Virginia get No. 1 seed
RALEIGH, N.C. — Virginia spent an entire season exceeding all expectations and making a dominant run through the Atlantic Coast Conference. Now the Cavaliers face a new challenge: trying to earn a spot in their first Final Four in more than three decades as the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The Cavaliers headline the South Region bracket, earning a No. 1 seed for the sixth time in program history. It's the third 1-seed in the past five seasons under coach Tony Bennett, who guided his team to a regional final two years ago but has yet to take the next step: the Final Four.
The pressure will be higher than ever for the Cavaliers (31-2) to do it now.
“I wouldn't say pressure is the word,” leading scorer Kyle Guy said after Saturday night's win against North Carolina in the ACC Tournament title game. “But you know, that's definitely in the back of our minds. . We're just trying to do this for each other.”
Virginia opens play Friday against No. 16 seed UMBC (24-10) in Charlotte in a bracket that features Cincinnati, Tennessee, Arizona and Kentucky — with both sets of Wildcats in the Cavaliers' top half of the draw.
“I told our players that everyone can play if they're in there,” Bennett said in a teleconference Sunday after the pairings were released.
If Virginia can make it through the bracket to reach San Antonio, that would add to what has already been a milestone-filled season. The Cavaliers have a program-record win total and are a unanimous No. 1 in the AP Top 25 ; before this year, the last time they were No. 1 was December 1982 (the poll had just 20 teams then) during Ralph Sampson's senior season.
Virginia went to a Final Four in 1981 with the 7-foot-4 Sampson, then made an unexpected trip there in 1984 as a 7-seed.
The Cavaliers have their traditional suffocating defense that ranks No. 1 in KenPom's adjusted defensive efficiency (84.4 points allowed per 100 possessions), while the methodical-tempo attack ranks 21st in offensive efficiency (116.5 points per 100 possessions). They were picked to finish sixth in the ACC, but they went on to become the first team since 2000 to win the ACC regular-season race outright by four games, then followed with the program's third ACC Tournament title to complete a 20-1 slate against league opponents.
The top challenger is Cincinnati (30-4), which got less than an hour to celebrate Sunday's win against Houston in the American Athletic Conference Tournament championship in Orlando before learning its NCAA path. The second-seeded Bearcats open with 15-seed Georgia State (24-10) on Friday in Nashville, Tennessee.
West Region
Xavier came up just short of the Final Four a year ago, losing to eventual finalist Gonzaga in the Elite Eight.
The Musketeers could be poised to break through this season.
Following one of the best regular seasons in program history, Xavier earned its first NCAA Tournament No. 1 seeding despite losing in the Big East Tournament semifinals.
The Musketeers (28-5) are No. 1 in the West Region and will face the First Four winner between North Carolina Central and Texas Southern on Thursday in Nashville.
Xavier overcame losing point guard Edmond Sumner to a torn ACL midseason to make an improbable run to the Elite Eight a year ago, knocking off Maryland, Florida State and Arizona before losing to the Zags.Sumner went on to the NBA and athletic guard Trevon Blueitt considered leaving before deciding to stay in Cincinnati for another season.Blueitt's return was a huge boon to the Musketeers. He averaged 19.5 points and 5.7 rebounds while shooting 42 percent from 3-point range to become one of the front-runners for national player of the year.Behind Blueitt, Xavier reached the program's highest ranking at No. 3 in the AP Top 25 and set a school record for conference victories with 15 on the way to the Big East regular-season title.Now, a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.Midwest RegionKansas is a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year and is on a collision course with No. 2 seed Duke in the Midwest Region.The Jayhawks open the tournament in Wichita, which is about a 2½-hour drive from their Lawrence campus, with a Thursday game against Penn.Kansas won its 14th straight Big 12 regular-season championship, but an 18-point loss at Oklahoma State on March 3 raised questions about whether the Jayhawks would be worthy of a No. 1 seed. Their dominant three-game run through the conference tournament cast aside any doubts.Duke, runner-up to Virginia in the Atlantic Coast Conference, plays Iona on Thursday in Pittsburgh.The four teams advancing to the regional semifinals will meet at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha on March 23.East RegionVillanova is tops again in the East.The Big East Tournament champions earned another No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats (30-4) will play the winner of the LIU Brooklyn-Radford on Thursday in Pittsburgh.The 2016 national champs are used to high seeds. Villanova was the overall No. 1 seed last season but lost in the second round to Wisconsin. The Wildcats have only advanced out of the opening weekend twice in the last nine years — when they reached the Final Four in 2009 and in 2016.Purdue is the No. 2 seed and plays 15th-seeded Cal State Fullerton. Texas Tech, Wichita State, West Virginia and Florida are among the teams that could also come out of the East should Villanova stumble.
