All 68 teams in the 2016 NCAA Tournament field have been announced and placed! Tune in for the games starting Tuesday and all throughout the rest of the month! Happy March Madness! This is Jeremy Bowen, signing out.
The regions will be previewed more in-depthly in the coming days. Stay tuned with VAVEL over the next few days and weeks for more NCAA Tournament coverage!
8 Saint Joseph's vs. 9 Cincinnati. The Bearscats didn't even know if they were going to make it to the tournament for sure, but they're in. But they face a red hot Saint Joseph's team. Should be a good one.
7 Oregon State vs. 10 VCU. This is another intriguing matchup. Both teams are evenly matched and it wouldn't be surprising to see either of these teams move on to the next round.
6 Texas vs. 11 Northern Iowa. Grab your highlighter now and highlight this game. UNI has taken down Iowa State, North Carolina, and Wichita State (twice) this season. They easily have the potential to take down Texas.
5 Baylor vs. 12 Yale. The Yale Bulldogs are in the tournament for the first time since 1962. They face off against a tough Baylor team out of the Big 12. Expect a big fight from Yale in this one.
4 Duke vs. 13 UNC-Wilmington. Duke has struggled this year and it'll depend on which Blue Devils team shows up that will dictate who wins this one. Don't be surprised to see a UNC-W upset here.
3 Texas A&M vs. 14 Green Bay. A&M got a higher seed than most expected, but the Aggies have struggled in big games this year. They will need to shoot consistently to take down Green Bay.
2 Oklahoma vs. 15 CSU Bakersfield. Buddy Hield and the Sooners are tremendous. Bakersfield shoots well but they will have to shoot out of their minds to stay with the Sooners.
1 Oregon vs. 16 Holy Cross/Southern. Oregon was a surprise one seed but they are very talented. They will probably see Holy Cross in this matchup and should be able to handle them.
Onto the West Region.
6 Arizona vs. 11 Wichita State/Vanderbilt. I believe this game will be Arizona vs. Wichita State and the Shockers have the ability to upset the Wildcats but Kaleb Tarczewski is a tough man to stop. This will be a great one to watch.
5 Maryland vs. 12 South Dakota State. Melo Trimble and Maryland have looked good at certain stretches, but have faultered at others. South Dakota State shoots the three ball really well so you might wanna highlight this one on your bracket.
4 California vs. 13 Hawai'i. Hawai'i has some decent big men but Cal has the talent to matchup with them. Don't be surprised if this one goes down to the wire.
3 Miami (FL) vs. 14 Buffalo. Miami has looked good at times this year but has slipped up a few times. Buffalo snuck into the tourney on a buzzer beater and they could find themsevles wearing the glass slipper;
7 Iowa vs. 10 Temple. Iowa has taken down several top 25 teams this season but they matchup against a very resilient Temple team. This should be a close one.
2 Villanova vs. 15 UNC-Asheville. Not much to say here, the Wildcats have had a great season and should be able to come through with a win, but you can never count out UNC-A.
8 Colorado vs. 9 UConn. UConn made an improbable run to the AAC Championship, winning it all. They are riding some serious momentum but definitely need it against a strong Colorado team.
1 Kansas vs. 16 Austin Peay. America is still yearning to see that 16 upset over a 1. The odds of that happening here isn't good. Kansas is the number one overall seed and behind Perry Ellis and company, Kansas will be a very tough team to beat for any team in the tournament.
Let's break down some of these games, starting with the South region.
The ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, and Pac-12 tied each other for most teams in the tournament out of one conference, with seven.
The mentioned teams below will likely get bids in the NIT Tournament.
St. Bonaventure, South Carolina, Monmouth, and Valparaiso all were close, but did not make it into the tournament.
Here's what teams I think will advance in the First Four: Wichita State, Florida Gulf Coast, Holy Cross, and Michigan.
A potential matchup in the East Region could be 1 North Carolina vs. 9 Providence. The Friars have the ability to put UNC on upset alert.
The games in the Round of 64 will be played on Thursday and Friday. Games in the Round of 32 will be played on Sunday and Monday.
All four regions are tough, but it appears like either the South or East region will be the toughest to get through.
The other two First Four matchups will take place on Wednesday, tip off times are again TBD. It's the battle of 16 seeds Southern and Holy Cross, and then 11's Tulsa and Michigan.
Halfway home. Two regions announced, two to go.
