As the college basketball regular season concludes, attention turns to the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament.
While UConn and other top teams like Houston, Purdue and Arizona appear to have effectively clinched a spot in this year’s tournament, several other teams remain in the bubble. Coaches across the country are probably trying to get their players to focus on the task at hand: making it to the tournament.
Teams about to qualify for the tournament tend to dominate the sports world in the days leading up to Sunday’s selection announcement. The increased attention can create more distractions for athletes as the tournament approaches.
During a recent appearance on OutKick “Please don’t attack me with Dan Dakich.” Oklahoma men’s basketball coach Porter Moser talked about the challenge of getting his players, especially those suited up for bubble teams, to block out all the noise.
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Oklahoma Sooners head coach Porter Moser watches a college basketball game against the Butler Bulldogs at the Lloyd Noble Center on December 7, 2021 in Norman, Oklahoma. (Mitchell Leighton/Getty Images)
“Right now, I think it’s almost inevitable…I mean, it’s like they’re doing bracketology in September. The press is talking about everything,”’ Moser said when asked about how much he talks to his players about the tournament.
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“We’re addressing the elephant in the room. We’re saying this is an opportunity, this is a Quad One win…Let’s start banking, let’s start stacking,” Moser added. . “We’ve been working on it, so we know where we want to go and where we want to be.”
Oklahoma Sooners head coach Porter Moser responds to a call during a college basketball game against the Providence Flyers at the Lloyd Noble Center on Dec. 5, 2023 in Norman, Oklahoma. (Mitchell Leighton/Getty Images)
The first round of the tournament begins March 21, a few days after Sunday’s selection.
The tournament field consists of 36 “general” teams. The NCAA selection committee will select these teams and they will be announced on March 17th. The 32 winning teams in their respective Division I conferences will fill the 68-team slots.
Moser also talked about how the Sooners fought through a daunting game against the best team in the country.
The NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship trophy is displayed before the game between the Arizona State University Sun Devils and the USC Trojans at Desert Financial Arena on January 20, 2024 in Tempe, Arizona. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
“We played five games in a row, and no one in the nation experienced what we went through. We played four games against top 12 teams and had a road game against a rival in our last disaster series at Oklahoma State. We had Baylor, we had Kansas State, we had Oklahoma State, we had Iowa State, we had Houston…so we beat one of them.
“I think the players knew we had to win. We just kind of dealt with it and kept going after it… and then all of a sudden we were in a situation where we lost our leading scorer right before the game. I can’t do that.” I can say enough about how much determination and grit my players had, especially my seniors who are retiring this year. ”
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The Final Four will be held on April 6th at State Farm Stadium in Arizona, with the championship game scheduled for April 8th.
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