March Madness Preview: Tournament Virgins

Josh Young and the Drake Bulldogs aren't the only team who've been waiting a long time to reach the NCAA tournament. (AP Images)

If you're Duke, North Carolina and Arizona making the NCAA tournament is a layup. But for the smaller schools, the climb to March Madness is lot more difficult and takes a lot longer.

That's why we're dedicating this blog to the tournament virgins. The schools who've never been to the big dance or who've been out of the tourney so long this might as well be their first time.

5. No. 16 Texas-Arlington
Texas-Arlington gets their first bid ever by getting hot at the right time. The Mavericks went just 7-9 in the Southland conference but got hot in the conference tournament, winning the championships. A No. 16 has never made it out of the first round, but the Mavs do have the big men inside to tussle with first-round opponent Memphis.

Best player: Forward Anthony Vereen averaged 20 points and 6.6 rebounds in the Southland tournament.

4. No. 15 UMBC
Real name: University of Maryland Baltimore County Retrievers, seriously. The Retrievers got their first bid ever in March Madness by crusing though the American East championships. Amazingly, after going just 11-18 last year they posted a 24-win regular season in 2008.

Best Player: Guard Ray Barbosa is a transfer from James Madison and is the main reason for the Retrievers' sudden surge to respectability. He's led the Retrievers with 16.8 points per game.

3. No. 14. Cal State Fullerton
It took 30 years for the Titans to return to the NCAA tournament and at first it didn't look like it was going to happen with a big loss to Cal State Northridge late in the season. But the Titans regrouped and were able to win their next six on the way to a Big West championship and an automatic bid.

Best Player: 5'11 guard Josh Akognon is a sharpshooter who averages 19.6 points per game and nearly 40 percent from three-point land.

2. No. 14 Cornell
With their competition being teams like Brown, Yale and Princeton it's surprising that this is the first bid for the Big Red. But they left little doubt they would get a ticket to the big dance by winning their last 10 games in a row by an average of 12.2 points per game. Cornell's strongest asset against first-round opponent UConn will be their outside shooting. They made 40 percent of their threes during the season.

Best Player: Cornell is always hot from downtown and 6'6 forward Ryan Wittman is a good reason. He averages 15.4 points per game and makes a whopping 46.3 percent of his threes.

1. No. 5 Drake
It took 37 years for Drake to make it back and they did in grand fashion by playing well enough to grab the 5th seed in the West Region. Not only did Drake have one of the best records against the spread in college ball (20-7-1) but they were practically unbeatable in the Missouri Valley conference. They went 28-4 overall and captured the MVC championship by plowing Illinois State 79-49.

Best Player: Some argue Josh Young is the best player on the team because he leads them in scoring (15.8 points per game) but point guard Adam Emmenecker is the engine that runs this offense. Emmenecker aveaged 16.3 points and six assists during the MVC tournament.

Get all your lines for the NCAA Tournament in the Bodog Sportsbook!