East Region (Washington, D.C.)
Tampa
1.) Purdue vs. 16.) Bucknell/Long Island
8.) Creighton vs. 9.) Mississippi
Portland
5.) Louisville vs. 12.) Yale
4.) Arizona vs. 13.) Utah Valley
Buffalo
6.) NC State vs. 11.) San Diego State
3.) Michigan vs. 14.) Arkansas State
Philadelphia
7.) North Carolina vs. 10.) Cincinnati
2.) Saint John's vs. 15.) Towson
Is this the year for Matt Painter and the Purdue Boilermakers? Purdue returns more than most with Player of the Year candidate Braden Smith back, as well as fellow seniors Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn. The Boilermakers have arguably the best roster in the country. In addition to those three, Painter snagged a couple of strong senior transfers. Center Oscar Cluff joins the Boilermakers after being a double-double machine with over 17 points and 12 rebounds at South Dakota State. Liam Murphy is a 6’8 shooter who averaged 13 points and shot over 42% from three-point range on 246 attempts at North Florida.
The team to watch in the East Region is the No. 5 seed Louisville, which enters its second year under Pat Kelsey after going 27-8 in his opening salvo. Senior J’Vonne Hadley is the Cardinals' top returning scorer after netting 12 points per game last season to go along with seven rebounds. Others are returning, but a trio of them saw little or no action last year. Both Kobe Rodgers and Aly Khalifa return after redshirting last season. Also back is forward Kasean Pryor, who played just seven games after tearing his ACL. The newcomers for Louisville are strong, with three frontcourt players, Sananda Fru, Mouhamed Camara, and Vangelis Zougris coming from Germany, South Africa, and Greece, respectively.
The backcourt is littered with talent. Three transfers come in, and all three were big-time scorers at their previous stops. Isaac McKneeley comes from Virginia after leading the Cavaliers in scoring and shooting 42% from deep. Adrian Wooley did everything at Kennesaw State as a freshman, leading the Owls in points, assists, steals, and three-point shooting. Finally, Ryan Conwell is yet another 40% three-point shooter who averaged 16.5 points at Xavier. In addition to all of that, Kelsey went out in landed the No. 6 recruit in the country, point guard Mikel Brown, Jr. from Florida.
The rest of the region has a lot of intriguing teams with the range of outcomes for them spread wide. Rick Pitino’s second year at Saint John’s could be a Big East title strong one. The same could be said about Dusty May’s squad at Michigan, which is the No. 3 seed in the East. The East also has No. 4 seed Arizona and No. 6 NC State, who could be sleepers in the Big 12 and ACC. At the other end of the spectrum, all of these teams could find some tough sledding and find themselves sliding down the seed list as the season goes on.
South Region (Houston)
Oklahoma City
1.) Florida vs. 16.) Montana
8.) Texas vs. 9.) Baylor
Tampa
5.) Alabama vs. 12.) Liberty
4.) Illinois vs. 13.) Illinois State
Buffalo
6.) Michigan State vs. 11.) Virginia/Saint Mary's
3.) Tennessee vs. 14.) Youngstown State
Philadelphia
7.) Oregon vs. 10.) Georgia
2.) UConn vs. 15.) Siena
The top seed in the South Region is the defending national champion, the Florida Gators. Todd Golden lost a ton of production with Walter Clayton, Jr., Alijah Martin, and Will Richard all gone to graduation. The good news for Florida is that its frontcourt and its depth are intact. Rueben Chinyelu, Alex Condon, Micah Handgloten, and Thomas Haugh all return to Gainesville. Needing help in the backcourt, Golden hit the portal and reeled in two of the best point guards available, Boogie Fland from Arkansas and Xavien Lee from Princeton. AJ Brown joins the team after a strong year at Ohio, and CJ Ingram is a 6’6 freshman forward who is a top-25 recruit.
As the No. 4 seed in this region, Illinois will certainly have a foreign flair this season. Transfer Tomislav Ivisic joins the Illini, and his brother Zvonimir. Head Coach Brad Underwood landed a couple of European recruits. Mihailo Petrovic is a point guard out of Serbia, and power forward David Mirkovic hails from Montenegro. Brandon Lee is a 6’3 shooting guard who is a top-100 recruit who should see time off the bench.
The rest of the region has UConn just behind Florida as the No. 2 seed, with Tennessee and Alabama finishing out the top five seeds as the No. 2 and No. 5 seeds, respectively. The bottom half of the region has some teams that could pose problems for higher seeds. SEC teams Texas and Georgia are the No. 8 and No. 10 seeds, with No. 7 seed Oregon and No. 9 Baylor lurking.
