The madness starts again! On Tuesday evening the March Madness starts with the First Four, the craziest tournament in US sports. Who will be crowning the 68 teams in the end? SPOX introduces the favourites, explains the ominous bracket and takes a look at the biggest draft prospects. Selected games of the March Madness as well as the complete Final Four will be shown on DAZN from the second round onwards.
Finally the wildest time in the entire US sports calendar begins again. Since the 68 participants of the NCAA Tournament have been selected on Selection Sunday, the USA has been busy filling in brackets again and everyone is working on the virtually impossible task of predicting the complete tournament.
The determination of the bracket is not exactly intuitive, especially from a European point of view. There are over 300 teams in college basketball in the USA, but not all of them can compete against each other. For this reason, during the course of the season, selected journalists regularly draw up rankings of the best teams in the country – this depends on the results, but also on the opponents against whom the respective team has to compete. Stronger conferences are therefore treated “preferentially”.
At the end of the regular season, the respective winners will be played in a separate tournament at all conferences – these teams will then automatically qualify for the NCAA Tournament, just like the Michigan Wolverines around the German Moritz Wagner, who were able to take the crown at the Big Ten Conference.
However, the official selection committee, consisting of ten officials from selected colleges and conference commissioners, then meets again to determine which teams should be present. Since much depends on the previous rankings, some teams have their starting place almost right from the start, while others have to tremble to the last second. In addition to the 60 seeded teams, there are also eight other teams that make up the remaining four wildcards under the First Four.
According to the Committee’s assessment, the 64 teams will be re-ranked and then distributed to the four regions East, West, South and Midwest, although this classification has little to do with geography. Per region there is its 1-Seed, a 2-Seed and so on. The winners of these regions will then reach the final four, which will take place this year at the Alamodome in San Antonio/Texas.
Even if you know the NCAA extremely well – the probability of predicting all matchups in the bracket is 1 to 9.2 trillion according to Forbes. Accordingly, no one has ever managed to do it, but at some point, as we all know, it is always the first time.
For this reason, countless numbers of people will be finalizing their brackets again this year and combined with that, turn over billions of dollars. If you want to join in, you can also fill in a bracket under this link – but you probably shouldn’t put all your savings on the triumph.
The Top Seed: Virginia Cavaliers (31-2)
NCAA title: 0
Last year: Second round
Hardly any other conference in the NCAA is as feared as the ACC – and Virginia dominated this conference like hardly any other team in the last 20 years. In the regular season, the Cavaliers only lost one game within the Conference, which was last achieved by Maryland in the 2001/2002 season. And also in the ACC Tournament Virginia put on the crown after Louisville, Clemson and North Carolina were cleared out of the way.
Unlike some of the other South African teams, the Cavaliers are not dependent on a superstar or go-to-guy, but rather on the depth and good balance that coach Tony Bennett has installed. The team’s top scorer is Sophomore-Guard Kyle Guy (14.1 points), but due to his extremely strong throw, Senior Devon Hall (12 points, 45.2 percent 3FG) is at least as feared.
The greatest strength of the team is undoubtedly the Defense. The Cavaliers force turnovers like mad and play defensively so disciplined that they have at least one hand in their face with almost every opponent’s throw – which makes them so uncomfortable to play. If the opponent doesn’t get a particularly good day of downtown, it will be difficult for every team against Virginia.
However, I have to say that Virginia is not waiting for a walk. Already in Sweet 16 you could meet either Arizona or Kentucky – and these teams have exactly what’s happening to the Cavaliers: Starpower.
(2) Cincinnati (30-4)
The Bearcats are also reigning champions of the NCAA Tournament, although the AAC is not quite as prestigious as the ACC. Nevertheless, Cincinnati is an unpleasant team that defends well. The AAC Championship Game, for example, showed this: after the break, Cincinnati kept Houston’s strong offense out of the field at a pitiful 18 points and 20 percent.
In this game, they were carried offensively – as often in the current season – mainly by Senior Gary Clark, who delivered 20 points and 12 rebounds. His seasonal numbers of 13 points and 8.5 rebounds as well as 43.3 percent of the three-way line made the Big Man the Conference Player of the Year.
Clark, who spent the full four years at college, symbolizes his team:”At Cincinnati, almost all top performers are relatively experienced and therefore make few mistakes, while Freshmen play only a minor role. Your upside may not be enormous, but those who keep their own mistakes to a minimum and defend them well often have pretty good cards in the tournament.
(5) Kentucky (24-10)
Measured by their own standards, it was not a good season for Coach John Calipari’s team, who even bothered to see if his Wildcats would be able to participate in the NCAA Tournament at all. But Kentucky picked himself up in time and won the SEC Tournament for the fourth time in a row. Now the Wildcats are again a team in March, against which nobody really wants to compete.
As usual there is a lot going on about Freshmen, who are officially “One-And-Done” in the summer: Hamidou Diallo (Guard) as well as Kevin Knox (Power Forward) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Guard) are regarded as probable first round picks in the coming draft. The latter, with 29 points in the SEC final against Tennessee, showed just how explosive he can be.
If they can take this spirit with them into the NCAA Tournament, Kentucky could once again go a long way – despite all the weaknesses during the season, where four games were lost in the meantime. “We had to lose these games,”Calipari said.”That helped us.”
Draft Prospect to Watch: DeAndre Ayton (Arizona).
The Big Man is probably the best player in the entire tournament and currently perhaps the top candidate on the 1st place. Pick in the coming draft. Ayton has every ability for scouts to lick their fingers: he can protect the ring, he can throw threesomes, he has a good physique and just as good footwork. The 19-year-old from the Bahamas could become a Big Man superstar a la Joel Embiid and makes Arizona almost unilaterally a team that even the top favourites of the South Region would love to avoid.
Upset tip: Loyola-Chicago (11) via Miami (6).
Nobody has the Ramblers, who will take part in their first tour since 1985, on the paperwork. But that is exactly what they could use. Loyola-Chicago has a balanced squad with a lot of experience. Miami, on the other hand, had a strong start into the season (12-1), but since then the Canes have performed very mediocre (10-8) and were without chance against North Carolina in the ACC Tournament.
Page 1: Introduction and South Region
Page 2: Midwest Region
Page 3: West Region
Page 4: East Region