Bracketology 2024: Tennessee snags a No. 1 seed in the penultimate projected field of 68

East Region (Boston)

1.) UConn vs. 16.) Southern/Merrimack

8.) Texas vs. 9.) Northwestern

5.) Washington State vs. 12.) Princeton

4.) South Carolina vs. 13.) Akron

6.) Clemson vs. 11.) Virginia

3.) Iowa State vs. 14.) Vermont

7.) Wisconsin vs. 10.) New Mexico

2.) North Carolina vs. 15.) Fairfield

Over the past few seasons, East Coast basketball has run through Storrs, CT and that is again the case this year as the defending champs, Connecticut are the No. 1 seed in the East region. The Huskies finished the regular season by taking care of Providence pushing their record to 28-3. UConn has lost just once since before Christmas and has compiled a 12-3 record in road/neutral games with all but three of those games coming in quad 1. The Huskies may be the most well-rounded team in the country and will hear their name called early next week.

The rest of the East region is kind of tricky. North Carolina keeps on rolling much like UConn, having claimed the ACC title over Duke in enemy territory on Saturday. Some of the more under-the-radar scary teams are also here, like No. 3 Iowa State, No. 4 South Carolina, and No. 5 Washington State. If you’re looking for bracket busters in this region, look no further than No. 12 Princeton and No. 14 Vermont as teams who could shake things up.

It’s those Princeton Tigers who are the team to watch in the East. The top seed in the Ivy League tournament has lost just three times all year and just once in their non-conference slate and has a metrics average in the same range as their NET at 48. This team went to the Sweet Sixteen last year and won’t be startled by the big stage.