Roll Tide indeed.
The Alabama Crimson Tide were named the No. 1 overall seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday, the second choice to win the National Championship this year. The Crimson Tide were the class of the SEC this season and will look to push through the South Region and make the first Final Four in school history.
At the bottom half of the bracket, Arizona is the No. 2 seed with No. 3 seed Baylor lurking as a Big 12 dark horse.
Here’s everything you need to know for the South Region ahead of the NCAA Tournament:
South Region odds
South Region bracket
The South region bracket has been set, here’s how it all shook out on Selection Sunday.
South Region tournament schedule (Dates, time, channel)
South Region prediction and pick
Alabama is in decent shape in this bracket with Virginia’s poor play to close the season, sitting as the No. 4 seed in the South. Further, the Crimson Tide draw the Mountain West champion San Diego State as their No. 5 seed.
The Mountain West has struggled jumping from a competitive conference of mid-majors to the NCAA Tournament, none of the five teams won last year. While SDSU has a veteran team and a stout defense, it lacks the firepower to keep up with the Crimson Tide, who play at a top five pace and are elite at finishing around the rim.
The real intrigue lies in the bottom of the bracket, where two elite offenses sit as the No. 2 and 3 seeds in Arizona and Baylor. However, Creighton is an analytic darling, top 25 ratings in KenPom’s adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency metric, and is a scary No. 6 seed who faces North Carolina State in the first round.
Baylor and Arizona can be vulnerable if their offenses go cold, but I do believe the Wildcats two-headed monster down low with big men Ąžuolas Tubelis and Oumar Ballo is gong to be too much for teams in this region to overcome.
I’ll take the No. 2 seed Wildcats to get through a difficult region and pull a (minor) upset over Alabama in the Elite Eight to make the Final Four.
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
