We have a bracket, and now we have three days to talk about it. Let’s get started right away.
Here are my 10 immediate thoughts about this year’s 68 disciplines.
1. It sounds like… UConn has a raw deal, right?
Widely regarded as the best team in the country for much of this season, Connecticut is seeking to become college basketball’s first back-to-back national champions since Florida State accomplished the feat in 2006 and 2007. After advancing to the Big East Tournament, the Huskies earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament at this week’s championship in New York.
But how much did they actually get paid?
2nd seed university universityThe eastern region of iowa, a team that many believed had a chance to actually be the No. 1 seed. If that hadn’t happened, they definitely would have been considered the best or second-best No. 2 seed. That wasn’t the case, according to the selection committee, which gave the Cyclones the No. 8 overall seed in the tournament.
UW is also in a region with two of the remaining three teams from last year’s Final Four, and the Huskies could potentially face both of them before the regional final.
Florida Atlantic reached the national semifinals last year as the No. 9 seed. A year later, they would be back with virtually the exact same team, starting the run just below UConn as an 8 seed. San Diego State, the team that eliminated the Owls at the buzzer, was once again assigned the No. 5 seed and is in the same starting spot as a year ago.
Adding No. 3 seed Illinois and No. 4 seed Auburn into the mix means the top four seeds in the East will all be power conference tournament champions.
Without a doubt, this is the region with the most momentum.
2. The southern region feels like a chaotic region.
Note: All but one Final Four since 2012 have had at least one team seeded No. 7 or lower. Since 2011, a total of 12 teams seeded seventh or lower have been eliminated in the final weekend of the season.
Don’t be surprised if there’s another one coming out of the area this year.
Top-seeded Houston has been solid for most of this season, but suffered an eye-popping (in every bad way) 69-41 loss to Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament title game. It’s starting to rise. Second-seeded Marquette played the entire Big East tournament without star point guard Tyler Kolek, who also missed the final three games of the regular season with an oblique injury. No. 3 seed Kentucky embodies the old cliché: “You can beat anyone in the tournament, and you can lose to anyone in the tournament.” And No. 4 seed Duke was so disappointed in its play in its past two games that Blue Devil players reportedly went the infamous “players-only meeting” route after rushing home from the NCAA Tournament. There is.
While you may not like the teams in the bottom half of this bracket, don’t be surprised if some make their way to Phoenix.
3. Virginia? It’s creepy.
The committee had the opportunity to serve appetizers on Tuesday and Wednesday featuring America’s beloved Robby Avila and both Indiana State, St. John’s and Rick Pitino. Instead, you’ll see Boise State vs. Colorado and Colorado State vs. Virginia.
The Cavaliers finished 54th in the NET rankings, lower than three of the first four teams remaining outside of 68th place.
But you say that NET is just a grouping tool. What matters is how he performed against teams with higher NET rankings, not necessarily what his own NET ranking is.
Virginia went 2-7 in Quadrant I chances.
But you say why worry about those numbers when a league like the ACC is down this much? Momentum and vision testing have to come into play at some point.
Virginia is 4-5 in its past nine games but hasn’t beaten an NCAA Tournament team since Feb. 3.
But you say NET is just one metric.
Virginia currently ranks 69th in Ken Pom. That’s 44 ranks lower than St. John’s, 26 ranks lower than Oklahoma, and 24 ranks lower than Indiana State. That’s three places lower than Princeton.
They might do some damage from Dayton (someone always does), but the Cavaliers don’t belong in this year’s field.
4. Don’t be surprised if the 15/2 trend disappears this year
A No. 15 seed has defeated a No. 2 seed in each of the past three NCAA tournaments, but there is reason to believe that trend will hit a wall this week.
Only 10 No. 1 seeds won their conference tournaments this season, and the bottom-of-the-bracket strength this year is weaker than in recent seasons. A team like St. Peters, which went 19-3 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference as the league’s fifth seed, will almost certainly be a 16th seed most seasons. But this year, they’re looking to recreate the magic of the 15th seed in the 2022 Dance, when they became the first 15th seed to play in the first-ever regional final.
5. Intentionally or not, the committee gave us a lot of possibilities for “old friend” matches.
Iowa State head coach TJ Otzelberger will face his alma mater, South Dakota State, in the first round.
Oregon State head coach Dana Altman could face his alma mater Creighton in the second round.
