![]() ![]() That facility, usually a magnet for fan fests and coaching conferences, will turn into the main practice and meeting area for all the teams. Players will get their own rooms and teams will have their own floors in a cluster of hotels around the downtown convention centre. ![]() Also unique are the quarantine-like situations all teams will be under during their stay. The decision to place all the games in and around the Indianapolis area is a first-of-its-kind move. ![]() 8 Canadians worth watching among record number in NCAA basketballĪ year later, sports are back, but the hoops the NCAA is jumping through to make this tournament go are a symbol of how far we are from normal.They won it all in 2019, and were poised for the run at a repeat last March when sports got wiped off the map by the still-nascent pandemic. 3 seed into the tournament's West region - the NCAA stuck with the usual names of the regions - while the Cavaliers (18-6) will be a 4 seed in the same part of the bracket, and come in as the most unusual of defending champions. Virginia and Kansas were never in doubt until the coronavirus hit both programs. Iona played only 13 regular-season games because of COVID-19 concerns that sidelined the Gaels for weeks. The Gaels will open Saturday against Alabama. ![]() The coach, ousted at Louisville after a sordid recruiting scandal that enveloped the program for years, led his new team, Iona, from the ninth seed in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference all the way to the league title and the automatic bid that comes with it. NCAA Western divisionĪnother unexpected entry is a familiar face: Rick Pitino. basketball star named player of the year in U.S. After that, if a team pulls out, its opponent will advance via what is essentially a forfeit.įittingly for such an unpredictable season, some teams hoping to sneak in off the bubble were denied when Oregon State and Georgetown - coached by its own former superstar, Patrick Ewing - won their conference tournaments to steal bids they wouldn't otherwise have won. They could find their way into the bracket if a team in the field notifies the NCAA by Tuesday night that it must withdraw because of health concerns. Louis and Mississippi - have been put on stand-by. The last teams to earn the 37 at-large bids - one more than usual because the Ivy League cancelled play this year - were Drake and Wichita State, which play Thursday in a First Four game, and UCLA and Michigan State, two decorated programs with surprisingly low seeds that meet in another play-in game.īut four teams that didn't make it - Louisville, Colorado State, St. Gonzaga, Baylor, Illinois and Michigan earned those slots - with the Bulldogs the 11-4 favourite to win it all and become the first team since the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers to finish a season undefeated. nH2nZpmmPD- were no surprises among the four No. Here’s the official 2021 NCAA Tournament Bracket. More than one and the entire endeavour could crater. But all it takes is a single COVID outbreak to upend the finely calibrated beauty of that plan. That there was any doubt about the Jayhawks and defending champion Cavaliers securing spots in a 68-team tournament that was cancelled last year as the COVID-19 virus mushroomed into a worldwide pandemic was the most jarring reminder that the 2021 tournament itself is no sure thing.Īll 68 teams will gather in Indiana for all 67 games - no wondering who's heading West to Boise or who's going South to Memphis - beginning Thursday and ending April 3 and 5 with the Final Four. Kansas and Virginia, two programs hit with COVID-19 breakouts over the past week, made it into the bracket released Sunday by the NCAA selection committee, signalling both teams believe they'll have enough healthy players to be ready for their tip-offs next weekend. Instead, it was the not-so-simple matter of which programs would be healthy enough to play. The biggest mystery leading into a March Madness bracket reveal more than a year in the making had little to do with bubble teams or top seeds. ![]()
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