Duke earns top universal seed as March Madness discipline set
After the Selection, Sunday dirt settled, Duke, Virginia, North Carolina, and Gonzaga all declare No. 1 seed. Click right here for the complete bracket for the 2019 NCAA March Madness Tournament: East Region: Zion’s course to the Final Four is going via the nation’s capital. Zion Williamson and Duke are the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Blue Devils sit down atop the East Region. Their avenue to Minneapolis may want to encompass matchups with ACC rival Virginia Tech — which beat Duke without Zion — and Big Ten champion Michigan State. But with Williamson and fellow freshman R.J. Barrett on their games, it is well worth thinking who could be capable of preserve up with the ACC Tournament champions.
“It’s tough to decide what our ability is,” teach Mike Krzyzewski stated Saturday. “I need to have us play as accurately as we in all likelihood can play properly now. … I desire we’re in this tournament for a long time — so one can make us even higher.” Fifth-ranked Duke’s pinnacle competition within the East comes from 2d-seeded Michigan State — which lost forward Kyle Ahrens to a left leg injury in the Big Ten identify sports Sunday — 1/3-seeded LSU fourth-seeded Virginia Tech. The Hokies beat Duke 77-72 on Feb. 26 after Williamson’s foot injury towards North Carolina. The Blue Devils (29-5) have not lost because Williamson returned, rolling through the ACC tourney by way of beating Syracuse, North Carolina, and Florida State.
Krzyzewski hopes center Marques Bolden returns at some point in the tournament, which might give his crew even more submit intensity to deal with the likes of Michigan State if it got here to that within the Elite Eight. Duke opens the NCAA Tournament in Columbia, South Carolina, against the sixteenth-seeded winner of the First Four-sport among North Carolina Central and North Dakota State. After UMBC became the first No. 16 seed to upset a No. 1 seed while it beat Virginia, Krzyzewski is aware of no longer to overlook absolutely everyone. “What I’ve discovered along the manner is not to be glad, not to rationalize,” he stated, “Because, in those difficult moments, rationalization may be the most important opponent that you have at times.”
Assuming Duke receives through the first spherical, eighth-seeded VCU or 9th-seeded UCF can be ready. VCU big-name point protects Marcus Evans injured his left knee in the Atlantic 10 Tournament however is expected to go back for the NCAA Tournament. South Region: Virginia now has its threat to make up for being the first No. 1 seed to lose its NCAA Tournament opener. The Cavaliers are the second one overall No. 1 seed and again in the South Region bracket after dropping to the University of Maryland-Baltimore County — better referred to as UMBC — a yr ago. This is the seventh time Virginia has been a No. 1 seed and the fourth time in six seasons, even though the Cavaliers nevertheless are looking to attain their first Final Four with instruct Tony Bennett. The Cavaliers (29-3) will play an NCAA Tournament newcomer in Gardner-Webb (23-eleven) of the Big South Conference on Friday in Columbia, South Carolina.
West Region: Gonzaga is the No. 1 seed within the NCAA Tournament West Region regardless of losing inside the West Coast Conference event identify sport. Virginia had been going for walks to be the normal top seed till losing 69-fifty nine to Florida State in the ACC Tournament semifinals. The Cavaliers locate themselves in a bracket with Tennessee, hoping for a No. 1 seed, Wisconsin, Purdue, and Cincinnati. The pinnacle-ranked Bulldogs will open towards the First Four winner between Farleigh Dickinson and Prairie View A&M in Salt Lake City on Thursday. Michigan turned into the No. 2 seed and will face Montana in Des Moines, Iowa. Big 12 ordinary-season champion Texas Tech was the No. Three seed and Florida State earned a No. Four in one of the bracket’s toughest regions. The West, which concludes in Anaheim, California, also consists of Marquette, Buffalo, Nevada, and Syracuse. Marquette could have one of the maximum exciting first-spherical video games with high-scoring Golden Eagles shield Markus Howard going through Murray State’s effective shield Ja Morant in Hartford, Connecticut.
Midwest Region: North Carolina changed into rewarded for navigating a brutal timetable, earning the No. 1 seed within the Midwest Region after it tied Virginia for the regular-season ACC name and took Duke down to the twine in its convention tournament. That’s pretty much its best reward. The Blue Devils earned the overall No. 1 seed and had been given the extra preferable East Region, and which means the Tar Heels may be traveling all over the USA within the NCAA Tournament. They’ll open in opposition to MAAC match champion Iona on Friday in Columbus, Ohio, and could face eighth-seeded Utah State or ninth-seeded Washington for a niche inside the Sweet 16. This happens to be in Kansas City, Missouri, simply down the street from which Roy Williams once coached Kansas. And who must be the No? However, four seed, the Jayhawks, who may want to earn another experience to the Sprint Center — in which they simply misplaced the Big 12 Tournament final — with a pair of wins. The Jayhawks open against Northeastern in Salt Lake City, and they might face the winner of a difficult showdown among SEC Tournament champion Auburn and No. 12 seed New Mexico State.
The backside half of the Midwest Region boasts just as plenty of intrigues. Just as a whole lot university basketball pedigree, too. Kentucky spent an awful lot of the season within the discussion for a No. 1 seed, mainly after a win over then-No. 1 Tennessee throughout convention play. But a narrow loss to the Vols within the SEC Tournament may additionally have dropped the Wildcats a line and into a matchup with Abilene Christian. If they increase, they will face seventh-seeded Wofford — the Southern Conference champ and mid-primary darling, presently on a 20-game win streak — or Seton Hall, a team that already topped Kentucky as soon as this season and knocked off Marquette two times and Villanova once. Third-seeded Houston gained a college-file 31 games together with its first everyday-season convention championship because 1992. The Cougars, who will open towards Sun Belt champion Georgia State, could be trying to enhance to the Sweet sixteen after losing to Michigan inside the 2nd spherical a 12 months ago. Iowa State packed the Sprint Center all through the Big 12 Tournament, and it changed into that assist — even within the finals towards the close by Kansas — that helped propel the Cyclones to the championship. They determine to have even more help if they get past Ohio State in the first round and the Houston-Georgia State winner to reach the Sweet sixteen for the primary time in three years.
