Open for Madness 🏀

03/18/2024

By: Jeff Yoder

UConn, Houston, Purdue & North Carolina Earn #1 Seeds in NCAA Tournament — 5 Bubble Bids Get Stolen on Final Weekend

Time to dance! The 2024 Men’s NCAA Tournament bracket is finally here after a long weekend of hoops. The top seed in each conference was victorious in just 11 of the 32 conference championships, which meant automatic bids were being stolen left and right. Those bid-stealers shrunk the bubble in the final weekend and left a number of teams out in the cold.

“This is the first time we’ve had five bids that have been stolen. The last two years combined have only been three,” – NCAA selection chair, Charles McClelland

Some of the teams left out included Oklahoma, Seton Hall and Indiana State. Let’s analyze some brackets and tie a bow on the conference championships. The Road to Phoenix begins!

1-Seeds: UConn, Houston, Purdue, UNC

The Huskies were the only top team to speed through their conference tournament, and winning the Big East undoubtedly propelled them above Houston and Purdue into the No. 1 overall spot. Both Houston and Purdue fell in their conference tournaments, but their resumes were certainly strong enough to warrant No. 1 seeds. The Cougars got trounced by 28 against Iowa State in a bit of a shocker while the fourth and final 1-seed went to UNC despite the Tar Heels bowing out of the ACC Tournament against NC State. Overall, three of the four No. 1 seeds didn’t win their conference titles. UConn is the team to beat.

Top Seeds

1s: UConn, Houston, Purdue, North Carolina

2s: Iowa State, Marquette, Arizona, Tennessee

3s: Illinois, Kentucky, Creighton, Baylor

4s: Auburn, Kansas, Alabama, Duke

East Region of Champs: The 1-4 seeds in the East Region (#1 UConn, #2 Iowa State, #3 Illinois and #4 Auburn) were all conference tournament winners over the weekend. It was a bit of a gut-punch for all four teams to be matched with the other conference champs prior to the Final Four. We view the East region as the toughest in the bracket.

Final Bubble