Duke, Arizona, Michigan, and Florida are the #1 Seeds in Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament

There are some familiar teams at the top of the men’s NCAA basketball tournament bracket, including defending champion Florida.

The overall #1 seed is Duke (32-2). The Blue Devils lead the way in the East Region, while UCONN (29-5) holds down the #2 slot. The Huskies lost out on a possible #1 seed somewhere when they lost to sub .500 Marquette in their final regular season game, and then were blown out by St. Johns’ 72-52 in the Big East Championship. A few weeks earlier, UCONN had crushed St. Johns’ 72-40. St. Johns’ is the #5 seed in the East. Some other frequent visitors to the tournament in the East include #3 Michigan State (25-7), #4 Kansas (23-10), and #6 Louisville (23-10).

Over in the West, the Arizona Wildcats (23-2) are the #1 seed. Arizona won both the Big 12 regular season and conference tournament, beating both #7 Iowa State and #5 Houston to achieve the latter. The Purdue Boilermakers (27-8), winners of the Big 10 tournament, are the second seed in the West. Gonzaga (30-3) is the #3 seed. If it seems like the Bulldogs are there every year, it’s because they are. They’ve made it every year since 1999 (except for Covid 2020). Incidentally, Gonzaga is leaving the West Coast Conference and will play in the new, reconstituted Pac-12 next season.

Michigan (31-3) tops the Midwest Region. The Wolverines won the regular season Big 10 title, but lost to Purdue in the conference tournament. Michigan’s only other losses this season were to Wisconsin (24-10 and #5 in the West Region) and Duke. Iowa State (27-7) is the #2 seed, while Virginia (29-5) is #3. There are four SEC schools in the Midwest Region, with #4 Alabama (23-9), #6 Tennessee (22-11), #7 Kentucky (21-13), and #8 Georgia (22-10).

In the South Region, Florida is the #1 seed despite seven losses (26-7). The Gators had won 12 straight before being upset in the SEC tournament 91-74 by Vanderbilt. The Commodores are the #5 seed in this region, so we could see a rematch in the Sweet 16. Speaking of possible rematches, Houston (28-6) is the #2 seed in the South. The Cougars lost to the Gators in the National Championship game last season. Others of note include #3 Illinois (24-8), surprising Nebraska (26-6) at #4, and in wouldn’t be and NCAA tournament without #6 North Carolina (24-8).

Here’s some Purdue Michigan highlights: