And it’s here! While we still have to wait till March 15 for all the action to start, rest assured we now know which teams have made the bracket for the men’s NCAA Tournament.
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One of the biggest questions entering Selection Sunday was whether this year’s committee members would favor bubble teams from power conferences or mid-major conferences.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the leaked brackets were accurate – the identity of the person who posted the picture is unknown, and the Twitter account has since been deleted – but CBS’ torturously long coverage of the heavily anticipated event soon confirmed what much of the country already knew.
Each region contains 16 teams, seeded No. 1 to No. 16, and there’s also the First Four, the four teams who must play one extra game in order to make it into the first round.
March 25, 2010 – In an opinion piece on ESPN.com U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan proposes that collegiate “teams that graduate fewer than 40 percent of their players should be ineligible for postseason competition and honors”. The Seawolves rank 19th best in the nation in points allowed and 20th in assists per game, which means they can do some damage if they can play at a slower tempo. But a miserable performance against Purdue in the next game set back their chances.
He was talking about the leaking of the bracket, which the NCAA called unfortunate and regrettable, though he could have just as easily been speaking of the selection committee’s overall body of work.
No. 14 Green Bay – After losing its first three games to start the season, Green Bay settled in nicely. Two games match number 16 seeds against each other, and the other two games feature the last four at-large teams selected into the tournament. Still, Monmouth seemed more worthy than some of the teams that made it in. Second, their No. 4 seeding, one spot worse than Texas A&M, the team the Wildcats beat in the SEC tournament title game.
The No. 2 seeded Oklahoma Sooners got to dancing before they hit the big dance this week. But San Diego was just 3-7 against Top 100 RPI teams, although a win against Cal was impressive.
Elsewhere, some conferences are hosting win-and-in title games.
Seton Hall won the Big East tournament with victories over Xavier and Villanova. This is due to the fact that Arizona’s non-conference schedule was incredibly weak.
And over the next three weeks, it’ll be up to March Madness to bring some sanity to a topsy-turvy college basketball season that’s lacked clarity and failed to provide a clear-cut favorite to cut down the nets in Houston on April 4.
2005 – College Sports Television begins a two-year agreement with CBS Sportsline.com and the NCAA for exclusive video streaming rights on CSTV.com for out-of-market game coverage.
Thirty-two automatic berths for the tournament will be determined beforehand: 31 conference tournament champions and the Ivy League regular-season champion. The other contenders: North Carolina, Virginia, Oregon and Villanova.
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There were no easy choices for the committee this season, and the way the big slate of conference tournaments played out only emphasized the way this season has gone.
