So now the NCAA tournament has its top 16 seeds, written down in pencil, of course. Better be pencil since five of them lost Saturday immediately after the bracket release, faster than you could say “What’s wrong with Kansas?”
Yes, the preview is nice but check back in four weeks on Selection Sunday when they do it for real. As Wisconsin’s Greg Gard said Saturday after the Badgers validated their No. 11 spot by winning at Purdue, “We’ve got a lot of basketball left to play before that day comes.”
TOP 16: Division I Men’s Basketball Committee reveals top 16 seeds one month before Selection Sunday
Still, it’s a blueprint, and an intriguing one.
Sixteen messages from a bracket of 16
1. Let’s have yet another hearty round of For they’re some jolly fellows for the SEC, with six teams in the top 10. If the dancing started today, the SEC would have the No. 1 seed in three of the four regions — Auburn, Alabama and Florida. And every opportunity to put three teams in the Final Four, something only the Big East has ever done, and that was 40 years ago.
2. Seven of the highest-seeded nine teams have never won a national championship. Five of them have never played in the title game. So 2025, thy name is opportunity.
3. Auburn was declared the fairest of them all as the No. 1 seed. The Tigers are 14-2 in quad 1 wins, with six more than any other team in the nation. For the 1-2 High Noon moment at Alabama Saturday, they put six players in double figures, committed only four turnovers and never trailed one second. Any questions?
“They’re the No. 1 team in the country for a reason,” was one coach’s opinion. That was Alabama’s Nate Oats, and he ought to know.
4. Yeah, the Tide lost but the points keep coming. They have played 25 games this season. They have been held under 80 three times. Alabama gets its chance for revenge March 8 at Auburn. And then maybe again in the SEC tournament. And then maybe again in the NCAA tournament.
With so many SEC having chances to make deep runs and bump into one another, the odds are greater than ever of two members playing four times this season. Might as well be Alabama and Auburn.
5. If not an SEC team galloping through March, then who? One interloper has clearly risen to the top. In the upper tier of the seed list, No. 3 Duke is a tiny blue island in a sea of SEC. The Blue Devils lead the nation in winning margin, with 10 of their 15 ACC victories by at least 17 points. New league member Stanford got its first-ever look at Cameron Indoor Stadium Saturday and lost 106-70. Call it an initiation fee.
A lot of it has been freshman phenom Cooper Flagg, but not all of it. “When your best player literally does not care about statistics, I think everybody else, how can you care about statistics?” coach Jon Scheyer said. “Cooper [Flagg] does not care. He cares about winning, and I think that’s contagious.”
👀 MORE: Latest bracket predictions
6. Florida has gone from a sixth-place spot in the SEC preseason poll to being named the provisional top seed in the West region. What to say about the Gators? Start with this: Florida 90, Auburn 81. At Auburn, Enough said?
Well, there’s also this: Since the rather unseemly 64-44 loss at Tennessee when a missing persons report was filed on the Florida offense, the Gators are 4-0 with 51 three-pointers, 85 assists and seven different players scoring in double figures. For future reference, it’s been eight years since Florida made it to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament.
this season is in the history books 💥 pic.twitter.com/eijqmqdIzA
— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) February 9, 2025
7. While Auburn. Alabama and Florida light up the scoreboards in the SEC with 47 games of at least 85 points among them, Tennessee and Texas A&M join them at the top of the list with two of the top-rated defenses in the nation. One other thing the two have in common. Neither has ever been to the Final Four.
8. Purdue’s grasp on the No. 2 seed in the Midwest — and with it the chance to play the regional in Boilermaker-friendly Indianapolis — might be a little slippery. Not long after the early bracket popped out, Purdue gave up the most points in a Mackey Arena home game in 12 years and lost to Wisconsin 94-84. That’s two defeats in a row, with trips to Michigan State and Indiana in the next seven days, and later to Illinois. There was some frustration on the floor against the Badgers and no wonder. Purdue shot 52 percent, committed only four turnovers, had more rebounds and got 30 points from Trey Kaufman-Renn. And lost by 10 at home.
