Selection Sunday: who will cut the nets in Atlanta?

TNS

Uduoka Azubuike and the Kansas Jayhawks look to be the top-seeded team in this year’s NCAA tournament. They will look to win their first championship since 2008.

NICHOLAS SCHINDLER

Selection Sunday is just three days away and after five months of play, teams now wait to see whether they will make it into the Big Dance or if their season is now over. There are 32 automatic teams that go into the tournament if they win their respective conference tournaments; followed by 36 at-large spots available for teams who did not win their conference tournament to make it into the NCAA tournament.  This year looks to be a year of upsets because there has been so much volatility in the AP Top-25 polls all season.

The number one seeds I’m predicting are pretty standard throughout what most in sports media are talking about: Kansas, Baylor, Dayton and Gonzaga followed by Creighton, Kentucky, San Diego State and Florida State as two seeds. These top-eight are pretty much agreed upon, barring any massive upsets in conference tournaments.

Now, let’s head to the all important bubble teams.  Getting into the tournament, I have the UNI slotted into a First Four game in Dayton versus Xavier.  Most analysts don’t have UNI in the field of 68 but UNI should deserve an at-large bid because their body of work throughout the season is solid and a loss in the conference tournament shouldn’t determine whether they receive a bid or not. Among other notable predictions, the Marquette Golden Eagles will get into the tournament despite riding a three game losing streak. However, many across the country want to see potential Wooden Award winner Markus Howard play on a national level and against some of the best competition in the country.

For the Final Four, red-hot Providence will be coming out of the Midwest, Dayton out of the South, Auburn out of the West, and Bayor out of the East.  The national championship will see Auburn cut down the nets after defeating Dayton in a wild March full of madness.