NCAA tournament bracket live updates: App. State gets a First Four game, UNC an 8 seed
The ACC landed seven teams in the NCAA tournament with another one on standby to enter the 68-team field if a team has to drop out due to a COVID-19 infection.
After Georgia Tech won the ACC championship and the league’s automatic bid on Saturday night, North Carolina, Clemson, Virginia, Florida State, Syracuse and Virginia Tech join them in the field, which was announced on Sunday.
Louisville (13-7) is among the top four teams who didn’t make the field. Thus, the Cardinals are a standby team that could still enter the field if another team drops out by Tuesday at 6 p.m. The other three standby teams are Colorado State, Saint Louis and Mississippi.
Duke (13-11) missed the field for the first time since 1995.
North Carolina finds itself in the South Region and will open up against a Big Ten team in the NCAA tournament.
The Tar Heels, seeded No. 8, will face ninth-seeded Wisconsin, Friday in their first tournament game. UNC and Wisconsin will tip at 7:10 p.m. on CBS on at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Indiana. The winner of that game could face top-seeded Baylor in the second round if the Bears advance past Hartford in the first round.
Winthrop is seeded No. 12 in the South Region and will play No. 5 seed Villanova Friday in the first round. The game, played at Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis, will tip at 9:57 p.m. and be televised by TNT
Also in the South Region on Friday, the ACC’s Virginia Tech, seeded No. 10, plays No. 7 seed Florida at 12:15 p.m. on CBS from Butler’s home arena, Hinkle Fieldhouse.
In the Midwest Region, ACC tournament champion Georgia Tech (17-8) is seeded No. 9. The Yellow Jackets face Missouri Valley champion Loyola (Chicago) Friday in the first round at 4:15 p.m. at Hinkle.
Two other ACC teams are also in the Midwest Region with both teams play on Friday.
Clemson, seeded No. 7, plays 10th-seeded Rutgers at 9:20 p.m., while 11th-seeded Syracuse (16-9), meets No. 6 seed San Diego State at 9:40 p.m.
Big Ten champion Illinois is the Midwest’s No. 1 seed.
In the East Region, where Michigan is the No. 1 seed, Florida State is the No. 4 seed. The Seminoles (16-6) will play No. 13 seed UNC Greensboro (21-8) on Saturday at 12:45 p.m. on truTV.
Other NC, ACC teams in the field
Elsewhere, Appalachian State will be the first NC team to hit the courts in the NCAA tournament.
The Mountaineers, champions of the Sun Belt Conference, will play Norfolk State in a First Four game between No. 16 seeds on Thursday at 8:40 p.m. The game will be played on Indiana’s home court at the Assembly Hall in Bloomington.
According to the NCAA’s official seed list, Norfolk State is seeded No. 67 and Appalachian State is No. 68.
The winner of that game will play the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, Gonzaga (26-0), in Saturday’s West Region first round.
Also in the West bracket, Virginia (18-6), after leaving the ACC tournament after the quarterfinals due to a positive COVID-19 test, is seeded No. 4 and will play Ohio in the first round on Saturday at 7:15 p.m.
Despite a college basketball season full of uncertainty during the coronavirus pandemic, the NCAA basketball committee crafted a 68-team field that will compete for the national championship.
Though Virginia, Kansas, Duke and N.C. A&T withdrew from their league tournaments on Thursday and Friday due to positive COVID-19 tests within their programs, no teams informed the committee they were unavailable for NCAA tournament consideration due to the virus before Saturday’s 11 p.m. deadline.
The tournament and COVID-19
Should any teams have coronavirus outbreaks that put them in quarantine, and thus unavailable to play, by 6 p.m. Tuesday, the committee will select a replacement team to fill that team’s spot in the bracket.
The standby teams will remain on their campuses until they are needed.
If a team has to withdraw from the NCAA tournament after 6 p.m. Tuesday, its game would be forfeited and its opponent would advance to the next round without playing a game.
Appalachian State (Sun Belt) and UNC Greensboro (Southern) both won their conference tournaments to earn automatic bids to the NCAA tournament. Winthrop won the Big South to also earn a spot in the field of 68.
Betting lines
Unbeaten Gonzaga is the favorite to win the NCAA tournament, listed at 23/10 on Sunday by Covers.com. Baylor, at 7/2, Michigan at 9/2 and Illinois, at 15/2, are just behind.
This story was originally published March 14, 2021 at 2:25 PM with the headline "NCAA tournament bracket live updates: App. State gets a First Four game, UNC an 8 seed."