5 March Madness Sleeper Teams to Pick in Your 2022 NCAA Tournament Bracket Pool

Picking your 2022 March Madness bracket is always a balancing act. You're never going to win your pool by going all-in on the chalk and simply picking favorites. Of course, we have also all seen what happens when someone gets too cute and loads their bracket full of too many upsets.

The key to success in your March Madness bracket pool is to nail the sure-thing picks while also sprinkling in the right sleeper picks.

The Duel is here to help, with our top five sleeper picks for March Madness in 2022.

March Madness Sleepers

1. Michigan Wolverines (No. 11 South)

It almost feels like cheating to call Michigan an upset or sleeper pick, especially in Round 1. Despite coming in as a No. 11 seed, Michigan is actually a 2.5-point favorite over No. 6 Colorado State in Round 1. This may sound overly obvious, but the first step in any high seed making a deep run is winning their first game. No other double-digit seed in the tournament is favored by as much as the Wolverines in Round 1. Things do get tougher in Round 2 against Tennessee (assuming the Vols don't get upset), but with the nation's 19th-ranked offense in KenPom's efficiency metric, the Wolverines have the firepower to threaten anyone.

2. LSU Tigers (No. 6 Midwest)

LSU may not have made a great run in the SEC Tournament, but the Tigers' lockdown defense can pose a threat to anyone in the country. They rank a solid 25th in opponent points per game (63.5), but an especially stellar fifth in KenPom's Adjusted Defensive Efficiency metric. With a first-round matchup against Iowa State and a potential Round 2 meeting against the Wisconsin/Colgate winner, LSU doesn't even have a chance to play a team that ranks ahead of them in KenPom rankings until the Elite Eight.

3. Texas Longhorn (No. 6 East)

Texas doesn't exactly draw the soft schedule that LSU does (more on their first-round opponent below), but it's hard not to get excited about this Longhorns squad. Checking in at 15th in KenPom rankings, they're not only the top ranked No. 6 seed, but they're ranked ahead of two No. 5s, two No. 4s and one No. 3.

4. UNC Tar Heels (No. 8 East)

We may not be in the glory days of UNC basketball, but the Tar Heels ended the season on an absolute tear before falling to Virginia Tech. It's not like that came with a cake schedule, either. Duke and Virginia were both top-six teams in the ACC, and North Carolina beat them by a combined margin of 157 to 124 to close out their win streak. March is the right time of year to be running this hot.

5. Virginia Tech (No. 11 East)

We've alluded to the Hokies twice in this story, and now they get their due. Their hot streak seriously overshadows UNC's, having just upset Notre Dame, UNC and Duke (the No. 3, 2 and 1 seeds in the ACC) en route to a tournament win. They may be an 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but they're KenPom's No. 23 team in the nation. They also rank 28th in FanDuel Sportsbook's odds to make the Final Four — not at all bad for a No. 11.

Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.