{"id":433392,"date":"2025-03-17T08:15:35","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T07:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=433392"},"modified":"2025-03-17T08:15:35","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T07:15:35","slug":"march-madness-auburn-duke-houston-and-florida-lead-ncaa-tournament-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/march-madness-auburn-duke-houston-and-florida-lead-ncaa-tournament-field\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness: Auburn, Duke, Houston, and Florida Lead NCAA Tournament Field"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"168\" data-end=\"390\">The <strong data-start=\"187\" data-end=\"211\">2025 NCAA Tournament<\/strong> field is set, with <strong data-start=\"231\" data-end=\"241\">Auburn<\/strong> earning the <strong data-start=\"254\" data-end=\"276\">No. 1 overall seed<\/strong>, while <strong data-start=\"284\" data-end=\"335\">Duke (ACC), Houston (Big 12), and Florida (SEC)<\/strong> round out the top seeds in their respective regions.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"392\" data-end=\"778\">Despite losing in the <strong data-start=\"414\" data-end=\"443\">SEC Tournament semifinals<\/strong>, <strong data-start=\"445\" data-end=\"455\">Auburn<\/strong> secured the top spot in the <strong data-start=\"484\" data-end=\"500\">South Region<\/strong>, where <strong data-start=\"508\" data-end=\"526\">Michigan State<\/strong> and <strong data-start=\"531\" data-end=\"545\">Iowa State<\/strong> loom as key challengers. <strong data-start=\"571\" data-end=\"586\">Duke (31-3)<\/strong> headlines the <strong data-start=\"601\" data-end=\"616\">East Region<\/strong>, set to open play in Raleigh. <strong data-start=\"647\" data-end=\"686\">ACC Player of the Year Cooper Flagg<\/strong> is expected to return from an ankle injury in time for the Blue Devils&#8217; first-round game.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"780\" data-end=\"1076\">In the <strong data-start=\"787\" data-end=\"805\">Midwest Region<\/strong>, <strong data-start=\"807\" data-end=\"825\">Houston (30-4)<\/strong> will face <strong data-start=\"836\" data-end=\"856\">SIU Edwardsville<\/strong>, aiming to extend its streak of <strong data-start=\"889\" data-end=\"921\">four straight 30-win seasons<\/strong>. Meanwhile, <strong data-start=\"934\" data-end=\"945\">Florida<\/strong> leads the <strong data-start=\"956\" data-end=\"971\">West Region<\/strong>, where a potential <strong data-start=\"991\" data-end=\"1043\">second-round clash with defending champion UConn<\/strong> could shape the bracket early.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1078\" data-end=\"1446\">The <strong data-start=\"1082\" data-end=\"1089\">SEC<\/strong> made history with a <strong data-start=\"1110\" data-end=\"1129\">record 14 teams<\/strong> in the tournament, surpassing the Big East\u2019s previous high of 11 in 2011. Meanwhile, the <strong data-start=\"1219\" data-end=\"1226\">ACC<\/strong> placed just <strong data-start=\"1239\" data-end=\"1253\">four teams<\/strong>, its worst showing since 2000. <strong data-start=\"1285\" data-end=\"1303\">North Carolina<\/strong> barely made the field as a <strong data-start=\"1331\" data-end=\"1346\">No. 11 seed<\/strong>, while <strong data-start=\"1354\" data-end=\"1363\">Texas<\/strong>, despite 15 losses, tied an NCAA record for the most losses by an at-large team.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1448\" data-end=\"1600\">The tournament kicks off <strong data-start=\"1473\" data-end=\"1484\">Tuesday<\/strong> with the <strong data-start=\"1494\" data-end=\"1508\">First Four<\/strong>, followed by <strong data-start=\"1522\" data-end=\"1569\">32 first-round games on Thursday and Friday<\/strong> at sites across the country.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">THE BRACKET \ud83d\ude4c<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MarchMadness?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#MarchMadness<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fo6lA8hJ7g\">pic.twitter.com\/fo6lA8hJ7g<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MarchMadnessMBB\/status\/1901401859686056248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 16, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Tigers earn the No. 1 overall seed, but Duke remains the title favorite<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":433391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-433392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/03\/GmMidP_aIAABWKy.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433392"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=433392"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=433392"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=433392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}