Five months after more than 300 university basketball teams began the season with the dreams of the championship, the number of contestants has now been reduced to 68.
With the NCAA male basketball tournament revealing its 68 team support on Sunday, NBC News is here to break the teams and players to meet, from the main seeds to the possible stories of Cinderella.
The male championship will take place on April 7 at the San Antonio Alamodome. Connecticut, who won consecutive championships in 2023 and 2024, begins his defense of the title as a seed number 8.
The best seed that worries me the most
GREIF: Florida. The west region is the most difficult of the paper tournament with the best sown gators surrounded by St. John’s, Texas Tech and Maryland, all of which are classified in the Nation Top 12 by Ken Pomeroy, whose classifications are a kind of Bible in sport.
By winning the brutal SEC tournament, it was, with much, the best conference of the nation this season and produced 14 NCAA teams, the Gators have shown that they can prevail in a loaded field, but they seem to have received the most difficult raffle.
Auerbach: Auburn and Florida. Duke is still the best team in the country, as long as the alleged No. 1 Draft Pick Cooper Flagg can play. Houston is strangely underestimated even though he is the best (and healthy) Kelvin Sampson group so far. I like both teams to reach the Final Four. I am also concerned about the other two seeds No. 1.
Auburn lost three of his last four games in Sunday’s team, which worries me a little considering that the Tigers could face the Spartans of the state of Michigan de Tom Izzo in the Eight elite. Izzo has taken eight different teams to the Final Four, and this particular team has that type of DNA.
In a completely different note, Florida worries me due to the path he drew. The Gators are red and play, as well as anyone in the country who enters this tournament, but they have St. John’s as seed number 2, Texas Tech as seed No. 3 and Maryland as seed number 4 in their region. That could be a path too difficult after a treacherous regular season in the SEC.
Nadkarni: I am a little nervous in Duke. Yes, I know that the Blue Devils won the last two games of the ACC Tournament without Flagg, and I am aware that things are in tendency towards Flagg’s play in the first round, but I wonder if Duke is a bit vulnerable with his best player who takes care of an injury.
Is there any part of Flagg that is cautious with your very publicized career in the NBA on the horizon? Combine that with how each school treats the Blue Devils as their own personal national championship when the time of the tournament comes, I am curious to see how Duke responds early in the group.
The history of Cinderella of the tournament will be …
Greif: Akron, due to his offense. The 13th zips planted, which face Arizona’s room in the first round, play in one of the fastest tempos in the country and make the triple rooms more per game. They should be able to play at their favorite pace because their opponent also likes to play fast. More possessions and more field goal attempts equals more opportunities to eliminate a higher seed.
Auerbach: Duck. The Bulldogs have already been one of the best stories in all university basketball, and that is not just because their adorable Live Bulldog pet, Griff II, stole the show in the tournament of the Missouri Valley Conference.
After having won four National Championships of Division II in the state of the northwest of Missouri, Ben McCollum jumped to division I and quickly began to win basketball games at this level. Drake won both the MVC regular season title and the Conference Championship in its first season.
This is a team that recovers extremely well at both ends while forcing many ball losses, which means that bulldogs generally obtain significantly more scoring opportunities than their opponents. And they occupy the last place in the nation in the tempo, further maximizing possessions playing at such a slow pace that they have more opportunities to note than their opponents, and their opponents feel more pressure because they do not have many opportunities to compensate for empty possessions. That is a winning combo and, as I like to say in March, the styles make fights.
Nadkarni: Can you be a Cinderella story if you are the sixth seed? I don’t care, because I am choosing the Missouri tigers. Missouri finished fifth in Kenpom’s adjusted offensive efficiency, and I like to travel with a team that can score in March. Beyond that, the tigers ended 0-18 in the SEC last year. That’s: Missouri comes out of a defeated Conference season. The tigers simply make the tournament of a loaded sec is an achievement of Cinderella in its own right. The school should have a good opportunity to keep it in March.
Players that I am more excited to see
GREIF: Oh, you mean the most obvious response of Flagg in Duke, is the probability of being the best choice in the June NBA draft, but who was injured your ankle last week? In that case, I want to see the great 6 -foot and 10 Johni Broome man from Auburn, who, as Flagg, is semifinalist for the Naismith trophy, who goes to the best player in the country.
I also want to see the way in which Ryan Kalkbrenner of Creighton, another Naismith semifinalist who tied Patrick Ewing as a four -time winner of the Big East’s defensive player award award, Big East, dissuades the opponents of trying shots near the tire.
Auerbach: Cooper Flagg, Johni Broome and Zuby Ejiofor
Flagg explains for himself, assuming he is healthy. It is projected to be the number 1 selection in the NBA draft and is incredibly entertaining to see, so its injury during the ACC tournament was an annoyance. Fortunately, it is expected to play in March Madness, and we hope it is about 100%, so we can see if one of the best teams in the nation throughout the year ends up being the best team in this tournament.
Broome, The best Auburn player can be The nation Best player. It’s flagg vs. Broome for all the awards of the national player of the year, and rightly. The veterinarian of the old school and double-double have taken the Tigers throughout the season, and will try to take this team to a national championship in the coming weeks. Despite losing three of his last four games, Auburn remains ready for a deep race due to his age and experience, directed by Broome.
Ejiofor, the center of San Juan, has had some mass actions when the Johnnies needed it more, more recently with a maximum of 33 points in the semifinal of the Big East tournament and the Buzzer-Beater against Marquette in the final of the regular season of the team.
“I’ve been training for 50 years,” said St. John’s Rick Pitino coach this weekend. “There are very few zubys to come.”
Pitino himself will be one of the biggest stories of March Madness, which means that we will all learn more about this team and its many hard and dynamic games creators.
Nadkarni: I will also avoid the obvious choice in Flagg and give some love to Walter Clayton Jr. de Florida here. Every time I can see a guard who likes to throw him from the deep tournament, I will tune in. Clayton fits the bill.
Like Flagg and Broome, he is a semifinalist of the Naismith trophy. And shoot more than seven triples per game, connecting to a rate of almost 38%. I want to see Clayton let it fly for the Gators.
Final Four Picks and National Champion
GREIF: St. John’s, Auburn, Gonzaga and Wisconsin. Bruce Pearl and Los Tigres end up winning their first national title.
Auerbach: Michigan State, Duke, Houston and Florida, with the Blue Devils winning the National Championship. Assuming that Flagg is healthy, the best team in the country will be the one that reduces the networks.
Nadkarni: St. John’s, Auburn, Alabama and Clemson, with Rick Pitino’s red storm winning everything.
