There will be no No. 1 seed at the Final Four for the first time since 2011. Instead, there will be a 9 seed in Florida Atlantic, a pair of 5 seeds in SDSU and Miami, and a 4 seed in UConn.
When they travel to Houston next week to play for the national title, Florida Atlantic, San Diego State and Miami will be making their first appearances at college basketball's grand finale, the first time since 1970 that three first-timers all showed up in the same year.
The matchups for Saturday: San Diego State against FAU, in a not-so-classic 5-vs-9 matchup. Who saw that coming? In the past, some of the upheaval in the brackets could have been pinned on the single-elimination format and the tournament selection committee, which sometimes overvalues its top seeds — this year, that included first-round loser Purdue and seven-loss defending-champion Kansas — while clearly underrating others.
Heading into the Elite Eight, Miami coach Jim Larrañaga — who brought George Mason to the Final Four as an 11 seed 17 years ago — said the portal was the basketball equivalent of speed dating. Worked for him. The third- and fourth-leading scorers for the Hurricanes , Nijel Pack and Norchad Omier, both came to The U from the portal.
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