The bracket is out. Sixty-eight teams, four weeks, one trophy. It's March, and if you're not locked in already, now's the time. Selection Sunday delivered a field that's got everything — a loaded #1 seed, a defending champion trying to run it back, a mid-major that went 31-1 and still had to sweat it out until the last minute, and one program staring down arguably the most embarrassing record in college basketball history. Let's break it all down before the madness officially kicks off Tuesday in Dayton.
The Four #1 Seeds
No real drama here — Duke, Arizona, Michigan, and Florida all got what they earned. The committee went chalk at the top, and honestly, it was the right call. These four programs had a combined 68-6 conference record this season. That's dominant in a way that makes you feel better about sports. Duke (32-2) is the #1 overall seed and anchors the East Region in Washington D.C. They won the ACC outright and looked like the best team in the country most of the season. Jon Scheyer has that program humming at a level where the question isn't if Duke is dangerous — it's whether anybody in their bracket can actually stop them. The East also features UConn, Kansas, Michigan State, and St. John's, which means it's going to be a war from the jump. Arizona (32-2, West) is the most analytically interesting of the four 1-seeds. They don't live and die by the three-pointer the way most modern teams do — which sounds boring until you realize it might be their biggest weapon. In a tournament where one cold shooting night from deep can end your run, Arizona's interior-heavy approach is built differently. Keep an eye on them. Michigan (Midwest, Chicago) and Florida (South, Houston) round out the quartet. Michigan won the Big Ten regular season title before losing to Purdue in the conference tournament. Florida won the SEC and enters as defending national champions, which brings us to the most interesting wrinkle in the entire bracket.
