Wisconsin vs High Point: Sleeper Game in NCAA Tournament

0:00On March 19th, Wisconsin's men's basketball team faces a tricky first-round match-up in the NCAA tournament against 12-seed Highpoint on Thursday, March 19th. The fifth-seeded badgers are aiming to buck the trend of recent upsets in five versus 12 games, but the Panthers come in hot after a 30-win, four loss season. Highpoint dominated the Big South Conference, winning the title in 22 of their last 23 games to earn back-to-back tournament bids. They play out of Highpoint, North Carolina, a city of about 118,000 people nestled among schools from the Carolinas and Virginia. Fans might not know much about this under-the-radar program, which lost to 4th-seed Purdue last year in its debut. Their new coach, Flynn Clayman, has kept the momentum going, despite a coaching change, as former Boss Alan Huss moved to Creighton. Digging into the numbers, Highpoint ranked 75th Annette and 92nd in Kenpom, but with a brutally weak schedule, zero top-tier wins end, mostly blowouts against lower opponents.

1:02That can make them dangerous or expose them against Big Ten tested Wisconsin. Expect a test of the badger's depth early on, as Highpoint pushes for that signature upset in what shapes up as the tournament's sleeper game.