Favorites are easier to follow in the NCAA Tournament, factoring familiarity and knowledge of known commodities with single-digit seeding in the bracket.

Spoiler alert: An underrated Cinderella team or three will pull an upset most don’t see coming this week and fracture many bracket predictions along the way.

We checked resumes and measured twice to develop a get-to-know-you rundown of bracket-busting candidates.

No. 13 Akron (28-6)

First round: vs. No. 4 Arizona

A layup in the final seconds in the MAC tournament championship game landed Akron in the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season and seventh time in program history. The Zips are still searching for their first trip to the second round.

Only one team in the field is better at sharing the basketball — Gonzaga — than the Zips, who averaged 18.1 assists per game this season.

Nate Johnson, who cashed the shot that sent the Zips into the tourney field, led the team in scoring and Akron averaged 84.6 points by attempting almost 30 3-pointers per game.

No. 12 seed Colorado State (25-9)

First round: vs. No. 5 Memphis

Streaking into the NCAA Tournament, the Rams are on a 10-game winning run and trying to find more success in March. The program has only five wins in the tournament, but they have some key ingredients to make a run this time around.

Senior Nique Clifford carried the Rams to the Mountain West Conference tournament title and scored 21 or more points in nine of the final 12 games this season, averaging 25 per game in the MWC tourney.

But the difference in the title game for the Rams was depth and dead-eye perimeter shooting. They had 18 points off the bench in the first half alone and made 12 3-pointers.

No. 11 seed Drake (30-3)

First round: vs. No. 6 Missouri

The Missouri Valley Conference isn’t what it used to be, and neither are the Bulldogs. Drake knows how to do this neutral-court thing (6-0 this season) and didn’t flinch on the road (9-1), with the MVC tournament title in hand by virtue of a 15-point win over Bradley.

Their M.O. is riding a possession advantage produced by forcing turnovers and stressing rebounding. The Bulldogs are No. 1 in the country in scoring defense at 58.4 points per game.

Bennett Stirtz had 24 points in the conference tournament title game and never leaves the floor, averaging 39.3 minutes per game. He was named MVC Player of the Year and a semifinalist for the Riley Wallace Award as the most impactful transfer in college basketball. He led the conference in scoring and steals, with averages of 19.1 points, 5.7 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 2.2 steals in his first season of Division I hoops.

Proof of finding a way to finish dots the Drake schedule with five overtime victories.

In all three Drake losses, the Bulldogs had 13-plus turnovers.

No. 13 seed Grand Canyon (26-7)

First round: vs. No. 4 Maryland

GCU won the WAC tournament for the third consecutive season and are in the field of 68 for the fourth time in five years. Head coach Bryce Drew, who authored one of the most memorable upsets in NCAA Tournament history as a guard for Valparaiso, and several of the primary options for the Lopes have been here before.

The all-in defense ranked tied for 11th in Division I with 9.4 steals per game and one spot behind Auburn in FG percentage defense (40.946 percent).

There’s no fight for the ball on Drew’s offense with seven players averaging 7.8 points per game or higher. The Lopes also finished fifth in Division I with 19 made free throws per game.

No. 12 seed McNeese (27-6)

First round: vs. No. 5 Clemson

Riding an 11-game winning streak into the tournament, the Cowboys are making back-to-back appearances for the first time and looking to erase sour memories from the 2024 NCAA Tournament blowout against Gonzaga. Two of their losses were against the SEC: 72-64 at Alabama in the second weeks of the season and 66-63 at Mississippi State in December.

They force 14.5 turnovers per game and give up nothing free, smothering shooters on the perimeter and keeping penetration from reaching the rim. Javohn Garcia (12.9 points per game) leads a balanced offense with five players scoring 9.0 per game or more.

If there’s one worry: the Cowboys are not above a certifiable frigid shooting performance of their own. McNeese went 0-for-12 from three in its last loss Feb. 1 at Nicholls and threw up 17 3-pointers with only three makes in the Southland Conference title game against Lamar.

No. 11 seed VCU (28-6)

First round: vs. No. 6 BYU

A 15-3 run through the Atlantic 10 might be glossed over, but it shouldn’t be considering the Rams also had convincing wins over Boston College, Miami and Colorado State.

Ukrainian Max Shulga and Joe Bamisile tied for the scoring lead at 15 points per game and are fifth-year seniors unafraid of the pressure of the moment. Shulga had a team-high 18 in the A-10 title game, his 161st career college game.

VCU went 2-1 against Quad 1 teams and averaged 8.2 steals per game this season.