UCLA are the No 1 overall seed in the women’s NCAA Tournament for the first time, while Auburn are the top overall seed in the men’s tournament.
UCLA had two losses on the season, the Bruins were joined by South Carolina, Southern California and Texas as the No 1 seeds that the NCAA revealed on Sunday night.
Dawn Staley felt her team should get the No 1 overall seed, but unlike last year when the Gamecocks finished off an undefeated season with a national title, this team has three losses heading into March Madness. Staley’s team are looking to be the first team to repeat as women’s champion since UConn won four straight from 2013-16. The Huskies, who are a two-seed, are looking to end that drought with star Paige Bueckers. They’ll have to go out west if they reach the Sweet 16 and a potential rematch with JuJu Watkins and the Trojans could be waiting in the Elite Eight.
For the first time in NCAA history, there will be a financial incentive for women’s teams. They will finally paid for playing games in the NCAA Tournament just as the men have for years. So-called performance units, which represent revenue, will be given to women’s teams for each win they get. A team who reach the Final Four could bring their conference roughly $1.26 million over the next three years in financial performance rewards.
This comes a year after the women’s championship game that saw South Carolina beat Caitlin Clark and Iowa pull in better TV ratings then the men’s title game.
In the men’s Tournament Auburn are the top overall seed, with Duke, Houston and Florida joining the Tigers on the No 1 line.
The NCAA selection committee favored the regular-season champs of the record-setting Southeastern Conference despite three losses in their last four games, along with a loss to Duke back in December in the season’s lone meeting between the teams.
The Tigers (28-5) and Gators were two of the 14 SEC teams to make the field, which will be the most for a conference in the history of the tournament. In something of a surprise, both North Carolina and Texas slid in off the bubble.
The 68-team bracket starts whittling down on Tuesday with preliminary games, and the main draw kicks off on Thursday and Friday, with 32 games at eight sites around the country.
The selection show began with a heartfelt tribute to the late Greg Gumbel, the CBS stalwart who oversaw the bracket unveiling for decades.
North Carolina looked all but out, a victim of a 1-12 record against so-called Quad 1 opponents and part of a conference (ACC) teetering on the verge of a historically bad season. But the Tar Heels made it, thanks maybe to a strong nonconference slate, while Texas were also in – their seven wins against Quad 1 teams outweighing their overall 15 losses.
The SEC’s 14 teams were followed by the Big Ten with eight and Big 12 with seven. The ACC, meanwhile, ended up with four teams, barely avoiding its worst showing since 2000, back when the conference was half the size it is now.
Even in a down cycle, the ACC has Duke, and Duke have arguably the best player in the country in freshman Cooper Flagg, a 19-point, 7.5-rebound-a-game freshman whose ankle injury, the school says, will not keep him out of March Madness.
Elsewhere in the bracket, coach Rick Pitino leads his unprecedented sixth program into the tournament, and what a road he would have to take to get to the Final Four.
First, he will travel to Providence, the same building where the coach led the Friars to a surprise Final Four trip back in 1987, to lead St John’s in a first-round game against Omaha. Pitino’s second game could come against Arkansas and John Calipari in what would be a titanic matchup between two of the game’s biggest coaching names.
Another coaching legend, Tom Izzo, leads Michigan State to their 27th straight tournament. The Spartans are seeded second and will face America East champion Bryant in its opener. And Gonzaga are in for the 26th time, though extending their streak of making the second weekend to 10 years will be tough. The Bulldogs, after an “off” year in which they still won the West Coast Conference, are seeded eighth and could face Houston in the second round.
