Despite all the bumps in the road, college basketball’s Selection Sunday is a go
Indiana isn’t much of a spring-break destination, but that’s where hundreds of college students are headed this week.
With the unveiling of the 68-team bracket on Selection Sunday program that begins at 5 p.m. on CBS, the NCAA Tournament will take shape, a year after it was scrapped because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The bracket will include some familiar names, exclude others, and uncertainty surrounds others. Not just the uncertainty of bubble teams, like Wichita State. That’s always part of the deal.
College basketball has battled the pandemic throughout the regular season, and although the infection numbers are heading in the right direction with vaccines, the sports continues to deal with issues.
Kansas and Virginia pulled out of the Big 12 and ACC Tournaments after positive tests. On Friday, selection committee chairman Mitch Barnhart said the teams, at-large slam dunks, remain in the mix.
“No team has been impacted in terms of conversation of being an at-large team or under consideration,” Barnhart said. “The committee continues to have conversation and working through all conversations with the impacted schools as it would relate to their programs and the health protocols locally.”
What about Duke? The Blue Devis also pulled out of the ACC event after two victories and the school declared its season over. But Saturday reports surfaced that Duke could play if selected as an at-large team. That might not happen with a 13-11 record but it adds to the mystery of the day.
The selection committee will pull additional duty this year by selecting at least four replacement teams in case any of those selected Sunday withdraw from the field in the following 48 hours.
There are two deadlines. The first came Saturday at 10 p.m. That’s when teams had to notify the NCAA that it could not meet the medical protocol to continue.
The second is Tuesday at 5 p.m., the deadline for teams to inform the NCAA it is withdrawing from the tournament and a replacement team can take its place on the bracket. After Tuesday, if a team is forced to withdraw, that spot on the bracket will be left open.
One team that’s not headed to the big dance is Kentucky, not with a 9-16 record, the fewest victories by the Wildcats in a season since 1927.
There is a clear favorite for the tournament. Gonzaga (26-0) is the 20th team to enter the tournament undefeated since the inaugural event in 1939, and the first since Kentucky in 2015.
Undefeated national champions: Seven. The last was Indiana in 1976.
The Big Ten, which crowns a conference tournament champion between Illinois and Ohio State on Sunday, seeks its first national championship since 2000 and could have two teams on the first line, the Illini and Michigan.
Another top-seed candidate is Baylor. Despite losing in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals to Oklahoma State, the Bears (22-2) were dominant this season.
Some unfamiliar basketball brands should dot the top four seed lines, Alabama among them. The Crimson Tide meets LSU for the SEC tournament title Sunday in a battle between the previous two College Football Playoff champs.
Here are some projections:
No. 1 seeds: Gonzaga, Illinois, Baylor, Michigan
No: 2 seeds: Alabama, Houston, Ohio State, Texas
No. 3 seeds: Iowa, Arkansas, Oklahoma State, Kansas
No. 4 seeds: Florida State, West Virginia, Purdue, Virginia
Big 12 teams: Baylor, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Texas Tech, Oklahoma
SEC teams: Alabama, Tennessee, LSU, Arkansas, Missouri, Florida
Missouri seed: 7
Wichita State seed: 11