Explore More
Here’s a look at the East Region of the NCAA Tournament as March Madness gets set to tip off Tuesday:
No. 1 Purdue (29-5)
Conference: Big Ten
Coach: Matt Painter (18th season)
Post-ing up: With the overwhelming front-runner to win the Wooden Award, junior Zach Edey (who already won Big Ten Player of the Year), the Boilermakers won the conference regular season despite a small slump down the stretch. At 7-foot-4, Edey is one of the most dominant players in the country, recording 21.9 points, 12.8 rebounds and 2.3 blocks a game in the regular season.
No. 16 Texas Southern (14-20)
Conference: SWAC
Coach: Johnny Jones (5th season)
Post-ing up: There will be no fear factor for the Tigers, who have already played Arizona State, Kansas, Texas Tech, Auburn and Houston during a treacherous non-conference slate. They were big underdogs as the eighth seed in the SWAC Tournament after a poor regular season but are dancing for a third straight year.
Or
No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson (19-15)
Conference: Northeast
Coach: Tobin Anderson (1st season)
Post-ing up: One of the great stories of this tournament, Anderson brought his diminutive backcourt, 5-foot-8 Demetre Roberts and 5-9 Grant Singleton, from Division II St. Thomas Aquinas and is going dancing in his first season at the Hackensack, N.J., school. A year ago, the Knights won just four games, and now they are part of the Madness.
No. 8 Memphis (26-8)
Conference: AAC
Coach: Penny Hardaway (5th season)
Post-ing up: After a fifth 20-plus-win season under Hardaway, the Tigers are looking to make it past the second round of the tournament, which is where their 2021-22 season ended. Senior guard Kendric Davis, an SMU transfer and one of the nation’s leading scorers, leads a Memphis team that nearly knocked off Houston to end the regular season.
No. 9 Florida Atlantic (31-3)
Conference: Conference USA
Coach: Dusty May (5th season)
Post-ing up: It has been a year of firsts for the Owls: first national ranking, first 25- and 30-win season, and first Conference USA regular-season and tournament title. Don’t be surprised if Florida Atlantic, a top-40 team in both offensive and defensive efficiency, earns an NCAA Tournament win for the first time in program history as well.
No. 5 Duke (26-8)
Conference: ACC
Coach: Jon Scheyer (1st season)
Post-ing up: The first season without Mike Krzyzewski was always going to require a massive adjustment, but Scheyer enjoyed an impressive initial campaign, making history by going undefeated at home. Star seven-footer and leading scorer Kyle Filipowski is likely a one-and-done, as he’s a projected first-round pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.
No. 12 Oral Roberts (30-4)
Conference: Summit League
Coach: Paul Mills (6th season)
Post-ing up: Two years ago, with a similar roster, Oral Roberts reached the Sweet 16, and this group enters the tournament with significantly better metrics and efficiency numbers. The Golden Eagles also still have superstar guard Max Abmas, one of the darlings of the 2021 tournament, who ranks sixth nationally with 22.2 points a game.
No. 4 Tennessee (23-10)
Conference: SEC
Coach: Rick Barnes (8th season)
Post-ing up: The Volunteers have college basketball’s best defense for adjusted efficiency, per KenPom. They allowed more than 70 points just five times — a strength under Barnes, especially the last three years. Tennessee still lost six of 10 games to close the regular season, though, and will be without guard Zakai Zeigler, who tore his left ACL last month.
No. 13 Louisiana (26-7)
Conference: Sun Belt
Coach: Bob Marlin (13th season)
Post-ing up: The transfer portal can work for mid-major schools, too. Look at Louisiana, which is led by transfers Jordan Brown (Nevada, Arizona), Greg Williams Jr. (St. John’s) and Terence Lewis II (North Texas, Jackson State). The Ragin’ Cajuns last won an NCAA Tournament contest in 1992, an upset of Oklahoma.
No. 6 Kentucky (21-11)
Conference: SEC
Coach: John Calipari (14th season)
Post-ing up: It wasn’t exactly a smooth campaign. A loss on Jan. 10 to South Carolina dropped Kentucky to 1-3 in the SEC, but the Wildcats won 11 of their final 14 conference games to position themselves for another postseason. They constructed one of the most efficient offenses, anchored by senior Oscar Tshiebwe.
No. 11 Providence (21-11)
Conference: Big East
Coach: Ed Cooley (12th season)
Post-ing up: The Friars have been one of the top offensive teams in the Big East, led by sophomore forward Bryce Hopkins, their leading scorer and rebounder. Coming off a Sweet 16 appearance last season, the Friars will enter the tournament having lost four of their past five games, with the lone win against lowly Georgetown.
No. 3 Kansas State (23-9)
Conference: Big 12
Coach: Jerome Tang (1st season)
Post-ing up: Tang, a former Baylor assistant, has led his Wildcats to the second-best regular-season record by a first-year coach in school history. Leading scorer Keyontae Johnson collapsed during a game in 2020 and was not cleared by Florida doctors before transferring and starring for Kansas State this year.
No. 14 Montana State (25-9)
Conference: Big Sky
Coach: Danny Sprinkle (4th season)
Post-ing up: Junior guard RaeQuan Battle’s development from a reserve to a star powered the Bobcats back to the tournament for a second straight season after a 26-year drought, hoping to improve on their 35-point loss to Texas Tech last year. A big guard averaging 17.4 points, Battle makes Montana State go.
No. 7 Michigan State (19-12)
Conference: Big Ten
Coach: Tom Izzo (28th season)
Post-ing up: The Spartans are led by a three-headed monster of second-team All-Big Ten guard Tyson Walker, All-Big Ten honorable mention Joey Hauser and third-team All-Big Ten guard AJ Hoggard. Izzo returns to the NCAA Tournament for the 25th straight season (besides the 2020 COVID-canceled tournament) with one of his more veteran sides in recent years.
No. 10 USC (22-10)
Conference: Pac-12
Coach: Andy Enfield (10th season)
Post-ing up: A loss to Arizona State in the Pac-12 quarterfinals didn’t help the Trojans, but they still made the NCAA Tournament for a third consecutive year. USC snagged a win against UCLA, while suffering just a two-point loss in their other meeting. Guard Reese Dixon-Waters won the conference’s Sixth Player of the Year award.
No. 2 Marquette (28-6)
Conference: Big East
Coach: Shaka Smart (2nd season)
Post-ing up: Marquette won both the Big East regular season and tournament under Smart, who was no stranger to NCAA Tournament success at VCU. One of the nation’s top scoring offenses is led by sophomore guards Tyler Kolek, the Big East Player of the Year who’s second nationally with 7.8 assists a game, and Kam Jones.
No. 15 Vermont (23-10)
Conference: America East
Coach: John Becker (12th season)
Post-ing up: It’s now four trips to the NCAA Tournament since 2017 for the Catamounts, who nearly upset fourth-seeded Arkansas last March. This is a very different team, though, after losing its top four scorers. Becker reloaded, adding key transfers Dylan Penn from Bellarmine and Matt Veretto from Delaware.
ncG1vNJzZmimqaW8tMCNnKamZ2Jlf3R7j2xmampfoq6zr8dmpJqcnprAtHnBq5ico5WpenN8kWxknpmjqXqzscaipqeZnGKvs7HApJuor55ivba%2Bw66cZqyRoLK0edOop2arlZqxcA%3D%3D