College basketball tournament picks: College basketball expert highlights Cinderella team in each region for 2026 bracket

The 2026 college basketball tournament is officially set to begin on Tuesday, March 17 with First Four action, and we'll be down to 64 teams once the competition begins in earnest on Thursday, March 19. Duke is the No. 1 overall seed after the Blue Devils stormed through the ACC behind potential No. 1 pick Cameron Boozer. Joining Duke on the one-line are Arizona, Michigan and defending national champions Florida.

While it may seem prudent to advance the top seeds all the way to the national semifinals, there's always some surprises in March. We've seen double-digit seeds not only shock blue bloods in the opening weekend but advance all the way to the national semifinal. These underdogs are often coming from mid-major conferences and offer tremendous value from a betting perspective, but there are also teams from power conferences which can make deep runs despite being higher seeds. College basketball expert Thomas Casale takes a look at each region of the 2026 tournament and highlights which schools he thinks can make surprising runs.