West Region (San Jose)
Greenville
1.) Duke vs. 16.) Norfolk State/Bethune Cookman
8.) Wisconsin vs. 9.) Mississippi State
San Diego
5.) Kansas vs. 12.) UC-Santa Barbara
4.) Auburn vs. 13.) Miami (OH)
San Diego
6.) Gonzaga vs. 11.) Miami/Marquette
3.) UCLA vs. 14.) Saint Thomas
Portland
7.) USC vs. 10.) Vanderbilt
2.) BYU vs. 15.) Vermont
In the West region, the Duke Blue Devils are the top seed entering the season despite losing three lottery picks to the NBA. Head coach Jon Scheyer returns three players who now have a chance to shine after biding their time last season. Caleb Foster is a junior point guard who netted five points and 1.4 assists in 14 minutes last season. Isaiah Evans and Patrick Ngongba II are sophomores who should carve out bigger roles this season. Duke also welcomes the No. 1 recruiting class in the country, according to 247sports.com, with three five-star recruits and a total of four in the top 50. A name familiar to Duke fans is back on campus, as the sons of former Duke star Carlos Boozer have followed in their father’s footsteps. Cameron is a bouncy 6’9 power forward who is the No. 3 recruit in the country. His brother Cayden is a 6’4 point guard who is also a top-25 recruit and the No. 4 point guard in the country. The other three recruits give the Blue Devils a lot of length. Dame Sarr is a 6’7 guard from Italy who comes with a ton of potential. Nikolas Khamenia and Sebastian Wilkins are a pair of 6’8 forwards who will add strong depth for the Blue Devils.
Keep an eye on the No. 6 seed in this region, the Gonzaga Bulldogs, because this is their final season in the West Coast Conference as they will join the Big 12 next season. The Bulldogs lost a lot of talent to both graduation and the transfer portal, but both Graham Ike and Braden Huff are back. The duo combined for 28 points and 10.7 boards in the Bulldogs’ frontcourt last season. The strength of Gonzaga’s roster comes from the faces that will be taking the floor for the first time, whether it be from redshirting or being a transfer. Tyon Grant-Foster joins the team after being a key cog at Grand Canyon last, where he averaged 14.8 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 2.1 assists. Former Arizona State guard also joins the Gonzaga backcourt after shooting 43% from distance in Tempe last season. The backcourt is also supplemented by Braden Smith, who redshirted after transferring from Colgate, Jalen Warley, who did the same after leaving Virginia, and Steele Venters, who missed last season due to injury after transferring from Eastern Washington. The last time the three played, they combined for 33.3 points, 10.9 rebounds, and 9.9 assists. That’s some serious firepower.
An interesting storyline in the West region is the strength of some of the double-digit seeds. UC Santa Barbara is the No. 12 seed, the No. 13 seed is Miami (OH), and the No. 14 seed is the St. Thomas Tommies. For UC Santa Barbara, Colin Smith and Jason Fontenet II return, and head coach Joe Pasternack made waves when he landed transfer Aidan Mahaney from UConn. Travis Steele’s Miami Redhawks went 25-9 last season and return five of their top six scorers, including leading scorer Peter Suder, who scored 13.7 points to go along with five rebounds and 3.8 assists. St. Thomas is finally eligible for the postseason after moving from Division II. The Tommies went 24-10 last season, finishing second in the Summit League. The Tommies lost a lot of production, but return eight players led by Carter Bjerke and Ryan Dufault. They have one of the youngest rosters in the country, with Bjerke and Dufault the only upperclassmen on the roster.
The Bubble
Last four in
The last four teams in the field before the season tips off are a pair of ACC teams, one from the Big East, and Gonzaga’s chief rival in the WCC. Saint Mary’s does battle with one of those ACC teams, Virginia, in the South Region. The other Forst Four game has the other ACC team, Miami, doing battle with Marquette.
First four out
The first four teams to miss the cut include three teams with first-year coaches. The lone team in the group with an incumbent coach is the Nebraska Cornhuskers, who have a chance to ride experience and a strong transfer class to a tournament bid. The other three teams that are on the outside looking in are the Big Ten’s Iowa Hawkeyes and Indiana Hoosiers, where Ben McCollum and Darian DeVries take over those programs, respectively. In College Station, Texas, Bucky Ball has arrived as Bucky McMillan takes over as the Aggies’ head man.
Next four out
The next four teams out of the field are led by the Washington Huskies, who have eight new transfers to integrate into the program. SMU won 24 games last season under Andy Enfield, but this year’s roster has eight freshmen to go with three transfers to join returning point guard Boopie Miller. Much like SMU, Villanova will rely on eight transfers to supplement a roster that returns one player, Tyler Perkins, who played last season. The Kansas State Wildcats were on the bubble most of last season and ultimately missed the field, and that is where they begin this year. The Wildcats’ top returning scorer is CJ Jones, who scored 5.7 points. Jerome Tang hit the portal hard, bringing in six new players, four of whom averaged double digits at their previous stops. Headlining the group is point guard PJ Haggerty, who averaged 21.7 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 3.7 assists at Memphis last year.