One of the most fun aspects of March Madness is the Cinderella stories. This is nothing new and not exactly a revelation. But it goes much deeper than that. When we are blessed with these Cinderellas, it feels like each team is led by one man who comes in as a nobody and leaves a legend. 

Sometimes it’s a man with a scrappy journey throughout the tournament like Doug Edert with the Saint Peter’s Peacocks, who took a 15 seed to the Elite Eight. Sometimes it’s one shining moment paired with a masterful call like JP Pegues and his near buzzer-beater to lead Furman over Virginia. And sometimes it’s even a coach, like FDU’s Tobin Anderson, whose goofy personality led to the greatest upset in March Madness history. 

These legends are incredibly hard to predict, but I am going to try. I want to take a deep dive, sift through the SOCON, mull through the MAC, some other funny alliteration that I can’t think of right now, and see if I can guess who this year’s legend will be. My only caveat is that they have to be from a 13 seed or higher. Any lower, and the Cinderella aspect starts to dull. 

Cooper Bowser – Furman

While not a requirement, one thing that seems consistent with these legends is their names. You can’t get much cooler than the fiery antagonist from the Mario Brothers. This dude’s name isn’t his only legendary factor, though. In the best way possible, he is the exact opposite of a previous March legend, Oakland’s Jack Gohlke. 

Gohlke made a name for himself by being a terror from beyond the arc, with 364 shots from deep in the 23-24 season and just eight inside. Bowser makes all his shots from inside, with 182 shots inside this year and one three-point attempt. He missed. 

Additionally, he is scary accurate. Furman as a whole is shooting 47.6% from the field, Bowser? He’s at 77%. Without Bowser, the Paladins shooting dips below 45%. Bowser has not strayed from contact against strong opponents this year. Against Alabama, he had 14 points with three dunks against the Crimson Tide. Furman also has a very favorable draw in the first two rounds. Its first match is against UConn, who is ice cold going into the tournament. It lost to a very bad Marquette team to close out the regular season and then got nuked by St. John’s in the conference title game. After that, Furman would either play UCF or UCLA, two teams that have shown they can lose to anyone. 

And the cherry on top is Bowser is completely under the radar. He has just a smidge over 2,000 followers on Instagram, so the spotlight is not on him. This is looking to be the perfect storm for a new March legend to be born.

Jerrell Bellamy – Troy

Out the gate, Troy seems like a safe upset pick considering who they are playing: The Nebraska Cornhuskers. The Cornhuskers are having a historic season, yet have never won an NCAA Tournament game. Limping into the tournament, going .500 in its last 12 games, the threat of an upset is there, and the people seem to agree. Out of all of the No. 13 versus No. 4 matchups, this is the most common upset according to ESPN. But the question remains, who will lead this charge. 

Look no further than Jerell Bellamy. He is the epitome of sixth man menace. Firstly, his size is going to be a serious problem. The Senior stands at 6’9” and 235-pounds, he’s gonna cause some issues in the paint. Also, despite being sixth in minutes, he’s second on the team in blocks averaging a swat a game. The biggest thing going for him though is his shooting. He is first on the team in field goal percentage by nearly 10% at 112-172 from the field. He also takes a deep shot every game or two and sits at 30% which isn’t terrible for a center. At 647 followers, he is also very under the radar and may keep the Huskers from their first tournament win.

TJ Power – Penn

If you google TJ power, he is listed as an “Athlete who plays basketball,” and boy if that is not the understatement of the year. 

Power has already gotten some attention and has notched over 12,000 Instagram followers. He started to gain some recognition in his matchup against Yale. In the Ivy League Championship game, he dropped 44 points and 14 rebounds against the top-seeded Bulldogs, including a clutch three to send the game into overtime. 

However, his story goes much deeper than that. See, this is his first year with the Quakers, as he spent last year with Virginia and the year before that with Duke and played over 20 games with both of them. He even started five with Virginia, so trust, this is a kid that knows basketball. Even though the conference championship was his best performance, he averages nearly 16 points per game and had six 20+ point games, including a 38 point performance against Dartmouth. 

Then, you look at the other side of things, No. 3-seeded Illinois. The Illini are ice cold right now, strangely enough, seem to crumple when they score a lot. After a 20-3 start, they have lost five of their last nine. All of those losses except one came in overtime. Illinois is yet to win in extra minutes. If Power gets hot and starts to run well with Illinois, it could spell doom for the Illini.