Dan Hurley’s UConn team is the 2-seed, a decision by the NCAA Tournament selection committee that came after the Huskies had been in contention for a No. 1 seed both in preliminary rankings in February and this week leading into the Big East Tournament.
Hall of Fame coaches Tom Izzo from Michigan State, Bill Self from Kansas and Rick Pitino from Big East champion St. John’s lead the next teams up in the 16-team bracket.
Duke (32-2) is a No. 1 seed for the second straight year, with last year’s run ending in the Final Four. Jon Scheyer’s fourth squad has made it back to the top line in different fashion, relying on star freshman Cameron Boozer as the anchor to an inside-out approach that has routinely overwhelmed opponents in the paint and on the glass.
The rest of the bracket includes Louisville, UCLA, Ohio State, TCU, UCF, South Florida, Northern Iowa, Cal Baptist, North Dakota State and Furman.
Kentucky is in the Midwest bracket with Michigan and Iowa State. As a No. 7 seed, they're matched up with No. 10 Santa Clara on Friday.
Miami (Ohio), despite that 31-1 record and maybe because of a little chip that’s been placed on its shoulder, is one of those plucky underdogs that makes the NCAA Tournament what it is.
The RedHawks barely scratched their way into the bracket.
They are an 11 seed and have to play a First Four game against SMU on Wednesday. But after all the debate and hand-wringing that came with their single loss last week, which immediately turned them from sure thing into bubble team, they now enjoy the same privilege as the other 67 teams in the field.
The favorite to win the national championship, according to BetMGM, is Michigan, which was listed at 13-4 shortly after the bracket came out, just a tad ahead of Duke, which was 10-3.
The Wolverines took a mini-hit in the seedings, dropping a notch to overall No. 3 after an eight-point loss to Purdue in the Big Ten title game. The Boilermakers are a 2 seed instead of a 3 with the win, heading to St. Louis to play tournament first-timer Queens.
The conference title did not do as much for St. John’s (28-6), which stayed where it’s been predicted most of the season — as a No. 5 — even after a 20-point win over UConn for the Big East title.
(AP Photo Nell Redmond)
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NCAA mens bracket
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