STORRS – The feeling never gets old for Dan Hurley, seeing his team’s name called during the NCAA Tournament Selection Show and placed in the field of 68. He’s heard it five years in a row at UConn, tying the program’s record for consecutive tournament bids; Hugh Greer did it from 1956-60, Jim Calhoun from 2002-06.
Watching the show in a meeting room at the football complex across the street from their practice facility, it was a different experience for most of the Huskies who heard their name called first as the No. 1 overall seed last season, before dominating their way to back-to-back national titles.
“Last year we got it out of the way right away,” captain Alex Karaban said, one of three returners from the 2023 and 2024 championship teams, the only starter from both. “This year it was more nerve-wracking, just, you didn’t know when it would get announced. It’s different every year, it’s just a different journey with every team.”
UConn, 23-10, earned a No. 8 seed in the West Region, which was revealed last.
“You get the best of both spectrums, to be honest, so I thought that was kind of cool,” said Solo Ball, a sophomore who’s made the leap from little-used freshman last season to leading scorer this year.
The road to the Sweet 16
UConn’s run will begin Friday night in Raleigh, N.C., against No. 9 seed Oklahoma, the winner to presumably go on to meet No. 1 seed Florida, which cruised through the SEC Tournament.
Coached by Porter Moser, who made a Final Four appearance with Loyola Chicago in 2018, Oklahoma finished its season ranked No. 43 in the NET with an 11-12 record in Quad 1 and 2 games. The Sooners own wins over Arizona, Louisville and Michigan in the nonconference and went 6-12 in the loaded SEC regular season with significant wins over Missouri, Mississippi State and Arkansas before beating Georgia in the first round of the conference tournament.
Florida, a legit Final Four contender, should roll past No. 16 seed Norfolk State, the winner of the MEAC Tournament, which went 24-10 this year with its most significant win coming at High Point, ranked No. 84 by KenPom.
The top half of the West Region also includes two games in Seattle, where No. 5 seed Memphis will take on No. 12 Colorado State, and No. 4 seed Maryland will take on No. 13 Grand Canyon.
The winners of both four-team brackets will face off in the Sweet 16 in San Francisco.
Penny Hardaway’s Memphis team, led by PJ Haggerty (21.8 points per game), Tyrese Hunter and Dain Dainga, handed UConn its first loss of the season at the Maui Invitational and went on to win the regular season and tournament titles in the AAC. Colorado State comes into the tournament as one of the hottest teams in the country having won its final seven regular season games before cruising through the Mountain West Tournament, paced by senior guard Nique Clifford’s 19.0 points per game.
Maryland, led by center Derik Queen (16.3 points, 9.0 rebounds), a former teammate of UConn freshman Liam McNeeley’s at Montverde Academy, boasts the No. 6 defense in the nation and finished the season ranked No. 10 in the NET with a 14-8 record in Quad 1 and 2 games. Grand Canyon, No. 92 in the NET, finished second in the WAC and won the conference tournament to earn the automatic bid. The Antelopes have one win over a KenPom top-100 team, beating Stanford 78-71 in November, and came close but lost to Georgia by five in December.
Storylines in the bottom half of the West
The lower half of the West Region features a star-studded lineup of coaches. Of the six active coaches to have won a national title, four of them are in the West and three are on a collision course in Providence for the first two rounds.
Bill Self’s Kansas team, a No. 7 seed, will meet John Calipari’s first Arkansas team, a No. 10 seed in the first round. The winner of that game is likely to meet Rick Pitino and No. 2 seed St. John’s, which drew a first round matchup against No. 15 Omaha.
Pitino will return to Providence, where he coached the Friars to the NCAA Tournament in 1986-87, one of a record six different programs he’s taken dancing. Should Calipari get past Self, the rivalry between him and Pitino from their respective time at Kentucky and Louisville would be reignited in a must-see second round matchup.
In Wichita, No. 6 seed Missouri, home of one of the biggest turnarounds in the sport under Dennis Gates, will meet No. 11 Drake in the first round. The Tigers went 0-18 in the SEC last season and finished 10-8 in the loaded league this year. No. 3 Texas Tech, led by one of the best transfers in the nation this season in forward JT Toppin (18.1 points, 9.2 rebounds), drew No. 14 seed UNC Wilmington, the winner of the Coastal Athletic Association Tournament.
