Alabama, Houston, Kansas, Purdue earn top overall seeds

The top overall seed, Alabama, has been on a roll despite being entangled in a murder case. Another No. 1 seed, defending national champion Kansas, is coming off a blowout loss and has a coach coming out of the hospital. Yet another, Houston, just watched its best player go down in a heap with a scary injury.

This year’s March Madness frontrunners are anything but perfect, but the presence of these teams and all their questions at the top of the bracket could make for precisely what the NCAA wants its tournament to be – a perfectly unpredictable mess.

Most of the drama in picking this year’s bracket was resolved far before Selection Sunday.

Arizona State and Nevada made it off the bubble and into the 68-team field. Rutgers and Oklahoma State did not. Purdue, with 7-foot-4 Zach Edey leading the way, edged out UCLA for the fourth and final No. 1 seed.

And in a decision most everyone saw coming, the selection committee left North Carolina, last year’s national runner-up, out of the tournament. It made the Tar Heels the first team since the bracket expanded to 64 teams in 1985 to start the season ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll and finish it by not making the Big Dance.

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AAC: Memphis 75, No. 1 Houston 65 Kendric Davis scored 31 points, including 14 in a big run before halftime, and Memphis held on to beat short-handed No. 1 Houston 75-65 in the American Athletic Conference tournament championship game Sunday.

DeAndre Williams had 16 points and 13 rebounds for coach Penny Hardaway and the Tigers (26-8), who got the league’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid. They are going to March Madness for the second year in a row.

Houston (31-3) played without AAC player of the year Marcus Sasser, who strained his groin in the first half of Saturday’s semifinal game. The senior guard’s status will remain a question mark for the Cougars, who entered their final AAC game already a sure bet for their first No. 1 NCAA seed since 1983 during the Phi Slama Jama era.

The Cougars, who are moving to the Big 12 next season, beat Memphis 71-53 in last year’s AAC tournament championship game, and won both regular-season matchups this season.

J’Wan Roberts had 12 points and 20 rebounds for Houston. Jamal Shead had 15 points on 3-of-14 shooting, and Jarace Walker had 13 points before fouling out.

The team they lost to, Kansas, is trying to become the first back-toback NCAA champion since Florida in 2007.

The Jayhawks earned the top seed in the West Region, but only the third overall, behind the Crimson Tide and the Cougars. The Jayhawks are awaiting the return of coach Bill Self, who went to the hospital last week complaining of chest tightness and concerns with his balance. He has been discharged and is expected back this week.

The head of the selection committee, Chris Reynolds, said it took every injury, and every absence, into account.

“It’s certainly something the committee talked about during the course of the year, and certainly played a factor in seeding and selection,” said Reynolds, the athletic director at Bradley.

He said the committee also did not ignore lopsided losses: Two of Kansas’ seven Ls came in March to Texas, a No. 2 seed, by 16 and 20 points.

“They mark it how they feel and we’re just going to do what we need to do to get where we need to be,” Kansas forward KJ Adams said.

The tournament begins Tuesday with two First Four games. The full madness starts Thursday with 16 first-round games, then 16 more the next day.

SEC: No. 4 Arkansas 82, Texas A&M 63

Brandon Miller scored 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds as fourth-ranked Alabama smothered No. 18 Texas A&M for the Crimson Tide’s second Southeastern Conference Tournament championship in three seasons.

The Crimson Tide also capped their second SEC double dip in three seasons after picking up their regular-season trophy before Friday’s quarterfinals. The Tide (29-5) extended the program record for wins while adding its eighth tournament title in its 15th appearance; both are second only to Kentucky in the SEC.

Miller, the tournament MVP and AP All-SEC player and newcomer of the year, posted his ninth double-double of the season. Jahvon Quinerly, who was 0-of-9 shooting with one point in the semifinal, made his first three 3s and scored 13 of his 22 points in the first half. Charles Bediako had 12 points and 13 rebounds.

The second-seeded Aggies (25-9) dropped to 0-3 in the tournament finale, losing for a second straight year. Dexter Dennis led Texas A&M with 14 points, Wade Taylor IV had 13 and Tyrece Radford 12.

Big Ten: No. 5 Purdue 67, Penn St. 65

Zach Edey scored 30 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, and No. 5 Purdue hung on to beat Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament championship

game.

