7 Struggling Teams to Know Entering the NCAA Tournament

Butler Bulldogs

When you see Butler on your bracket, you'll probably want to advance them based on the Brad Stevens-Gordon Hayward squad of yesteryear, but you should be aware of the fact that this iteration of the Bulldogs, which ended the season 22-10, actually scored just four victories in its final eight games. That includes losses to Georgetown (22nd in nERD at 12.70) and Xavier (23rd, 12.46) bookending a four-point win over 24th-ranked Providence, who comes in ranked 28th in nERD (11.38).

Butler itself ranks 20th in nERD (12.96) and 48th in the nation in points allowed per game (61.2) behind a defense that is better than 91.6 percent of all other schools in the country.

Offensively, Butler ranks better than 71.7 percent of schools in the country. Butler is just the 214th-fastest paced school, so they could very much grind out defensive wins over most opponents, but they surely haven't built up much momentum in the final stretch of the season.

They lucked out and landed in the same region (the Midwest) as the Kansas Jayhawks and the Indiana Hoosiers and square off against the Texas Longhorns. Speaking of Texas...