A topsy-turvy season in college basketball delivered a few more twists when the brackets came out Sunday.
Exhibit A: Oregon and Virginia are No. 1 seeds, while Michigan State is not.
Exhibit B: Monmouth and Valparaiso aren’t part of March Madness, but Michigan and Syracuse are.
As usual, the NCAA selection committee released a 68-team bracket with its fair share of surprises. This year, the debate started right away, when the committee named Pac-12 champion Oregon a top seed in the West and ACC runner-up Virginia a top seed in the Midwest — and made Tom Izzo’s Spartans, champs of the Big Ten, a “2.”
They’ll decide it on the court. The tournament starts Tuesday with two First Four games. The main draw begins Thursday at eight sites. The Final Four is April 2 and 4 in Houston.
Bracket:
In a season in which six teams held the top spot in The Associated Press poll — one short of the record — there was no doubt there would be some debate about who belonged in the four top spots. That Big 12 and Atlantic Coast Conference champions Kansas and North Carolina earned two of the spots wasn’t that surprising. The rest of it raised eyebrows.
The head of the selection committee, Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione, lauded Oregon’s third-rated strength of schedule (as of Sunday) and No. 2 ranking in the RPI, along with its regular-season and tournament titles in the Pac-12. He said Michigan State was the fifth overall seed.
“Very close. It was a vigorous debate,” Castiglione said. “We know how good a team they are. … It was just a close call, and the committee felt Michigan State was fifth.”
But there were no easy choices for the committee this season, and the way the big slate of conference tournaments played out only emphasized the way this season has gone. Of the 31 postseason tournaments, top seeds won only 10.
That gave automatic spots to bubble teams (or less) such as Fresno State, Gonzaga and Connecticut.
Castiglione said the last bubble team to make it was Tulsa, which meets Michigan on Wednesday.