“You’re getting into February, you’re competing, you’re trying to jockey to get yourself in the best position for the NCAA tournament and win a Big Ten championship and it gets hard. But it’s hard for everybody,” coach Matt Painter said. “I talked to them afterward, `hey, you’ve got to quit talking to officials, you’ve got to quit showing body language, you’ve got to quit being emotional. There ain’t nothing wrong with being passionate, but don’t be emotional.’
“I like our guys, we have a good team. But we collectively just have to be better, and that includes me.”
9. If this bracket holds and Houston is indeed the No. 2 seed in the West with its never-give-them-air defense, the Cougars would be seeded just behind Florida, the 12th highest scoring team in the nation, and just ahead of Kentucky, the third. Wouldn’t that be an interesting weekend in San Francisco?
10. Kentucky’s No. 10 seed took a quick battering with the loss at Texas but still, it certainly suggests good chances of a happier March for the Wildcats faithful, who have been so troubled by recent events. Kentucky has won one game in the past four NCAA tournaments and has been shown the door by Saint Peter’s and Oakland. The early bracket promises something better. And it’s not recommended to disappoint Big Blue Nation.
11. This mystery team has been ranked in the AP top-10 for 22 consecutive weeks, longer than anyone else in the nation. Alabama? Duke? Houston? No, no, no. Iowa State. That’s the bunch whose only loss in the first 16 games was by two points to Auburn. The Cyclones are 20-5 now, No. 9 in the early bracket and with a chance to bring a breakthrough to the cornfields. It has been 45 years since anyone from the state of Iowa showed up in the Final Four.
12. Remember when Wisconsin finished in a tie for 12th in the preseason Big Ten media poll? Arizona started 4-5? Texas Tech was picked to finish seventh in the Big 12? Michigan finished at the bottom of the Big Ten and had 24 losses overall last season? Never mind all that. Those are seeds 11-14.
Win No. 20 ✔️ pic.twitter.com/RkKxP7dIwJ
— Texas Tech Basketball (@TexasTechMBB) February 15, 2025
Texas Tech is 6-1 on the road in the Big 12, Arizona started 11-1 in its first Big 12 tour before back-to-back losses slowed the charge. Michigan now leads the Big Ten a year after going 3-17 in conference play. And Wisconsin? Now, quietly back on the stage as usual. Purdue might have had only four turnovers Saturday, but the Badgers committed only three, none in the second half. They were also — egads — 20-for-22 in two-point shots. They also own the best free throw percentage in the country. All those are the makings of a very tough out in a few weeks. Clearly, the selection committee has noticed the Badgers with that No. 11 overall seed.
“That means we’ve got the attention of people, right?’ Gard said. “We’re also playing good basketball, we’re a really good team and I think we’re getting better and that’s the exciting part.”
13. There’s Kansas slipping in the bracket to No. 15. The operative word is slipping, which might now start to resemble a toboggan ride off the list entirely for the formerly No. 1 Jayhawks after losing at Utah. In definite danger is Kansas’s permanent seat at the table of the top four seeds in each region. The Jayhawks might be missing and Bill Self has never seen such a thing in his 21 years in Lawrence.
“No. 15 is obviously very generous,” Self said this weekend of Kansas’ seed. “We’re not playing to that right now. So we got to do a lot of things better down the stretch.”
14. St. John’s hasn’t won an NCAA tournament game in 24 years. If the Red Storm can hang on to their No. 4 seed in the East, they would need to beat a No. 13 seed to end that dry spell.
15. Conspicuous by their absence: No Gonzaga, and its streak of nine consecutive tournaments advancing to the Sweet 16. No Clemson and its 21-5 Duke-beating Tigers. No, Michigan State and its No. 11 ranking in the AP. No Memphis and its 21-4 record and lead in the American Conference. And no UConn, the threepeat chances looking increasingly fragile after losing in overtime Saturday to Seton Hall, the last place team in the Big East. That makes eight losses.
16. Still, it’s February, not March. Time yet to move up. Or down.