Kansas’ loss to Texas in the Big 12 semifinal Saturday likely played into FanDuel Sportsbook setting the Jayhawks at 10-1 to win the title, behind both Alabama of the South Region (8-1 odds) and the overall favorite, Houston (5-1 odds), which would be playing the Final Four in its hometown if it wins the Midwest Region. The semifinals and finals are set for NRG Stadium on April 1 and 3.

The Cougars lost their conference title game Sunday, i n large part because they were without Marcus Sasser, the leading scorer who left the previous day’s game early after sliding awkwardly and hurting his groin.

Purdue likely found its way onto the “1” line when it won the program’s second Big Ten tournament title Sunday, less than 24 hours after UCLA, also dinged-up this season, fell by two to Arizona in the Pac-12 title game.

For Alabama, the SEC tournament was a relative breeze – nobody stayed within double digits of the Tide -- unlike the past two months, which have been met with a near constant flow of headlines about a former player, Darius Miles, who is accused of capital murder In the Jan. 15 killing of 23-year-old Jamea Harris.

“I’m not sure we would have predicted this,” said coach Nate Oats of the Tide, which is a No. 1 seed for

The Boilermakers (29-5) led by as much as 17 in the second half, only to have the lead shrink to one in the closing seconds. They came away with their second title to go with one in 2009.

Penn State (22-13) made things interesting in the final minute. Purdue led 66-60 when Myles Dread nailed a 3 with 16 seconds remaining. Evan Mahaffey then stole Brandon Newman’s inbound pass and fed Camren Wynter for a layup that made it a one-point game with six seconds remaining.

Purdue’s Fletcher Loyer then made a free throw before missing the second. Penn State’s Andrew Funk got the rebound, but after a timeout, Wynter got called for traveling just before the final buzzer.

Edey, the Big Ten Player of the Year, shook off the constant double teams and delivered another big performance for Purdue’s fifth straight win. The 7-foot-4 center made 12 of 17 shots.

Seth Lundy led Penn State with 19 points and Wynter scored 14.

Ivy: Princeton 74, Yale 65

Tosan Evbuomwan scored 21 points, Caden Pierce added a double-double and Princeton beat Yale to win the Ivy League Tournament and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

No. 2 seed Princeton’s victory ends top-seeded Yale’s three-year run as league champion. The the first time. “Being the No. 1 overall seed is great. It says what an unbelievable regular season we’ve had. You’ve still got to go win the games.”

The SEC and Big Ten led the way by placing eight teams each in the 68-team field. Duke won the ACC for the 22nd time and was one of five teams from that conference in a relatively weak year.

But this tournament is always about more than big schools with big pedigrees.

Some teams to watch for include 13th-seeded Iona, coached by the legend, Rick Pitino, who has the Gaels in the show for the second time in three years – with some people wondering if he’ll be heading over to a vacant job at St. John’s soon. Iona got a brutal draw – a first-round meeting against fourth-seeded UConn.

There is Southern Conference champion Furman, back in the tournament for the first time since 1980, and MEAC champ Howard, back in the tourney for the first time since 1992.

There is Kennesaw State, the program that went 1-28 in 2019-20 and now finds itself in the bracket. For the rest of the dreamers, there is Texas Southern – the team that won its conference tournament as a No. 8 seed and comes to March Madness at 14-20 for a play-in game against Fairleigh Dickinson.

Tigers will be making their 26th appearance in the Big Dance and their first since 2017. Yale beat Princeton 66-64 in last season’s championship game. Evbuomwan sank 8 of 14 shots from the floor with a 3-pointer for the Tigers (21-8). He added five rebounds and four assists. Pierce, the Ivy League’s freshman of year, finished with 12 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks. It was his seventh double-double of the season. Matt Allocco pitched in with 15 points and seven boards, while Ryan Langborg had 14 points and four assists. Sophomore Bez Mbeng paced the Bulldogs (21-8) with 18 points and six rebounds. Matt Knowling, who led the Ivy with a shooting percentage of 63%, scored 14 off the bench on 6-of-7 shooting. August Mahoney hit three 3-pointers and scored 13.

A-10: VCU 68, Dayton 56

Jalen DeLoach had 13 points and 10 rebounds, and top-seeded VCU beat second-seeded Dayton to win the Atlantic 10 Tournament for the first time in eight years.

Ace Baldwin added 16 points and seven assists, sending the Rams (27-7) to the NCAA Tournament with a nine-game winning streak and a title that has often alluded them during an otherwise impressive run of consistency.

VCU had played in the A-10 final six times from 2013-21, winning just once in 2015 when it beat Dayton.