After last year when the tournament got cancelled, all is right in the basketball world again. Selection Sunday is in 2 days when the teams who qualified for the NCAA tournament will be announced. Tune in at 5pm on CBS to see if your teams makes the cut.
This year will look a little different but hey anything is a step up from completely cancelled (stupid 2020!)
All of the NCAA tournament will be held in Indianapolis, IN at Lucas Oil Stadium, Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indiana Farmers Coliseum, Mackey Arena in West Lafayette and Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Games will be on TV TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV.
Usually the bracket is lightly based on geography since all the games are spread out across the country. However this year, there will be no geographical consideration when creating the bracket. The Bracket instead will be 31 automatic qualifiers (one less than usual) and 37 at-large teams chosen and it will follow what is called an ‘S-curve.’ Don’t worry the top 4 teams will still be in separate sections of the bracket. Teams 5-8 will then be placed with Team 4 –> Team 1 then teams 9-12 will be placed with Team 1 –> 4 and it continues for all 64 teams. 68 teams make the tournament but the last 4 teams in are called the First Four and they play for the final 2 spots in the bracket. The automatic qualifiers go to the winners of the 32 D1 conference championships (31 in 2021). Then a selection committee of 10 basketball peeps select who gets the remaining 32 at-large bids (this year 33).
Teams only need 5 players eligible to play if there is a COVID concern on the team. Teams will be given their own floors in the hotel with designated meeting rooms.
The games will have spectators! Only 25% capacity allowed and there will be social distancing and masks required. The city of Indianapolis also announced that restaurants and bars can increase their capacity as well.
Check out my old post to see how the tournament normally works. Ah 2019, simpler times!
Who’s on the bubble?
Hard to say when conference championships are still being contested. Experts are saying Utah St and Ole Miss are last team in and first team out, respectively. So if your bf is an Ole Miss, Saint Louis, Boise St and Seton Hall fan, be ready for a rough Sunday. Those are the 4 teams ESPN has missing the bracket completely.
The last 4 in will pay each other for the final spots in the bracket and it looks like those teams should be Drake, Colorado St, Syracuse and Utah St. The other 2 games of the First Four are automatic qualifiers Mount St. Mary’s, Norfolk St, App St and St. Peter’s.
The top 4 are likely to be: Gonzaga, Baylor, Illinois and Michigan. Again those can change if they lose their conference championship tourneys.
Conference Championship Brackets:
Important Dates:
- Sun 3/14 – Selection Sunday @ 5pm on CBS
- Thurs 3/18 – The first 4 games of the tournament begin at 3pm.
- Sat 3/27 – Sweet 16 begins @ 1pm
- Sat 4/3 – Final Four begins @ 4pm
- Mon 4/5 – Championship Game @ 8pm
NCAA History Lesson:
Reigning Champs: Virginia Cavaliers – they won in 2019 making them the most recent NCAA champs.
35 teams in all have won the NCAA tournament over the years. UCLA has won the most with 11. 10 of those titles were from 1964-1975.
Villanova in 1985 was the greatest Cinderella team to win in all, coming into the tournament seeded as #8. This is the lowest seed to win ever.
#GFHint: a Cinderella (or Cinderella story) is a team that does much better than expected. One of the most recent ones was Loyola Chicago in 2018. Remember Sister Jean? They were a #11 seed who made it all the way to the Final Four before falling to Michigan.
On that note, welcome back Sister Jean as Loyola Chicago is ranked #18 in the country and will most definitely make the tournament.
Let’s spill the tea:
- Duke shut down their season during the ACC Championship tournament this week after a player tested positive for COVID. They were set to play #15 Florida St yesterday to advance to the Semifinal. They realistically needed to win the entire conference championship to have a chance of making the NCAA tournament. The Blue Devils have not missed an NCAA tournament since 1996.
- Why is this scandalous? Not only does it snap a long streak of NCAA tournament appearances but also they didn’t wait until Selection Sunday to announce the end of their season. This follows an already fishy move at the beginning of the season when Duke announced that they would not be playing anymore out of conference games after they lost 2 of their 3 non-conference games… All around this was not a good season for the Blue Devils as they went 13-11 and were 10th in the ACC, going 9-9 in conference.
- #11 Kansas and #16 UVA also had to withdraw from their conference tournaments after a positive test. They were set to play Texas & Georgia Tech in their respective Semifinals tonight. But notice how they didn’t announce that their season is over….
How to fill out your bracket…
My motto: Yo’ bracket yo’ problem – don’t blame me for what you chose!
- No one has EVER made a perfect bracket. In 2019, the longest streak was broken; the new record stands at 49 straight correct picks. That’s into the Sweet 16 without missing a game
- You want some upsets. Picking all #1 seeds in the Final Four sounds like a good idea but it has only happened once in tournament history (Memphis, Kansas, UNC and UCLA in 2008)
- That being said, a #1 vs #1 championship game has happened 8xs
- There have definitely been some big upsets over the last couple of years to mess up a whole bunch of brackets in just one game.
- #1 seeds do get upset in the first round (it happened in 2018 when #16 UMBC (+20.5) beat #1 UVA). However #1 seeds have an 89% success rate through the round of 32 over the last 8 years according to the Washington Post.
- As we get later in the tournament, I do like to stick with the higher ranked teams. The higher ranked teams have already shown they can withstand a grueling schedule and have some depth on the court.
- The Big 12 has 7 of their teams ranked in the Top 25 in the country as of right now. The Big 10 is predicted to have 9 teams in the NCAA tournament. With those 2 things in mind, that means those conferences were stacked so don’t hold their losses against them as much as other lesser competitive conferences.
- COVID is bound to rear its head to mix things up with random positive tests and such but no one can predict those. Brackets are due before the first game!
Other things to note specific to this year:
- Kansas has not been up to their normal domination this year.
- Gonzaga is the only undefeated team left.
- Only 4 teams have gone undefeated in the regular season and won the whole thing: UNC, UCLA, Indiana and San Francisco. UCLA did it 4xs.
- UVA and now Kansas is down a player with COVID protocols for now but they don’t necessarily have that handicap by the time they play in the tournament.
But if you want to do your bracket a different way, here are some nonconventional ways to pick some teams 🙂
Cutest Mascot:
St. Peter’s. They are the Peacocks.
Best Player:
Luka Garza, Iowa.
Cutest Players:
Corey Kispert, Gonzaga – or – Xavier Pinson, Missouri – or – Malachi Rice, Georgia Tech
Honorable Mentions: Brendan Adams, UConn – or – Anthony Polite, Florida St
The Newbie:
I hate to even type this before it’s set but Hartford has never made a NCAA tournament. They play UMass for their conference championship and spot in the tournament on Saturday!
Comeback Kid:
Remember the basketball player who collapsed on the court? Keyontae Johnson plays for Florida who looks like they will be in the tournament. Always a good feeling to cheer for him!
Cinderella:
Although they are a bigger favorite this time since they are ranked #18, Loyola Chicago is back in the tourney.
Most Common Mascot:
You would think it would be something like the Bears. But no, there are 3 teams that are the Spartans! Michigan St, Norfolk St & UNC Greensboro
The What-Is-That? Mascot:
The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. The St. Bonaventure Bonnies. The USCB Gauchos.
