The NCAA Tournament schedule for 2014 officially starts Thursday after the First Four and the March Madness bracket is already getting filled out and predictions and picks are going down as TV coverage for the college basketball games starts Thursday on CBS, TBS and TNT as well as truTV from Turner Network Television.
The games start up with Dayton and Ohio State on Thursday in what the NCAA stupidly calls the second round and it really is the first round and other teams in action includes the Florida Gators, Syracuse Orange and Louisville Cardinals, who will start their title defense against Manhattan in one of the night games. The tournament has four strong number one seeds in Florida, Wichita State, Arizona and Virginia and the Shockers come into things undefeated, while the Gators did not lose in their conference and Virginia won theirs for the first time in decades.
The Gators finished the season as the number one overall team in the nation and they got that same seed in the tournament over the other teams. Florida won the SEC with an undefeated record in the regular season and they continued that in the conference tournament, finishing with a one point win over Kentucky. The team now is considered one of the favorites in the tournament and this comes after Billy Donovan has led his teams to multiple championships in the past.
Wichita State is the number one seed in the Midwest region and they come into things undefeated after going 34-0 and they are the first team since the 90s to come into the tourney undefeated. Many are happy that the Shockers are in a tough bracket, as their region as teams like Louisville and Duke and many see that as a way for the team to get challenged after playing in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Shockers made a run to the Final Four last season, but no one will be shocked by them this year.
Arizona comes into things after being the number one team at one point this year and while they lost the Pac-12 title to UCLA in the conference tournament, the Wildcats had a strong enough resume to get a number one seed. The team has Nick Johnson and Aaron Gordon as conference and freshman players of the year in the Pac-12 and now they have a good draw with Oklahoma, Gonzaga and Oregon in their bracket. The Cavaliers come in after winning the ACC for the first time in decades and they are a number one seed after being the best defense in the nation.
There are a number of teams in the tournament that are no stranger to March Madness, as Kansas, Duke, Michigan State, Gonzaga and Wisconsin have the best active appearance streaks for the tourney and all of those teams are expected to have nice runs this year. Duke and Louisville are in the toughest bracket together and that includes Michigan, while President Obama made his pick and he thinks that Michigan State will be the winners of the title. Last year Obama picked Indiana and Louisville with the Hoosiers winning and that gave him one correct teams in the finals with the Cardinals.
Check here for the full schedule of games coming up or for more on the NCAA tournament.
