Florida Gators directs the dominant conference of the SEC in the NCAA tournament
The USAT Jordan Mendoza talks about Florida which took the dry above the flights and how the dry could dominate the madness of the walk to the Final Four.
Sports seriously
The fate of the Eastern Region in the NCAA male tournament can be summed up Cooper Flagg’s ankle state After the first star year missed the ACC championship match against Louisville.
Even with Flagg put aside, the Blue Devils flashed the kind of score depth necessary to advance deep in March by beating the cardinals behind 52 points combined by Guards Tyrese Proctor, Sion James and Kon Knueppel.
A multitude of options will serve Duke Well in a region which also includes n ° 2 in Alabama, the most score team in the country, with Wisconsin n ° 3, n ° 4 of Arizona, Oregon n ° 5 and n ° 6 Brigham Young.
Blue Devils will also benefit from the opening weekend in Raleigh, North Carolina. The region will end in Newark, New Jersey, which is close to the New York region familiar in Duke.
The crimson tide is looming. Byu had a formidable second half of the regular season and could be a fashionable choice to reach the elite eight. Arizona is, well, Arizona; The Wildcats could return the switch and win the region. And the Wisconsin offensive finally joined the 21st century, giving the Big Ten Finalist a puncture of reaching the Final Four for the first time since 2015.
But let’s be clear: Duke is the eastern favorite. USA Today Sports breaks down the region:
Eastern region Best First Round Match: Byu against Virginie Commonwealth
Byu dropped three in a row at the start of Big 12 Play in Houston, Texas Tech and TCU before turning things around. The cougars are heading for the tournament after winning 14 of the 18 games, including victories against Arizona, Kansas and a two -game Iowa state -of -the -art games. VCU rebounded with a defeat at the end of the season in Dayton – which mainly struck the Rams Out of the image in general – to win the Atlantic 10 tournament, closing with an essential victory against George Mason. This should be a high level affair: byu on average 81 points per game, 27th at the national level, and VCU scores 77.4 points per game, good for the second in the A-10.
EXCLUDED: Six teams were snubbed by the NCAA male tournament
From top to bottom: Winners and losers from the tournament support
Potential of the East region upset in the first round: Arizona against Akron
Another option is Oregon freedom in the region 12-5 match. But let’s go akron to sneak in front of Arizona based on the almost perfect walk of the zips through the Mac and the frustrating section of the Wildcats. Akron went for 28-6 in total during the regular season and 17-1 at a conference, losing only once since the calendar turned around 2025. Meanwhile, Arizona went 5-6 in the last weeks of the regular season to drop in tournament.
Sleeper from the East region: Wisconsin
The Wisconsin could be examined to land as seeded n ° 3 after losing the Big Ten championship match against Michigan, especially after the Wolverines drew a seeded n ° 5 in the southern region. The badgers also failed towards the end of the regular season, losing at home against Oregon, in Michigan State and at home against Penn State before rebounding to take place in the conference tournament. What makes this team interesting, and also dangerous, is the extreme increase in the production of offense. After classifying 145th at the national level by scoring last season, the badgers head to the country’s 35th tournament at 80.5 points per game.
Winner of the Eastern Region: Duke
This is one of the most complete teams on the land and the clear favorite to win the region, if Flagg is completely recovered from its ankle injury. If this is the case, his well -balanced game will help make Blue Devils a difficult match for each potential opponent of the East, otherwise the support. This is a team with few faults, if necessary: ​​Duke ranks seventh in the country to mark the defense, 15th in score attack, first on the sidelines of the score, fifth as an effective percentage of goals on the ground, seventh in percentage of defense on the ground and ninth in rebound. You can argue that not reaching the last four would be a significant disappointment.
(Tagstranslate) NCAA (T) Men’s Basketball Tournament (T) Tournament (T) VCU (T) Rams (T) Men’s Basketball (T) NCAA (T) Atlantic (T) Coast (T) Conference (T) NCAA (T) Big (T) 12 (T) Conference (T) NCAA (T)
