Bracket reaction: 8 thoughts on the March Madness field

The Midwest is the glamour region and seven other thoughts on the 2019 NCAA tournament bracket.

The 2019 NCAA tournament bracket is now available for consumption, which means the tournament Selection Committee’s job is done for another year. It also means it’s time for us to scrutinize every small aspect of the work said Committee did.

Here are the eight biggest takeaways from this year’s bracket for the Big Dance.

1. The ACC Makes History

With No. 1 Duke, No. 2 Virginia and No. 3 North Carolina headlining the field, the ACC becomes just the second conference ever to produce three No. 1 seeds. The only other time the event occurred was exactly 10 years ago, when the Big East saw Louisville, Connecticut and Pittsburgh all grace the top line.

The ACC also made history by becoming the first league since the Selection Committee began releasing its full seed list to claim the tournament’s top three spots.

The ACC did not, however, send the most overall teams to the Big Dance. That distinction belongs to the Big Ten, which had eight squads make the field, one more than both the ACC and the SEC.

2. The Midwest is the Glamour Region

The most talked about team in the country heading into this tournament, Prairie View A&M Duke, is headlining the East Region, but it’s the Midwest that brings the most consistent level of flare.

Three of the four winningest programs in the history of the NCAA tournament — North Carolina, Kentucky and Kansas — are among the top four seeds in the region, and two of those teams (sorry, Jayhawks) seem fully capable of winning the national title.

There’s also strength in the middle of the region with red hot conference tournament champions Auburn (5-seed) and Iowa State (6-seed). The 7-seed, Wofford, also won its conference tournament, and is currently tied with New Mexico State for the longest active winning streak in the country.

3. There Were No Snubs Worthy of Outrage

Unlike in so many years before it, 2019 didn’t provide us with an obvious NCAA tournament exclusion worthy of near-unanimous outrage.

TCU being left out of the field was a bit of a surprise to many, but the Horned Frogs finished four games below .500 in the Big 12 and went just 3-9 in Quadrant 1 games. It’s hard to be too up in arms about a team with that profile being left on the outside looking in.

NC State was another burst bubble that surprised some, but the Wolfpack played the worst non-conference schedule of any of the 353 teams in Division-I. “Rewarding” them for this philosophy could have set a dangerous precedent.

Mid-major powers with prominent profiles like UNC-Greensboro, Furman and Lipscomb were also left out of the field of 68, but the inclusion of Belmont resulted in any anger over those exclusions being subdued.

Overall, the 36 at-large teams picked to duke it out over the next three weeks didn’t incite a whole lot of pushback. Credit to the Committee for that.

4. The NET Seemed to be Used More Heavily in Seeding Than Team Selection

In the first year of the “NET era,” there was plenty of curiosity over how the Selection Committee would use the NCAA’s new metric of choice.

The evidence seems to indicate that the Committee used the NET as a grouping tool to help with seeding more than it relied on the metric to select the teams best suited to fill out the bracket.

For reference, last year was the first time the Committee had ever excluded a power conference team with a top 50 RPI, and only one team in history with an RPI worse than 70 was ever selected for the field.

This is certainly a new era.

5. The “Cute Matchups” Are There

Every year the Selection Committee denies that they pair teams against one another for the sake of storylines, and every year nobody believes them.

You’d expect that tradition to last for another calendar year after a bracket that includes ...

—Minnesota, the team coached by Richard Pitino, squaring off against Louisville, the school that fired his Hall of Fame father.

—Belmont, the team coached by the highly respected Rick Byrd who’s never won a game in the NCAA tournament, squaring off against Temple, the team coached by the highly respected Fran Dunphy who announced before the season that this year would be his last as a head coach.

—St. John’s, coached by legendary guard Chris Mullin, squaring off against Arizona State, coached by legendary guard Bobby Hurley.

—Marquette, headlined by explosive guard Markus Howard, squaring off against Murray State, headlined by explosive guard Ja Morant.

—LSU, currently caught in the middle of a scandal, squaring off against Yale, currently caught in the middle of a (very different, but equally noteworthy) scandal.

—And then finally, there’s poor NC Central, which — if it wins its First Four game in Dayton — will face No. 1 overall seed Duke in the main draw. This news coming just 24 hours after head coach LeVelle Moton openly admitted that he wanted no part of the Blue Devils in the tournament.

That may not have been intentional, but it’s certainly hilarious.

6. Deja Vu in the West

If you’re thinking the West Region looks a little familiar, there’s a reason for that. A year ago, the last four teams standing in the West were Gonzaga, Florida State, Michigan and Texas A&M. Three of those teams (sorry, Aggies) occupy the top four spots in this year’s West Region.

If that weren’t enough, the first round matchup between No. 2 seed Michigan and No. 15 Montana is an exact repeat of a first round matchup from last year (it was a 3/14 game then). The Wolverines beat the Grizzlies, 61-47, went on to win the West Region, and then ultimately lost in the national title game to Villanova.

7. The Committee Continues to Gloss Over Sunday’s Championship Games

The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee has openly admitted in past years that it often doesn’t have enough time to factor in the results from Sunday’s conference tournament championship games into its bracketing process. That was evident once again in 2019.

Houston, which lost decisively to Cincinnati (69-57) in Sunday’s American Athletic title game, was the Committee’s No. 9 overall seed, making them the top 3-seed in the field. The Bearcats, meanwhile, didn’t appear to reap any great benefit from the victory, staying on the 7-line despite a top 25 ranking in the NET.

Michigan State, which backed up its regular season Big Ten title with a tournament championship game win over Michigan on Sunday, was rewarded with the 2-seed in the same region as No. 1 overall seed Duke. The team they defeated is headed out West as the 2-seed in the same region as the lowest-rated 1-seed, Gonzaga.

Schedule your conference tournaments for a Sunday finish at your own risk.

8. Oregon Robbed Us of Another Mid-Major in Dayton

The Committee confirmed Sunday night that UNC-Greensboro was the first team left out of the field of 68, and that if Washington hadn’t lost to Oregon in Saturday night’s Pac-12 title game, the Spartans would be taking on St. John’s in Dayton.

That’s a bitter pill to swallow for Wes Miller and company, but the fact that it was UNCG occupying the first spot out and not a power conference team with 14 or 15 losses still feels like something of a win for the mid-major world.