The NCAA Tournament is filled with future NBA starters, maybe even stars.
Duke freshman forward Cooper Flagg is generally considered a lock to be the top pick in the NBA draft in June.
Baylor guard VJ Edgecombe, Illinois guard Kasparas Jakucionis and BYU guard Egor Demin also are predicted lottery picks in the draft.
Duke could have two more guys drafted in the first round: guard Kon Knueppel and center Khaman Maluach.
Oregon State, which was left behind when Pac-12 schools fled for other power conferences, now plays basketball in the West Coast Conference — and won the WCC’s automatic bid for the women’s tournament.
Alabama guard Mark Sears (1) drives against Florida guard Walter Clayton Jr. (1) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinal round of the Southeastern Conference tournament, Saturday, March 15, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
The Southeastern Conference, normally a football power, has been unusually strong this season in basketball.
Its two newest members — Oklahoma and Texas — are both on the bubble, but if they get in, the SEC could have as many as 14 of its 16 teams in the men’s tournament.
Each conference receives an automatic bid to both the men’s and women’s tournaments, and then the rest of those fields are filled by the committee’s at-large selections.
The recent demise of the Pac-12 lowered the number of automatic qualifiers to 31, leaving room for 37 at-large teams.
South Carolina players celebrate at the end of the Final Four college basketball championship game against Iowa in the women’s NCAA Tournament, Sunday, April 7, 2024, in Cleveland. South Carolina won 87-75. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
UConn won back-to-back men’s titles the past two years. The Huskies beat Purdue in the championship game last season, becoming the third program since 1990 to win consecutive titles. They joined Duke (1991-92) and Florida (2006-07).
South Carolina won the 2024 women’s tournament by beating Iowa and superstar guard Caitlin Clark — a game that drew a record 18.7 million viewers. Teams from the powerhouse Southeastern Conference have won three in a row, with LSU and star forward Angel Reese winning in 2023 and South Carolina winning in 2022 behind star center Aliyah Boston.
The women’s First Four is played at campus sites, which also will host first- and second-round games.
The Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games will be held at two venues — one in Birmingham, Alabama, and the other in Spokane, Washington.
The Final Four and championship game will be at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.
A high seed that makes a run to the Sweet 16 or beyond is affectionately called “Cinderella.”
Five No. 11 seeds have advanced to the men’s Final Four: LSU (1986), George Mason (2006), VCU (2011), Loyola Chicago (2018) and N.C. State (2024).
Villanova is considered the ultimate Cinderella — the Wildcats won the 1985 NCAA Tournament by upsetting top-seeded Georgetown as a No. 8 seed, the lowest to ever win the title.
Finding a Cinderella is tougher on the women’s side. No teams lower than a No. 3 seed have won the women’s event. It happened three times: 1994 North Carolina, 1997 Tennessee and 2023 LSU.
The First Four will be played in Dayton, Ohio. The first and second rounds are in Cleveland; Denver; Lexington, Kentucky; Milwaukee; Providence, Rhode Island; Raleigh, North Carolina; Seattle; and Wichita, Kansas.
The regional semifinals (Sweet 16) and finals (Elite Eight) will take place in Newark, New Jersey (East Region); Atlanta (South); Indianapolis (Midwest); and San Francisco (West). The tournament ends with the Final Four and championship game at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
Bubble watch is a term to track the teams that are teetering between making and not making the NCAA Tournament. These teams are considered to be “on the bubble.”
Teams that win conference tournaments secure automatic berths — often at the expense of others. So bubble watch is essentially keeping tabs on teams that need to win to get in or need others to lose to sneak in.
March Madness banners for the NCAA college basketball tournament cover crosswalks in downtown Indianapolis, Wednesday, March 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
Every game of the men’s tournament will be aired — here is a schedule that will be updated with matchups — either on CBS, TBS, TNT or TruTV and their digital platforms, including Paramount+. The NCAA will also stream games via its March Madness Live option.
Every game of the women’s tournament will be aired — here is a schedule that will be updated with matchups — on ESPN’s networks and streaming services with select games on ABC.
- First Four: March 19-20
- First round: March 21-22
- Second round: March 23-24
- Sweet 16: March 28-29
- Elite Eight: March 30-31
- Final Four: April 4
- Championship game: April 6
- First Four: March 18-19
- First round: March 20-21
- Second round: March 22-23
- Sweet 16: March 27-28
- Elite Eight: March 29-30
- Final Four: April 5
- Championship game: April 7
The women’s bracket is arranged similarly to the men’s side with a few exceptions. The play-in games along with the first- and second-round games usually are played at the home arenas of the top four teams in each region.
Neutral sites begin in the Sweet 16.
A total of 68 teams make the NCAA Tournament.
Eight of those teams start in a preliminary round called the play-in games. The four winners there make it into the field’s traditional 64-team, single-elimination bracket played at neutral sites across the country.
Teams are seeded 1 through 16 and split up into four regions. A 12-member NCAA selection committee determines the field. Seeds are determined by wins, losses, strength of schedule and other metrics.
The top four teams are No. 1 seeds, the next four are No. 2 seeds and on down the line. The games start with 1 versus 16, 2 versus 15, etc., in each region.
Official March Madness 2020 tournament basketballs are seen in a store room at the CHI Health Center Arena, in Omaha, Neb., Monday, March 16, 2020. Omaha was to host a first and second round in the NCAA college basketball Division I tournament, which was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
March Madness is the catchphrase given to college basketball’s postseason, and many consider it the perfect term to capture the craziness that often happens in conference tournaments and NCAA brackets.
Magazine writer Henry V. Porter coined the phrase in 1939 while writing about the Illinois High School Association’s state tournament. It gained traction nationally after former CBS broadcaster Brent Musburger used it in reference to the NCAA Tournament in 1982. Both entities tried to trademark the term, which led to a lawsuit.
A federal court in 1996 ruled the phrase had “’dual use” beyond the high school tournament, and the sides now share marketing rights.
The men’s NCAA Tournament field is set to be revealed at 6 p.m. ET on CBS.
The women’s NCAA Tournament field is set to be revealed at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.
