UNDATED (AP) — Picking the NCAA Tournament bracket comes with plenty of potential pitfalls. How do you account for injuries at Houston and UCLA? Can defending champ Kansas make another run after losing handily in the Big 12 Tournament final? Is this the year you can trust the Big Ten? Here's a very preliminary Final Four pick: Alabama, Marquette, Houston and Gonzaga. Houston beats Alabama in the title game, giving the Cougars the championship on the 40th anniversary of Phi Slama Jama’s heartbreaking loss to N.C. State.
UNDATED (AP) — Alabama is the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and headlining the South Region bracket. The Crimson Tide earned the program’s first-ever top regional seed with Sunday’s reveal of the field of 68 teams. That came hours after they closed out a second Southeastern Conference Tournament title in three seasons. The Tide’s top challenger is Arizona, which won the Pac-12 Tournament on Saturday night for the second time in as many seasons under Tommy Lloyd. The Wildcats are the 2-seed in the bracket. The regionals will be held in Louisville, Kentucky.
UNDATED (AP) — Alabama is the overall top seed in the NCAA Tournament after cruising through the end of a season clouded by a murder case. Kansas, Houston and Purdue grabbed the other top seeds. Action in the 68-team tournament begins Tuesday with two games in the First Four. March Madness gets into full swing Thursday and Friday with 32 games spread over eight cities. The Final Four is set for April 1 and 3 at NRG Stadium in Houston.
UNDATED (AP) — South Carolina is six wins away from becoming the 10th women’s basketball team to go undefeated for an entire season, and the Gamecocks will enter the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed. Dawn Staley’s squad has been challenged a few times this year but has always pulled through. The defending national champions will play Norfolk State in the first round of the tournament. The other No. 1 seeds are Indiana, Virginia Tech and Stanford. The tournament begins Wednesday with four First Four games and the full madness starts Friday.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brandon Miller scored 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds as fourth-ranked Alabama smothered No. 18 Texas A&M 82-63 for its second Southeastern Conference Tournament championship in three seasons. The Crimson Tide also capped their second SEC double dip in three seasons, having won the regular-season trophy. The Tide extended the program record for wins while adding its eighth tournament title in its 15th appearance. Texas A&M is now 0-3 in the tournament finale. Dexter Dennis led Texas A&M with 14 points, Wade Taylor IV had 13 and Tyrece Radford 12. Miller was named the tournament MVP.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Houston has received the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region for the NCAA Tournament. The selection committee rewarded the Cougars at the expense of Kansas, which had been hoping its national title defense would include a stop in Kansas City, Missouri, just down the road from its campus in Lawrence. Texas earned the No. 2 seed after routing the Jayhawks in the Big 12 finals. Xavier is the No. 3 seed and Indiana the fourth.
UNDATED (AP) — Kansas is the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament’s West Region and will have coach Bill Self back on the sideline. Self missed the Big 12 Tournament after undergoing a heart procedure, but the school has announced he will return to lead the third-ranked Jayhawks against Howard in Des Moines, Iowa on Thursday. Kansas won its first two games at the Big 12 Tournament without Self before losing 76-56 to No. 7 Texas in the title game. The stacked West Region includes No. 2 UCLA, No. 9 Gonzaga, No. 11 UConn, No. 16 Saint Mary’s and No. 22 TCU.
UNDATED (AP) — The NCAA Tournament has arrived. The First Four games in Dayton, Ohio, will kick things off and set the final bracket with 68 teams battling it out for the national championship in men’s basketball. Sweet 16 weekend will see games in New York City, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Missouri, and Louisville, Kentucky. The Final Four is in Houston. The semifinals are on April 1, with the championship game on April 3.
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