Sorry for the technical issues, next region coming soon.
The next region will be announced soon.
If we see 1 Kansas vs. 2 Villanova in the Elite Eight, that will be a game for the ages.
Charles Barkley having some trouble with the touchscreen.
South Dakota State has the best chance for an upset in the first round as they take on five seed Maryland.
Wichita State and Vanderbilt were both bubble teams. They play each other in the First Four. Should be a good game but the Shockers will have the edge because of the experience of Ron Baker, Fred VanVleet, Gregg Marshall, and company.
Matchups in the South: 1 Kansas vs. 16 Austin Peay, 2 Villanova vs. 15 UNC-Ashville, 3 Miami vs. 14 Buffalo, 4 California vs. 13 Hawai'i, 5 Maryland vs. 12 South Dakota State, 6 Arizona vs. the winner of 11 Wichita State/11 Vanderbilt in the First Four matchup, 7 Iowa vs. 10 Temple, and 8 Colorado vs. 9 UConn
Kansas is the overall number one seed.
The first full region will be announced soon!
Still thinking that Kansas will be the number one overall seed, that will be announced in a bit.
23 combined losses between the four one seeds. That's the most since the 2000 NCAA Tournament when the four one seeds combined for 20 losses.
Villanova and Oklahoma are two other teams who could have been one seeds but will likely be a two.
Michigan State surprisingly snubbed from being a one seed. The Spartans will likely find themsevles as a two seed.
Kansas, Oregon, North Carolina, and Virginia are your one seeds for the 2016 NCAA Tournament!
Kansas and Michigan State seem like sure fire one seeds. The other two one seeds could be a multitude of teams.
Commercial break on CBS and then all four one seeds will be revealed.
Top 10 teams have lost 74 combined games this season, an NCAA record.
As the great Charles Barkely has stated, there are multiple teams that have the potential to be a one seed.
The four teams playing in the First Four games will play this upcoming Tuesday and Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio. The round of 64 and round of 32 will be played on Friday and Sunday across the country.
An outstanding 20 out of 32 number one seeds have lost in their conference tournaments.
Here we go!
Follow the table above to see which teams get which seeds in a given region.
The bracket announcement is coming up shortly! Just minutes away.
With plenty of upsets, close games, and buzzer beaters so far this season, March Madness is going to be especially fun this year!
Kansas head coach Bill Self just interviewed on CBS. The Jayhawks have a great chance of being the number one overall seed.
Selection Sunday show just minutes away on CBS!
32 automatic bids have been determined. The rest of the bids will be at-large bids.
Bubble teams to watch for that will be sweating it out until their names are or aren't called include Michigan, Syracuse, Florida, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Monmouth, Wichita State, Saint Mary's, and San Diego State.
UConn defeated Memphis 72-58 in the American Men's Championship to secure the last automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament.
Michigan State has defeated Purdue 66-62 in the Big Ten Championship!
We're nearing time!
Kentucky has won the auto-bid in the SEC by knocking off Texas A&M in the SEC Championship. Saint Joseph's Hawks downed VCU in the Atlantic 10 Championship to take that auto-bid as well.
Tune in at 5:30PM ET for Selection Sunday coverage!
In addition to those hopefuls, Xavier and Oregon will be dreaming of one seeds, but it's unlikely they'll go to anyone beyond Kansas, Michigan State, North Carolina and Virginia.
Last but not least, the Oklahoma Sooners will be hoping for a one seed. Behind the play of Buddy Hield, the Sooners have been the best three point shooting team in the nation and just flat out fun to watch. Oklahoma has defeated Villanova, Iowa State, West Virginia and Baylor. The Big 12 has been one of the top conferences in the country this season, and the Sooners have done well in conference play. However in both games against Kansas, the Sooners lost. They also lost to West Virginia in the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament Friday night.
Now for Maryland’s counterpart, Michigan State. Denzel Valentine has proven to be one of the best players in the nation and has helped his Spartans to a 28-5 record this season. The Spartans are one of the favorites to win it all. The powerful coaching of Tom Izzo and leadership of Valentine is hard to stop. The Spartans have wins against Kansas, Maryland, Louisville, and Indiana. Outside of a stretch where the Spartans lost three games in six days to Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska, they’ve been nearly perfect. The only other two losses are against Iowa a separate time and then Purdue. The Spartans will meet Purdue in the Big 10 Championship.
