Gonzaga was No. 1 overall in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Selection Committee, revealed Saturday afternoon, eliminating Baylor undefeated.
The Bulldogs and Bears were in the top of the standings in the first week of the season and are the last two undefeated teams to remain in basketball in college. They are also the top two teams in the NCAA Assessment Tool (NET), as well as almost every metric. Gonzaga has another victory in Quadrant 1 than Baylor, giving the Zags the advantage right now.
“To everyone’s surprise, these two teams are considered the best of the best,” said Mitch Barnhart, athletics director at the University of Kentucky and chairman of the committee. “Gonzaga and Baylor have been dominant teams so far, and while there’s no reason to believe this won’t continue, the beauty of college basketball is that anything can happen on a given night.”
Barnhart also said the top edge is “thin.”
Joining Gonzaga and Baylor on the 1-seed line were the Big Ten powers of Michigan and the state of Ohio. Another Big Ten, Illinois team was the best team on the 2-seed line, followed by Villanova, Alabama and Houston.
The 3-seed line was led by Virginia, with West Virginia, Tennessee and Oklahoma just behind the Cavaliers.
Completing the best 16 results were the 4 seeds: Iowa, Texas Tech, Texas and Missouri.
There were few surprises, with Wisconsin being the only team missing from the top 16 teams on the last seed list of ESPN parantologist Joe Lunardi. In place of the Badgers, in official parenthesis, was Oklahoma.
NCAA Vice President Dan Gavitt told CBS that Florida State and USC were also considered to be in the top 16.
Gavitt added some notes on NCAA tournament protocols, saying the NCAA hopes it can have “limited capacity” for fans.
He was asked about the consequences of a positive test, but said that a positive test “should not eliminate teams from the entire tournament, as long as they maintain physical distance and wear masks. The team should be able to move on safely. “
NCAA Media Coordination Director David Worlock said in a Twitter post that more details about the tournament have not yet been determined.
“Among the things to be established / announced are the names of the four regions, details of possible attendances and contingency plans in case a team has problems with COVID both before the start of the tournament and after the start of March Madness “. Worlock wrote.
Selection Sunday is scheduled for March 14, with the first four of the NCAA tournament taking place on March 18.