Virginia tops NCAA bracket
Tournament played in the shadow of scandal
With two fewer losses than any other team in Division I and the esteemed Atlantic Coast Conference’s regular-season and tournament championships in its pocket, Virginia (31-2), with a smothering defence and the pace of a manatee, was named the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament bracket released Sunday night.
The other No. 1 seeds were Villanova (30-4), the Big East champion; Kansas (27-7), the Big 12 champion for a record 14th consecutive year; and Xavier (28-5), also of the Big East. The four No. 2 seeds were Duke (26-7); North Carolina (25-10), the defending national champion; Purdue (28-6); and Cincinnati (30-4), the American Athletic Conference champion.
Big Ten champion Michigan (28-7) received a No. 3 seed, the Pacific-12 champion Arizona (27-7) is a No. 4, and the Southeastern Conference champion Kentucky (24-10) — in its record 58th NCAA Tournament — is a No. 5.
The tournament is being played in the shadow of a widespread federal investigation into corruption in college basketball recruiting. The investigation, which led to criminal charges against nearly a dozen defendants last year, is continuing, and an NCAA commission is examining possible reforms.
Arizona, Auburn (25-7) and Miami (22-9) are among the programs in this year’s field that were directly implicated in the scandal; one news report also tied Arizona coach Sean Miller to an allegation that he had discussed illicit payments for his star freshman, DeAndre Ayton, although Miller strongly denied it.
While Creighton Athletic Director Bruce Rasmussen, chair of the men’s basketball selection committee, responded to questions about the investigation’s effect on bids by telling reporters that the committee “will not discuss that at all,” there were three teams implicated in the scandal that were on the bubble — Louisville, Oklahoma State and Southern California — and all three were left out.
The most challenging region appeared to be the Midwest. The No. 1 seed is Kansas, but the Jayhawks may have to face No. 8 Seton Hall (21-11), which began the season with great promise, in the second round and either Clemson (23-9), which finished fourth in the ACC, or Auburn in the Round of 16. The quadrant’s bottom half features secondseeded Duke, a perennial championship contender, and thirdseeded Michigan State (29-4), among college basketball’s most balanced teams.
In fact, according to the advanced analytics site KenPom.com, Kansas — though seeded first — is the third-best team in its own quadrant. Duke is the third-best team by the site’s figures, with Division I’s third-best offence seventh-best defence: command value=”252”/ >Kansas will stay close to home, though, playing the opening round in Wichita, Kansas, and, if it gets far enough, the second weekend in Omaha, Nebraska.
The Midwest’s No. 16 seed is Penn (24-8), which won the Ivy League by defeating Harvard, 68-65, on Sunday. The last time a league team received a No. 16 seed was 1989, when Princeton lost to Georgetown by a point — as close as any bottom seed has come to beating a top seed in 128 such matchups.
Virginia, which began the season unranked in the Associated Press poll, might be considered the prohibitive favourite much as the notoriously anarchic tournament can be said to have one. The Cavaliers have been superb for most of coach Tony Bennett’s nine seasons, with four regular-season titles in the traditionally tough Atlantic Coast Conference. Yet they have not made the Final Four since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, and their last national semifinal came in 1984, when they were knocked off by a Houston team led by star centre Olajuwon.
The South Region will present Virginia with the toughest road to the Final Four in San Antonio of any No. 1 seed other than Kansas. On the second weekend, in Atlanta, the Cavaliers may face a major-conference champion in either Kansas or Arizona in the Round of 16, with No. 3-seeded Tennessee (25-8) or Cincinnati — KenPom.com’s fourth-best team overall — potentially waiting in the regional final.
In the East, Villanova’s toughest competition figures to be fifth-seeded West Virginia (24-10), whose pressing style can fluster even the most poised opponent; fourth-seeded Wichita State (25-7); and, should both arrive in the regional round in Boston, No. 2-seeded Purdue, which has had its best season in years.
Beyond Xavier, the South’s toughest outs include last year’s runner-up, Gonzaga (30-4), which received a No. 4 seed; red-hot Michigan, the Big Ten tournament champion; and North Carolina, which will open the tournament in Charlotte.
For the second straight year, the ACC placed nine teams in the tournament. The Southeastern Conference, which has made a concerted effort to transfer its success in football to the hardhard courtt 8 of its 14 teams into the field.
And it is a big year for the Big East, which received two No. 1 seeds, for Villanova and Xavier, and has six other top contenders among its 10 teams. Villanova, under coach Jay Wright, is displaying consistent excellence. Two years ago, it won the tournament as a No. 2 seed, then lost two starters; returned as the No. 1 overall seed, then lost a national player-of-the-year finalist, Josh Hart; and is now back as the second overall seed.
The fabled last four in were Arizona State, St. Bonaventure, Syracuse (not thought even to be on the bubble) and UCLA. The first team out was Notre Dame, which played much of the season without Bonzie Colson.
The college game continues to keep pace with general basketball trends, with nearly 22 3pointers attempted, and 7.7 made, per game. Both figures are the highest since the line was moved back a foot in 2008. The game also has sped up, with about four more possessions per team, since the shot clock was cut to 30 seconds from 35 for the 201516 season.
But if Division I’s average adjusted tempo is a little more than 68 possessions per game, per KenPom.com, there is a decided outlier: With 59.2 possessions per game, Virginia is the slowest team in college basketball. It may also be the best.