One of the greatest mysteries every March is how to pick the next Cinderella team to bust brackets and steal the nation's attention. We wondered if the following question might help solve that puzzle: how do teams fare the season after making their unexpected runs? Is it smart to pick a familiar Cinderella?

First, let’s look at how past Cinderellas have followed up since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. For the sake of this story, we'll define a Cinderella team as any 9-seed or lower to advance to at least the Elite Eight. There have been 21 total instances.

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(SEED) SCHOOL ROUND REACHED NEXT YEAR'S RESULT (9) Kansas State Elite Eight Round of 64 (9) Florida State Elite Eight Sweet Sixteen (11) Loyola Chicago Final Four Missed tournament (11) Xavier Elite Eight Round of 32 (10) Syracuse Final Four Missed tournament (11) Dayton Elite Eight Round of 32 (9) Wichita State Final Four Round of 32 (11) Virginia Commonwealth Final Four Round of 32 (10) Davidson Elite Eight Missed tournament (11) George Mason Final Four Missed tournament (10) Kent State Elite Eight Missed tournament (12) Missouri Elite Eight Round of 32 (11) Temple Elite Eight Missed tournament (10) Gonzaga Elite Eight Sweet Sixteen (10) Providence Elite Eight Missed tournament (9) Boston College Elite Eight Missed tournament (10) Temple Elite Eight Round of 64 (10) Texas Elite Eight Round of 32 (11) Loyola Marymount Elite Eight Missed tournament (10) Louisiana State Elite Eight Round of 64 (11) Louisiana State Final Four Elite Eight

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Some takeaways:

History shows it's unlikely schools can piece together another deep run in the tournament the year after exceeding expectations as a Cinderella. LSU (1986-87) is the only example on the list that reached the Elite Eight in consecutive seasons — as a double-digit seed both seasons, no less. Gonzaga (1999-00) and Florida State (2018-19) was the only other school to even reach the Sweet Sixteen the year after a Cinderella run into the Elite Eight.

Nine of the 21 Cinderella teams missed out completely on the NCAA tournament the following season. Six went on to win one game in the tournament before falling in the Round of 32, including four of the last five schools on the list (not including last year's trio).

Below is a breakdown of teams to go on Cinderella runs by seed since 1985. No school seeded No. 13 or higher has reached the Elite Eight in the tournament's current format:

9 SEEDS 10 SEEDS 11 SEEDS 12 SEEDS 4 8 8 1