NCAA: Auburn, Duke, Houston and Florida head male tournament
Auburn, Duke, Houston and Florida are the first classified, and a record of 14 SEC teams were chosen to participate in the NCAA tournament.
The Auburn Tigers, led by Johni Broome, player of the year of the SEC, were chosen as the first general sown for the NCAA tournament this Sunday. The Selection Committee also appointed as first sown with the Duke Blue Devils (ACC), Houston Cougars (Big 12) and Florida Gattes (SEC) conference champions.
The selection committee favored Auburn, who won the title of the regular SEC season despite three losses in his last four games, in addition to a defeat against Duke in the only confrontation between both teams.
However, Duke (+320) appeared as a favorite in AM850 Bet to win the NCAA male tournament shortly after the publication of the painting, while Florida (+450) had the second lowest quota.
The SEC, which won for the last time a national male basketball championship in 2012, made history in the NCAA tournament with 14 representatives among the 68 participating teams. The highest previous brand were the 11 candidacies of the Big East in 2011.
To everyone’s surprise, both the North Carolina Tar Heels (22-13) and the Texas Lonchorns (19-15) managed to qualify after overcoming the barrier, while the Indiana Hoosiers, the West Virginia Mountaineers and the Boise State Broncos did not do so.
Auburn (28-5) will be the first classified in the southern region and will face the winner of the Alabama State Hornets match against St. Francis Red Flash in the first round of Thursday in Lexington, Kentucky.
The Tigers faltered in the final stretch, including a 70-65 defeat against Tennessee in the seifinals of the SEC tournament on Saturday.
“We lost against Alabama, Tennessee and in Texas A&M; yes, we are panic,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said with Sarcasm, when asked about the last two weeks. “I am looking forward to arriving next weekend to play again.”
Auburn joined in the southern region Michigan State Spartans, second classified; Iowa State Cyclons, third; and a known rival: Texas A&M Aggies, fourth classified. Duke (31-3) is the first classified in the east region and will face the winner of the American University Eagles vs. Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers on Friday’s first round, North Carolina.
Alabama Crimson Tide are the second classified in the key, looking for their second consecutive participation in the Final Four, followed by Wisconsin Badgers, Arizona Wildcats and Oregon Ducks.
Despite losing Cooper Flagg for an ankle sprain during the first half of Thursday’s victory in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament, the Blue Devils won the last two games without their first -year star, who was appointed player of the year of the ACC.
Coach Jon Scheyer said Saturday that Flagg had a “good trend” to be available “immediately” for the NCAA tournament.
Houston (30-4) is the first classified in the Middle West region and will face Siu Edwardsville in Thursday’s first round in Wichita, Kansas. The Coupars swept the regular season and the Big 12 tournament, ensuring their fourth consecutive season of 30 wins, drawing Gonzaga Bulldogs with the second longest streak in the history of division I.
The Gators (30-4) lead the west region and will face Norfolk State Spartans in the first round on Friday.
A possible second round confrontation against the current two -champion, Uconn Huskies, awaits them. Huskies, preclassified eighths, open against Oklahoma Sooners, novel preclassified, in a west region that concludes in San Francisco.
The region also includes St. John’s Red Storm, second preclassified and newly arrived at its first Big East tournament title since 2000; Texas Tech Red Raiders, third; Maryland Terrapins, rooms; and Kansas Jayhawks, seventh.
Florida improved his 5-2 record in clashes among the 10 best this season after beating Tennessee Volunteers by 86-77 (the largest number of points scored against the VOLS this season) to get the first tit title of the SEC of the GATORS since 2014. They have been one of the most complete teams in the country this year, occupying the first position in the classification of offensive efficiency of Kenpom and the tenth in defense.
The 68 team box begins to be defined on Tuesday with the first four games, and the main box begins on Thursday and Friday, with 32 games in eight venues from all over the country. The 14 DEC teams were followed by the Big Ten with eight and Big 12 with seven. There are three possible second round matches between SEC teams, the type of confrontations that the committee is asked to avoid, but that became inevitable with the number of teams participating in the conference.
The ACC, on the other hand, ended with four teams, avoiding its worst performance since 2000, when the conference had half the current size.
North Carolina was classified in 11th position, its worst position since the preclassifying ones in 1979 began, according to AM850 Research. The Tar Heels had a 1-12 record against the so-called Quad 1 opponents and were part of an ACO that was on the edge of a historically bad season. But they succeeded thanks to a solid team template outside the conference.
The president of the Selection Committee was the Athletic Director of the UNC, Bubba Cunningham, who declared that the rules establish that he cannot participate in any debate about his own team. “As vice president, I managed all the conversations we had about North Carolina, and we had enough,” said Keith Gill, commissioner of the Sun Belt conference, who, in an unusual decision, participated in the CBS classification program to talk about Carolina.
Texas also participated: his seven victories against Quad 1 teams exceeded his 15 total losses, which tied the greatest amount for a general team to obtain a place in the NCAA tournament, according to AM850 Research.
In another position of the classification, St. John’s coach Rick Pitino leads his sixth program in the tournament, an unprecedented record, and often I would have to go to reach the final Four!
First, he will travel to Providence, the same building where the coach took the friars to a surprising participation in the Final Four in 1987, to lead St. John’s in a first round match against Omaha. The second Pitino game could be against Arkansas and John Calipari in what would be a titanic duel between two of the most important coaches in the League. Another iconic coach, Tom Izzo, leads Michigan State to his 27th consecutive tournament. Spartans are seconds of standard heads and will face the champion of the America East, Bryant, in their first game.
And Gonzaga participates for the 26th time, although extending his streak for qualifying for the second weekend to 10 years will be difficult. The Bulldogs, after a lazy year in which they still won the West Coast Conference, are eighth standard heads and could face Houston in the second round.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