Maryland has been one of those up and down teams in college basketball this season. Looking at their schedule, there aren’t too many wins that jump out. They defeated Iowa and Purdue, which are easily their best wins this season. But heading into the conference tournament, Maryland lost four of their last six regular season games. They lost to Michigan State in the semifinals of the Big 10 tournament so it wouldn’t be surprising to see Maryland drop to a 2 or maybe even a 3 seed in the tournament.
Kansas has been the number one team in the rankings for the past few weeks and has been on a roll this year. They have impressive wins like the two against Oklahoma but the Jayhawks also have losses against potential one seed Michigan State, Iowa State and West Virginia. Behind the strong play of Perry Ellis and others, the Jayhawks are on an impressive 14 game win streak heading into the tournament. Watch out for the Hawks.
With Duke not expected to play as big of a role as they often do when it comes to determining the National Champion, who has a chance to be cutting down the nets in early April? It’s been an insane year for college basketball. The number one team has gone down time after time and there isn’t a clear-cut team in terms of who is going to win it all. Who will be around with a legitimate chance of winning the whole thing? Joe Lunardi’s four projected one seeds in the tournament are Kansas, North Carolina, Michigan State and Virginia.
The defending National Champions are the Duke Blue Devils. They ran through the tournament as a one seed last year and defeated the Wisconsin Badgers in the National Title game. After losing several players to the NBA Draft, the Blue Devils have not been the same team this year. They currently have double digit losses, the first time they’ve lost 10 or more games heading into the tournament since the 2006-2007 season, when the Blue Devils were 22-10 going into the tournament. Duke was a 6 seed in the tournament that year in the tourney and lost in the first round to 11 seed VCU. Joe Lunardi currently projects them as a four seed in this year’s tournament.
All winners of the conference tournaments are guaranteed a spot in the NCAA Tournament. For those teams that do not win their conference tournament, the selection committee will consider some of the teams for at-large bids. There are conferences like the ACC, Big 12, and Big 10 that are expected to field six or more teams in the tournament. Conferences which are not members of the Power 5 (ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12, SEC) will most likely get one team in the tournament, maybe two or three depending on which conference.
These are the conferences that have their conference tournament championships just hours before the Selection Sunday announcements:
AAC: UConn vs Memphis (ESPN, 3:15pm)
Atlantic-10: VCU vs Saint Joseph's (CBS, 12:30pm)
Big 10: Michigan State vs Purdue (CBS, 2:00pm)
SEC: Kentucky vs Texas A&M (ESPN, 1:00pm)
Sun Belt: UL-Monroe vs AR-Little Rock (ESPN2, 1:00pm)
North Carolina (ACC), Stony Brook (America East), Florida Gulf Coast (Atlantic Sun), Seton Hall (Big East), Weber State (Big Sky), UNC-Asheville (Big South), Kansas (Big 12), Hawai’i (Big West) UNC-Wilmington (Colonial), Middle Tennessee (Conference USA), Green Bay (Horizon League), Yale (Ivy League), Buffalo (MAC), Iona (MAAC), Hampton (MEAC), Northern Iowa (Missouri Valley), Fresno State (Mountain West), Fairleigh Dickinson (Northeast), Austin Peay (Ohio Valley), Oregon (Pac-12), Holy Cross (Patriot League), Chattanooga (Southern), SF Austin (Southland), South Dakota State (Summit), Southern (SWAC), CSU Bakersfield (WAC), Gonzaga (West Coast)
Without further ado, let's get into the full list of Conference Tournament Winners...
Bracket predictors such as Joe Lunardi of ESPN have had their hands full this season, with upset here and upset there, it’s been hard to tell who’s going to make the tournament and who is not. The electrifying season has led to some conference tournaments, which have all been action-packed. Those are finally starting to come to an end, but there are a few automatic bids still to be handed out on Sunday. We will see who comes out on top in those games Sunday afternoon and then the Selection Sunday show will be broadcast on CBS at 5:30 PM ET.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. But wait, it’s March, it’s not Christmastime. Oh that’s right, it’s time for MARCH MADNESS! It’s the time of year that basketball enthusiasts have waited for after what has been one of the most exciting college basketball regular seasons in recent memory. In just the month of February, the number one ranked team in the standings lost five times. There have been upsets galore this college basketball season which has set up what should be an exciting and thrilling NCAA Tournament which starts in less than a week.