Big Dance Brackets Released, Florida Sits as Early Favorite
On Sunday, the long-awaited field for the 2014 Men’s NCAA Basketball Championship had been released. They were surprises and disappointments but we all know upsets will happen with brackets and seedings soon thrown out the window.
No. 1 Florida grabbed a No. 1 seed as expected and appears to be the team to beat. Michigan State, Kansas, Wichita State, Louisville–just to name a few–are also ones expected to compete for the crown.
Florida basketball
Early Vegas odds are out and this includes the Gators at 4/1 to take it all. Behind them is the No. 4 seeded-Michigan State at 9/2. On Sunday, Sparty defeated its rival Michigan to win the Big Ten tournament.
Here’s a look the early favorites per CBS Sports:
- Florida – 4/1
- Michigan State – 9/2
- Arizona – 6/1
- Kansas – 8/1
- Wichita State, Virginia, Duke, Syracuse, Louisville – 15/1
- Wisconsin – 20/1
- Michigan, Villanova, and Creighton – 25/1
- Iowa State and UCLA – 35/1
- Kentucky – 40/1
- North Carolina – 50/1
- Ohio State and Oklahoma State – 60/1
- San Diego State and VCU – 75/1
Among the surprises on Sunday, one was the inclusion of North Carolina State. The team defeated Syracuse in the ACC tournament, giving it the final piece to impress the selection committee.
BYU also landed in the tournament which caused some head scratches. Between losing Kyle Collinsworth to an ACL injury and a Gonzaga loss in the WCC championship game, would this kill their chances? Nope, they landed as a No. 10 seed.
Virginia also surprised a few after first winning the ACC title, but then defeating Duke to win the ACC tournament on Sunday. This resulted in a No. 1 tournament seed. Some thought it would go to Michigan but its Sunday loss didn’t help. Instead, they have a No. 2 seed even though they were the Big Ten title holders and amassed wins against five Top 25 team and 10 in the Top 50.
New Mexico grabbed a No 7 seed after only losing three games since the middle of December by a combined seven points. The team won the Mountain West title over San Diego State and its conference tournament championship. Many thought this would result in a higher seed.
While the AAC has a good tournament showing, the committee didn’t appear too impressed by them when looking at their seeding: No. 4 Louisville, No. 5 Cincinnati, No. 7 Connecticut, No. 8 Memphis and the SMU exclusion. Many thought Louisville would have grabbed a No. 1 or No. 2 seed along with Connecticut maybe at No. 5.
But perhaps the greatest snub from the 68 dancing teams, is No. 25Â SMU. It is the first ranked team since 2004 to not get an invite. Instead, it will head to the NIT as a No. 1 seed (its first appearance there since 2000) along with Minnesota, Florida State and St. John’s as the other top seeds.
Larry Brown and Nick Russell
SMU’s resume included wins against Cincinnati, Connecticut (twice), Memphis (also a loss) but its loss also to Louisville as well as a first round one in the ACC tournament to Houston tilted the committee to not include them. Looking at its strength of schedule, it had a No. 114 ranking.
Larry Brown, SMU’s coach said of the exclusion via the Dallas Morning News, “We appreciate you all coming out here and supporting our team. I feel like I let you down. I learned a long time ago when things don’t exactly go your way, you can either pack it in, or use it as a learning experience to get better. We can use this as motivation.â€
Early GamesÂ
Some low-seeded teams will seek wins early in the week to play against top-ranked ones at week’s end:
Tuesday
No. 16 Albany vs. No. 16 Mount St. Mary’s Winner plays No. 1 Florida.
No. 12 N.C. State vs. No. 12 Xavier Winner plays No. 5 Saint Louis.
Wednesday
No. 16 Cal Poly vs. No. 16 Texas Southern Winner plays No. 1 Wichita State.
No. 11 Tennessee vs. No. 11 Iowa Wednesday Winner plays No. 6 UMass.
