Cameron Boozer and Duke are ready for the NCAA tourney.
The men’s NCAA Tournament bracket is set, and Duke, Arizona, Michigan and Florida have claimed the four No. 1 seeds.
Duke, the No. 1 overall seed in the men’s tournament, will take on No. 16 Siena in the first round. Arizona, No. 1 in the West, will face Long Island University.
Michigan and Florida will learn their opponents after the First Four, set for Mar. 17-18. Florida will play the winner of Lehigh vs. Prairie View, and Michigan will host the winner of UMBC vs. Howard.
The Wolverines (31-3) are the third overall seed behind Duke and Arizona and will be trying to win the Big Ten’s first national championship since Michigan State in 2000.
This is the fourth time the Wolverines have earned a No. 1 seed. Juwan Howard’s 2021 team reached the Elite Eight, Steve Fisher’s 1993 team lost in the championship game and Bill Frieder’s 1985 team lost in the second round.
Michigan, with a win Thursday in Buffalo, New York, would advance to a second-round Midwest Region game against No. 8 seed Georgia (22-10) or No. 9 Saint Louis (28-5).
Led by Big Ten player of the year Yaxel Lendeborg, the Wolverines set a Big Ten record with 19 conference wins and ran away with the regular-season title by four games. They went into the conference tournament with an average winning margin of 19.4 points per game but were pushed in Chicago, winning two games by a total of seven points before losing 80-72 to Purdue in the championship game.
Top overall seed Duke headlines an East Region bracket that is stacked with big names. Dan Hurley’s UConn team is the 2-seed, a decision by the NCAA Tournament selection committee that came after the Huskies had been in contention for a No. 1 seed both in preliminary rankings in February and this week leading into the Big East Tournament.
Hall of Fame coaches Tom Izzo from Michigan State, Bill Self from Kansas and Rick Pitino from Big East champion St. John’s lead the next teams up in the 16-team bracket.
Duke (32-2) is a No. 1 seed for the second straight year, with last year’s run ending in the Final Four.
The Big 12 regular-season and tournament champion Arizona Wildcats are the No. 1 seed in the West Region — second overall behind Duke — and will open the NCAA Tournament against Long Island University on Friday in San Diego.
The West also includes No. 2 seed Purdue, Gonzaga, Arkansas and Wisconsin in a region that goes through San Jose, California, on the way to the Final Four in Indianapolis.
Defending national champion Florida’s path to another Final Four could include a rematch with Houston, whom it beat in the final a year ago, only this time in a South Region finale that would be played just a short drive from the Cougars’ campus.
The second-seeded Cougars will play No. 15 seed Idaho on Thursday in Oklahoma City.
Third-seeded Illinois and fourth-seeded Nebraska could have something to say about that Florida-Houston rematch.
The Illini, who had struggled down the stretch and lost to Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament, will open against No. 14 seed Penn — the Ivy League tourney champ — on Thursday in Greenville, South Carolina.
