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John Locher/Associated Press
The Gonzaga Bulldogs enter the NCAA men’s basketball tournament looking to achieve a feat that has not been accomplished since 2011.
Gonzaga is trying to make a repeat appearance in the NCAA tournament championship game one year after falling to the Baylor Bears.
Mark Few’s team should be the No. 1 overall seed when the bracket is revealed on Selection Sunday.
Gonzaga and the Arizona Wildcats are attempting to become the first west coast school to win the Big Dance since Arizona cut down the nets in 1997.
Arizona is expected to be the No. 2 overall seed after it wrapped up the Pac-12 tournament title on Saturday night.
Gonzaga and Arizona will try to replicate the path of the favorites last season. Gonzaga and Baylor were the two best teams and landed in the title game.
However, there are plenty of sleeper teams locked into the field of 68 that could get hot over the next few weeks and make a run to the title game.
The entire field is not locked in yet. There is some bubble drama coming from the SEC tournament final on Sunday, and there could be a bid stolen from the Richmond Spiders in the Atlantic 10 tournament final.
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John Locher/Associated Press
Gonzaga
Gonzaga reloaded its roster by adding Chet Holmgren, a potential No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft, to a returning group of veterans led by Drew Timme.
Holmgren and Timme are the stars of the team, but they have some strong guards who can take over at any time.
Julian Strawther, Andrew Nembhard and Rasir Bolton all average over 10 points per game, and they all have a ton of experience in high-pressure games.
Gonzaga comes into the NCAA tournament off an impressive set of victories at the WCC tournament over the San Francisco Dons and Saint Mary’s Gaels, both of whom should be in the field of 68.
The Zags have not shown many flaws outside of a 57-point output on the road at Saint Mary’s. That was more of an outlier to the team’s overall form.
Gonzaga should cruise into the second weekend behind the scoring depth in its explosive offense.
The Zags lead the nation with 87.8 points per game, and they have been held under 80 points in just three games since January 1.
Arizona
Arizona can also overpower its opponents with its offense.
The Wildcats are third in points per game behind Gonzaga and the South Dakota State Jackrabbits.
Arizona has just one loss since January 25, and that came against the UCLA Bruins, who the Wildcats beat on two occasions after that.
Tommy Lloyd’s squad solidified its No. 1 seed with its second win over UCLA this season at the Pac-12 tournament final.
Bennedict Mathurin leads a group of four players who average over 10 points per game. One of them, Kerr Kriisa, will be watched closely in the coming days. He suffered an ankle injury in the Pac-12 tournament and missed the last two games.
Kriisa is the best outside shooter in the Arizona squad, and he could wreak havoc on opponents if he is healthy.
Arizona can win the title without Kriisa because it has a few other top scorers and Christian Koloko is one of the best defenders down low in the country.
If Arizona meets Gonzaga in the final, it would match Lloyd against his former boss, Mark Few.
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Darron Cummings/Associated Press
Iowa
The Iowa Hawkeyes made the case over the last few days that they could be the best Big Ten team in the Big Dance.
Iowa possesses the fourth-best offense in Division 1, and it has a nice mix of experience and star power that teams need to get through March Madness.
Keegan Murray has developed into one of the top stars in the men’s college game. He has 84 points in three Big Ten tournament games.
Jordan Bohannon, Joe Toussaint and Connor McCaffery give the Hawkeyes plenty of NCAA tournament experience in the backcourt to complement Murray.
Bohannon came up with the game-winning shot on Saturday to place Iowa in the Big Ten tournament final.
The Hawkeyes were not the top pick out of the Big Ten to advance far in March Madness as of last week, but they showed in the conference tournament that they could put together a solid string of results in massive contests.
Memphis
The Memphis Tigers are playing some of the best basketball outside of the power conferences.
Penny Hardaway’s team emerged from its midseason struggles to reach the AAC tournament final.
Memphis faces the Houston Cougars in Fort Worth, Texas. It just beat Houston by 14 points in its regular-season finale.
Memphis has one loss since the start of February, but its run of losses in January will make it somewhere between a No. 7 and No. 10 seed in the NCAA tournament.
The Tigers proved in the last week they can handle NCAA tournament-quality sides, like Houston and the SMU Mustangs.
The third-place team in the AAC regular season will be one of the few teams that a No. 1 or No. 2 seed would hate to see in the second round because of the difficult matchup.
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John Minchillo/Associated Press
Texas A&M
Buzz Williams’ Texas A&M Aggies played their way into the NCAA tournament field with three straight wins at the SEC tournament.
The Aggies should be on the right side of the bubble regardless of their result against the Tennessee Volunteers on Sunday.
Texas A&M defeated the Auburn Tigers and Arkansas Razorbacks on its way to the final in Tampa.
The Aggies do not have an ideal nonconference resume, but they did defeat fellow bubble team Notre Dame on November 24.
That result combined with the recent string of wins in the SEC should put the Aggies in the field of 68 without little concern on Selection Sunday.
Notre Dame
Notre Dame is one of a few bubble teams that is rooting for no more unexpected results in conference tournaments.
The Fighting Irish fell closer to the bubble after they lost to eventual ACC tournament champion Virginia Tech in the quarterfinal round.
Virginia Tech’s triumph in Brooklyn took away one of the at-large spots that the Irish could have occupied.
The recent success of Texas A&M, as well as the Indiana Hoosiers, also hurt Notre Dame’s chances of landing in the field of 68.
Notre Dame is not the typical second-place team from the ACC because its resume is lacking a good number of quality wins. It does not help the Irish that the ACC had one of its worst seasons as a league.
Mike Brey’s team can’t afford to see another bid thief win a conference tournament. It needs the Davidson Wildcats to beat the Richmond Spiders in the Atlantic 10 final to feel safer about its spot.
Notre Dame will likely sweat out its NCAA tournament hopes on Sunday night, and it may be one of the last teams in the field.
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