Bruce Pearl denies lack of Cinderella teams in NCAA Tournament

With NIL and the transfer portal making the college basketball landscape more wild than it ever has been before, many believe that the Cinderella teams in the NCAA Tournament could be coming to an end. Although that could be the case, former Auburn Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl thinks the Cinderella teams are still relevant after the first day of March Madness.

During the “NCAA Tip-Off” pregame show before the start of tournament games on Friday morning, Pearl named the High Point Panthers and VCU Rams for pulling off upsets as prime examples of Cinderella teams this year. He also mentioned how a third team, the Siena Saints, nearly knocked off the Duke Blue Devils as well. Overall, Pearl believes the tournament will always have Cinderella teams, no matter what.

“Some people are saying that Cinderella is gone,” said Pearl. “We had two Cinderellas yesterday that had magic moments. We almost had a third. This tournament’s not broke. This tournament delivers every single time.”

The buzz that Cinderella teams could disappear in the NCAA Tournament sparked after there was a lack of upsets in last year’s tourney. But the first day of March Madness this year was much different. In the first day alone, five lower-seeded teams advanced to the second round of the tournament (High Point, VCU, Texas, TCU, and Saint Louis).

We’ll see if Day 2 of the tourney has more possible Cinderella teams shake things up. If there are, then Bruce Pearl, who is 65 years old, very well could be proven correct.

The post Bruce Pearl denies lack of Cinderella teams in NCAA Tournament appeared first on ClutchPoints.