Mike Ridaught
Baseball may be considered America’s favorite pastime, but men’s college basketball in March certainly has its rightful place too.
The field of 68 is set for this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Last year, UConn won the national title, 76-59, as a No. 4 seed against No. 5 seed San Diego State in a game that was watched by an average of almost 14.7 million viewers in the United States.
The Huskies (31-3) earned their first-ever No. 1 overall seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament and “definitely feel lighter” for another championship run. They seek to become the first team to win back-to-back national titles since the Gators did it under coach Billy Donovan in 2007.
They will open up their title defense run at 2:45 p.m. on Friday (CBS) against No. 16 seed Stetson, which won the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament and will make its first appearance in program history.
The Hatters (22-12) are coached by former Gator assistant Donnie Jones, who was an assistant under Donovan during Florida’s consecutive national titles.
Florida, which won its first national title in 2006, became the first to repeat since Duke (1992) under head coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Prior to the Blue Devils (24-8), who are a No. 4 seed and will play No. 13 seed Vermont (28-6) at 7:10 p.m. on Friday in the South Region (CBS), the last team to repeat was UCLA in 1973. The Bruins won seven in a row from 1967 to 1973 under legendary coach John Wooden.
So, repeating doesn’t happen very often.
But upsets happen all the time.
In fact, none of the top three seeds advanced to last year’s Final Four, which included UConn, San Diego State, No. 5 seed Miami, and No. 9 seed Florida Atlantic (25-8), which earned a No. 8 seed this year and will play No. 9 Northwestern (21-11) at 12:15 p.m. on Friday in the East Region.
There were upsets in conference tournaments which had a huge impact on selecting this year’s field, meaning someone got left out that had a legitimate chance of getting in.
Committee chairman Charles McClelland, commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, said five bids were stolen during the conference tournaments, and one of those was going to go to Indiana State.
Indiana State missed the Big Dance despite 28 wins this season. Three 20-win teams from the Big East Conference (Providence, Seton Hall and St. John’s) were also left out.
Here are seven teams who are the best bet to win it all based on a better than 19.1 in Ken Pomeroy’s Adjusted Efficiency Margin metric, a top 20 ranking in offensive efficiency and a top 40 ranking in defensive efficiency.
Those teams include No. 1 seeds UConn, Houston, and Purdue, along with No. 2 seed Arizona, No. 3 seed Creighton, and No. 4 seeds Auburn and Duke.
Purdue hasn’t been to the Final Four since 1980, and Tennessee has never been, but they are two of a select few who are most likely to end Final Four droughts.
For what it’s worth, don’t be surprised if none of those seven win the title.
Keep in mind that the other No. 1 seed, North Carolina, is excluded from the list. The Tar Heels (27-7), who play the Howard-Wagner winner in the First Round at 2:45 p.m. on Thursday (CBS), are back in the tournament after a one-year hiatus.
Two years ago, North Carolina held a double-digit edge over Kansas at halftime but fell short, 72-69, in the 2022 national championship game.
But that’s the thing that makes the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament so much fun to watch, along with having an allegiance to a particular team.
Florida’s run in the SEC Tournament, which ended with a loss in Sunday’s championship game, excited the Gator fan base just in time.
Florida (24-11), which had its highest-scoring year in program history (85.1 points per game), earned a No. 7 seed and will play either Colorado or Boise State at 4:30 p.m. on Friday (TBS) at the South Region in Indianapolis. It will mark the first meeting against either opponent.
The winner will face either No. 2 seed Marquette or No. 15 Western Kentucky on Sunday for the right to go to the Sweet 16.
The Gators’ 24 wins so far this season match the team’s most entering the NCAA Tournament over the last 10 years (2016-17).
UF is one of a record-tying 10 SEC men’s basketball teams to receive a bid to a postseason tournament this week, including Georgia and former Gator coach Mike White, along with LSU, who made the National Invitation Tournament (NIT).
A total of seven schools declined to play in the NIT after missing an NCAA bid, including Ole Miss.
The other teams who opted out include Indiana, Memphis, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh, St. John’s and Washington.
The field is set.
May the best team win, or the best team that day. It goes both ways during March Madness.
Let the madness begin.