Auburn Receives #1 Overall Seed In NCAA Tournament, Houston, Duke & Florida Draw No. 1 Seeds
The SEC regular season champion Auburn Tigers received the #1 overall seed in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, sitting at the top of the South Region. That comes despite losing to Tennessee in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament.
The other top seeds went to ACC regular season and conference tournament champion Duke (East), Big 12 regular season and tournament champion Houston (Midwest), and SEC conference tournament champion Florida (West).
Auburn is the only team that didn't win its conference tournament but still secured a #1 seed, and they got the top overall spot. That being said, the committee didn't do Auburn any favors.
Auburn received the #1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament with Duke, Houston and Florida also getting No. 1 seeds in the Big Dance.
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Should the Tigers win their Round of 64 game (which they will), they might have to play Louisville. That might not seem like a huge deal, except when you consider that the game would be played in Lexington, Kentucky. Lexington is just 75 miles from Louisville, making that a de facto home game for the Cardinals.
Still, it would require Louisville, the eighth seed in the South, to defeat the ninth-seeded Creighton Blue Jays. That game is in Lexington, as well, so Louisville gets to potentially start its NCAA Tournament run with two "home" games.
Did the Cooper Flagg injury affect Duke getting the #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament?
Duke had a strong case to be the #1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, but it's fair to wonder if the injury to their best player – Cooper Flagg – affected the committee's decision.
Flagg did not play in either the semifinals or the final of the ACC Tournament after spraining his ankle in the quarterfinals. However, he is likely to play during the NCAA Tournament, although perhaps not in the Round of 64.
Duke finished 31-3, winning both the ACC regular season and conference tournament championships. They started the season 4-2, but went 27-1 after a loss against then-#1 Kansas in late November.
Did Cooper Flagg's injury affect the seeding for the Duke Blue Devils in the NCAA Tournament?
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The Blue Devils were likely hurt by the lack of other great teams in the ACC. Louisville, Clemson and North Carolina, the other three teams who reached the ACC tournament semifinals, are the only teams that were selected for the NCAA Tournament.
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In contrast, Auburn was surely boosted by the overall difficulty of playing in the SEC, which set an NCAA Tournament record by getting 14 teams into the Big Dance. That also helped Florida secure a #1 seed.
Two SEC teams also secured #2 seeds, with Alabama and Tennessee earning spots on the second line along with Michigan State and St. John's.
The SEC clearly has a target on its back heading into the NCAA Tournament and expectations are sky-high. Can they deliver?
Time will tell…