goal percentage.

Kevin Rivoli, AP

Northern Iowa Panthers (23-10) | Missouri Valley | Automatic bid
Why It Could Be Dangerous: The Panthers are an opportunistic defensive team, they're 13th in the nation in steal percentage and generate 18.3 turnovers per game.

Tom Gannam, AP