Duke received the top overall seed for the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, followed by Arizona, Michigan, and Florida, according to tournament selection chair Keith Gill. All four teams reached the Final Four last season and are aiming to repeat that success.
Michigan dropped one spot to the overall No. 3 seed after losing to Purdue just before brackets were announced. Miami (Ohio) narrowly made the field as an 11-seed, finishing with a 31-1 record but a low 339th-ranked strength of schedule. The RedHawks will face SMU in a First Four game Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio.
The tournament begins Tuesday with play-in games, including matchups like Texas versus North Carolina State. The Final Four is scheduled for April 6 in Indianapolis, where the national champion will be crowned.
Several teams were left out of the 68-team field, including San Diego State, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Auburn. Auburn’s exclusion drew criticism from former coach Bruce Pearl, who said the team played the toughest schedule in the country but was not rewarded.
The Southeastern Conference led all leagues with 10 teams in the tournament, just short of its record last year. The Big Ten followed with nine, and the ACC and Big 12 each had eight. Florida, the defending champion, is among those competing, aiming to repeat their back-to-back titles from 2006 and 2007.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
