{"id":629837,"date":"2026-02-28T06:55:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T06:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/629837\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T06:55:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T06:55:21","slug":"2026-ncaa-tournament-projections-has-uconn-locked-up-the-final-no-1-seed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/629837\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NCAA Tournament Projections: Has UConn Locked Up the Final No. 1 Seed?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">As the calendar flips toward March, the NCAA Tournament picture has started to crystallize.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">For weeks, the prevailing belief across men&#8217;s college basketball has been simple: A trio of No. 1 seeds are essentially spoken for. Duke, Michigan and Arizona have looked like clear-cut top seeds. That left one final No. 1 seed dangling \u2014 a debate to be settled over the season\u2019s closing stretch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">Perhaps not anymore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">On Wednesday night, UConn flexed its muscles with a 72-40 demolition of <a class=\"entity\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/st-johns-red-storm-team\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St. John&#8217;s<\/a>, snapping a 13-game winning streak for the Red Storm and delivering the most lopsided loss of the Rick Pitino era in Queens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">With that performance, UConn made a powerful case for securing the fourth and final No. 1 seed as March Madness looms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">Is the race truly over? Or is there one more twist before Selection Sunday?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">FOX Sports&#8217; bracket forecaster Mike DeCourcy has his latest NCAA Men&#8217;s Basketball Tournament projections.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>EAST REGION<img  width=\"640\" height=\"427\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> SOUTH REGION<img  width=\"640\" height=\"427\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> MIDWEST REGION<img  width=\"640\" height=\"427\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> WEST REGION<img  width=\"640\" height=\"427\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">And it\u2019s never too early to check in on the bubble.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">According to DeCourcy&#8217;s projections, Indiana, <a class=\"entity\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/tcu-horned-frogs-team\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">TCU<\/a>, Santa Clara and <a class=\"entity\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/vcu-rams-team\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">VCU<\/a> are the last four teams in the tournament, while Auburn, San Diego State, Virginia Tech and USC are the first four out.<\/p>\n<p><img  width=\"640\" height=\"427\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">As for conference representation, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/southeastern\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">SEC<\/a> leads the way with 10 teams, while the <a class=\"entity\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/big-ten\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Big Ten<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/acc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">ACC<\/a> have nine teams each. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/big-12\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Big 12<\/a> has eight teams in DeCourcy&#8217;s latest tournament projections. The <a class=\"entity\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/big-east\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Big East<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/college-basketball\/west-coast\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">West Coast<\/a> have three teams represented, while the A-10 has two teams.<\/p>\n<p><img  width=\"640\" height=\"427\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">Selection Sunday is less than one month away, and these projections will inevitably evolve. For now, DeCourcy\u2019s latest bracket forecast offers a clear snapshot of who\u2019s rising, who\u2019s falling and which programs are already building the r\u00e9sum\u00e9s they\u2019ll need when March arrives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the calendar flips toward March, the NCAA Tournament picture has started to crystallize. For weeks, the prevailing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[1982,7,217,691,950,4250,2811,7367,3730,3491,1043,231,772,1544,8905,9449,12513,4262,923,849],"class_list":{"0":"post-629837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-arizona-wildcats","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-college-basketball","11":"tag-duke-blue-devils","12":"tag-florida-gators","13":"tag-gonzaga-bulldogs","14":"tag-houston-cougars","15":"tag-illinois-fighting-illini","16":"tag-kansas-jayhawks","17":"tag-michigan-state-spartans","18":"tag-michigan-wolverines","19":"tag-ncaa","20":"tag-ncaa-basketball","21":"tag-ncaab","22":"tag-nebraska-cornhuskers","23":"tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","24":"tag-purdue-boilermakers","25":"tag-ucla-bruins","26":"tag-uconn-huskies","27":"tag-usc-trojans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116146951697392015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}