Top-seeded North Carolina State could face second-seeded Arizona State, led by former Tar Heel star guard Caleb Love, in the Elite Eight.
6. Are Purdue and Tennessee on a “see it to believe it” collision course?
There may be no two programs in college basketball that America has more doubts about in March than Purdue and Tennessee.
Purdue hasn’t reached the Final Four since 1980. The highly touted Boilermakers team the past three years ended their season at the hands of a No. 13 seed, a No. 15 seed and, of course, a No. 16 seed. seed.
The University of Tennessee is widely considered to be the best college basketball program to never reach the Final Four. The Volantes are led by Rick Barnes, who is just 1-12 overall against higher-seeded teams in the NCAA Tournament.
Perhaps the committee is anxious for one of the two to reverse the March policy. This is because both of them are assigned to the Midwest region.
If they meet in the regional finals, the winning fan base gets a once-in-a-lifetime moment of catharsis, while the loser spends another 12 months living in a situation where “that’s never going to happen.”
7. The committee didn’t care about the Mountain West.
In preparation for last year’s NCAA Tournament, mountain west Since 2015, they have gone 3-15 in the NCAA Tournament, with only one team making it to the second weekend of the tournament during that period. Since 2016, the conference has gone 1-11 in first-round games, but the conference, which was finishing up the 2022 tournament, was 0-4 in one March Madness in NCAA Tournament history. This was the third conference to end with:
While Nevada, Boise State and Utah lost once again in the Big Dance, San Diego State almost single-handedly made it all the way to the national title game, saving the league’s lead.
The committee appears to have been unperturbed by the Aztecs’ heroism twelve months earlier.
As expected, the Mountain West placed six of its 68 teams, but their placement raised more than a few eyebrows.
Boise State and Colorado State, the two teams that nearly every bracketologist had safely fielded, were two of the final four teams to earn an at-large bid and will advance to the tournament in Dayton. We are planning to start. Mountain West Tournament champion New Mexico was given an 11 seed, confirming that the Lobos would not have qualified had they not received the automatic bid. SDSU earned the same No. 5 seed it was given a year ago, but Utah State, the regular-season champion and with a stellar 27-6 record, finished in eighth place, two spots lower than most expected. . Widely expected to be a 7 seed, Nevada was given a 10 seed.
If the Mountain West makes any noise in the coming weeks, it will come from some teams that are likely to win multiple games as lower seeds.
8. I didn’t care about the Big East outside of the league’s top three.
The Big East is the second-best conference in America by just about every metric in existence.
The tournament produced the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament at UConn, the No. 2 seed at Marquette, and the No. 3 seed at Creighton.
that’s all. seriously. No other team in the nation’s second-best conference was deemed worthy of participating in the NCAA Tournament.
Seton Hall was the second team (after Oklahoma) to be removed from the field, but Rick Pitino’s St. John’s Red Storm and Providence Friars were also featured as among the first teams removed. There wasn’t.
Val Ackerman will probably have something to say soon, too.
9. The trend of 12/5 upsets should return with a vengeance.
In 32 of the past 38 years, at least one 12 seed made it past the first round of the tournament. In fact over the past 15 years he has held a very respectable overall record of 25 wins and 35 losses with him being the 12th seed versus his 5th seed.
That wasn’t the case a year ago. All four fifth seeds escaped the most fashionable first-round upset pick, and two of them (San Diego State and Miami State) actually made it to the Final Four.
This year’s 12 seed line is stacked.
UAB is loaded with experienced talent and can score with anyone. James Madison (31 wins) and McNeese (30 wins) are two of only four teams in the country to have already reached the 30-win mark. And Grand Canyon is right behind them with 29 wins, he’s been to the tournament three of the past four years, and they have a star guard in Tion Grant Foster.
At least one of those teams has a win this week.
10. Gonzaga University is attracting a lot of attention as it extends its Sweet 16 winning streak
Gonzaga has advanced to the Sweet 16 eight times in a row, the longest streak in sports and the third-longest behind Duke (1998-2006) and North Carolina (1981-1993). This is a continuous record.
It won’t be easy for the Zags to tie McNeese in the first round, but with injuries to two All-Americans (Kevin McCuller and Hunter Dickinson), they will be forced to play fourth-seeded Kansas in the second round. There is a possibility of competing against.
Mark Few’s team appeared to be a few lines higher than most bracketologists thought and got a pretty friendly draw to boot.
