It’s time for a quick game of word association.
Cinderella. Bubble. Bid-stealer.
They can mean only one thing when the calendar reaches March: The NCAA Tournament is coming.
In an official kickoff for the annual 68-team, three-week competition that will eventually crown a national champion, brackets for both the men’s and women’s tournaments will be unveiled Sunday.
Duke, Michigan, Arizona and reigning champion Florida are expected to earn the top seeds in the men’s bracket. Those four are remarkably well-rounded, with all ranking in the nation’s top five defensively and the top eight offensively.
In the women’s tournament, Connecticut is a favorite to earn the top overall seed and UCLA, South Carolina and Texas could join the Huskies as No. 1 seeds.
Though the tournament is famed for its unpredictability and upsets, favorites ruled last year as the top seeds of all four regions advanced to the men’s Final Four. The women’s tournament saw three No. 1 seeds advance, though the eventual champion Connecticut was a No. 2 seed.
Intrigue also surrounds the first — and almost assuredly only — March Madness performances of talented freshmen Cameron Boozer of Duke, Darryn Peterson of Kansas and AJ Dybantsa of BYU, each of whom could be selected first overall in June’s NBA Draft.
(ISI Photos)
Another star freshman, Caleb Wilson of North Carolina, will miss the tournament after breaking his right thumb in early March. It was a major blow to the hopes of the Tar Heels, who are one of just two teams to beat Duke this season, joining Texas Tech.
Teams spent the past week making their final cases for inclusion, but the vast majority had already played themselves in or out. Among the schools that will be anxiously waiting tonight's bracket reveal is Miami (Ohio), whose résumé became a lightning rod for debate. The RedHawks finished the regular season as only the fifth team this century to be undefeated, but their strength of schedule was among the nation's weakest.
Miami's worthiness was then further muddied Thursday when it lost its first game of the Mid-American Conference tournament unexpectedly. Unable to earn its conference’s automatic bid as a conference champion, Miami's last hope is as an at-large selection, which could squeeze out another team nervously awaiting its fate, such as Auburn.
Other teams that are expected to be sweating out the selection committee's choices are bubble teams Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas, Missouri and Virginia Commonwealth.
Should Nebraska make the tournament as expected, the Huskers will be attempting to win their first NCAA tournament game in program history. At 0-8, they are the only team from a power conference never to win a Big Dance game.
This year’s men's Final Four will be held in Indianapolis, with semifinals on April 6 and the championship two days later.
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Phoenix hosts the women’s national semifinals on April 3, with the championship April 5.
Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma has led the school to 12 national championships, most all-time, and this season the Huskies lead the country in assists and field-goal percentage, while their defense has allowed the lowest field-goal percentage. Guard Azzi Fudd and forward Sarah Strong are each candidates for the Wooden Award.
Among the women's challengers are Vanderbilt, which is led by Mikayla Blakes, the nation's leading scorer at 27.0 points per game, and LSU, the 2023 national champion that produces the most bench points, and the highest rebounding margin, in the country.
Teams such as Arizona State and Richmond are among the last teams projected to be included in the field, while BYU, Texas A&M and Utah could be among the first snubs.
USC, a No. 1 seed each of the past two years thanks to superstar JuJu Watkins, could be an under-the-radar team despite Watkins missing the entire season while recovering from a knee injury. Jazzy Davidson, a freshman and top recruit, will be available to play in the tournament should USC make the cut after recovering from a shoulder injury, according to the school.
Looming over both tournaments is the question of whether the NCAA will expand the field for the first time since 2011.
Though NCAA senior vice president Dan Gavitt said in February that discussions about expansion — to 72, or possibly 76 — would pause until after the tournaments ended, the governing body's president, Charlie Baker, is in favor of growing the field. He told reporters that "I think there’s some very good reasons to expand the tournament, so I would like to see it expand."
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com