Florida heads to Tampa for NCAA Tournament 1st round, USF dancing again

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 Gators (26-7) were chosen as one of the four No. 1 seeds for the NCAA Tournament on Sunday. Duke (32-2) received the top overall seed, followed by Arizona (32-2) and Michigan (25-7).

The Gators will start tournament play Friday in Tampa at Benchmark International Arena, getting the benefit of a close opening weekend.

The SEC regular-season champions will open up against the winner of a First Four game between Prairie View A&M and Lehigh. The second-seeded Cougars (28-6) will play No. 15 seed Idaho on Thursday in Oklahoma City.

Yet it’s not hard to look ahead to a potential region final between the Gators and Cougars at the Toyota Center, which is less than 3 miles away from the Fertitta Center, where Houston celebrated with its fans at a selection watch party Sunday.

“We try to be very consistent with our program. We’re not going to be reactive in regards to when we’re winning that we don’t practice hard,” Gators coach Todd Golden said after their loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday in the semifinals of the SEC tourney.

“Part of what makes our program what it is is our consistency,” he said. “We’re not going to change a lot.”

Also coming to Tampa: From the Midwest Region, No. 4 Alabama (23-9), the highest-scoring team in the nation, faces No. 13 Hofstra (24-10), while the 5-12 matchup between Texas Tech (22-10) and Akron (29-5) features two of the best point guards in the country in the Red Raiders’ Christian Anderson and MAC Tournament MVP Tavari Johnson.

Anderson’s status was in doubt after he left his team’s game against Iowa State in the Big 12 quarterfinals Thursday after he slipped on the controversial ASB GlassFloor LED court. Texas Tech announced Saturday that he would be available. Anderson leads the Red Raiders with 18.9 points and a Big 12-leading 7.6 assists per game. Johnson is averaging a MAC-best 20.1 points per game.

And from the South Region, Iowa (21-12) is back in the tournament as the No. 9 seed and will play eighth-seeded Clemson (24-10). The Hawkeyes are led by Ben McCollum, who took Drake to the second round of the tourney last season. The year before that? McCollum was the coach at Northwest Missouri State, a Division II school that he turned into a national power.

Wes Enis scored a game-high 19 points, including three 3-pointers, as the top-seeded USF men’s basketball team beat Wichita State, 70-55, Sunday in Birmingham, Alabama, to win the American Conference Tournament and clinch an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It was the Bulls’ first conference title since 1990.

Izaiyah Nelson scored 13 points, and Josh Omojafo added 10 as the Bulls (25-8) won their 11th straight game to make the NCAA tourney for the first time in 14 years. USF’s 25 wins match the program record for a season set by the 2023-24 (25-8) team under head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim.

USF, the 11th seed in the East Region, will play sixth-seeded Louisville (23-10) on Thursday in Buffalo, New York.

“We have 15 dudes who are all underdogs,” Nelson said. “Being able to a go to March Madness and play teams that all looked over us, it’s a proving point. Now we have an even bigger chip on our shoulder and we’re going to show them why y’all should have recruited us. But now we’re here; God’s plan.”

After a two-season drought, Miami is in as a No. 7 seed in the West Region. The Hurricanes will face 10th-seeded Missouri on Friday in St. Louis, Missouri.

The last time Miami made the tournament, it went on a Cinderella run to the program’s first-ever Final Four. Led by ACC Player of the Year Isaiah Wong, Miami reeled off four straight tournament wins before falling to eventual national champion UConn. But two disastrous seasons followed that campaign. Last year, Miami finished 7-24, and long-time coach Jim Larrañaga retired.

The Hurricanes hired Duke assistant Jai Lucas to take over the program, and he built the coaching staff and roster from scratch. Lucas signed six freshmen and added seven transfers to fill out the UM roster, nabbing key players like Malik Reneau (Indiana), Tre Donaldson (Michigan) and Ernest Udeh Jr. (TCU) in the portal and securing commitments from freshmen Shelton Henderson and Dante Allen.

The rebuilt Hurricanes (24-7) finished third in the ACC with key victories over North Carolina, Florida State, N.C. State and SMU, among others.

“Regular season is over; it’s time to dance now,” Donaldson said. “I was made for these moments. March is my month.”

After a seven-year absence, UCF is headed to the East Region. It’s the Knights’ sixth overall appearance in the NCAA Tournament, but first since the 2018-19 season. Tenth-seeded UCF (21-11) will face seventh-seeded UCLA (23-11) in Philadelphia on Friday.

After a dominating 97-84 win at then-No. 19 BYU on Feb. 24, UCF ended the season on a three-game losing streak. Despite its season-ending struggles, UCF earned a first-round bye in the Big 12 Tournament. The Knights outlasted Cincinnati, 66-65 in overtime in their second-round matchup, before being thumped by top-seeded Arizona in the quarterfinals, 81-59.

The Knights had a strong resume featuring five Quad 1 wins over Texas A&M, Kansas, Texas Tech, BYU and TCU.

NCAA Tournament

First round

At Benchmark International Arena, Tampa

South Region

No. 1 Florida vs. No. 16 Prairie View A&M-Lehigh winner, TBD Friday

No. 8 Clemson vs. No. 9 Iowa, TBD Friday

Midwest Region

No. 5 Texas Tech vs. No. 12 Akron, TBD Friday

No. 4 Alabama vs. No. 13 Hofstra, TBD Friday

Florida heads to Tampa for NCAA Tournament 1st round, USF dancing again

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