Duke and Arizona looked like the teams to beat in the upcoming men’s NCAA Tournament after taking down No. 1 Michigan and No. 2 Houston, respectively, on Feb. 21.
The No. 3 Blue Devils beat the Wolverines 68-63 behind Cameron Boozer’s 18-point, 10-rebound and seven-assist performance. Guards Isaiah Evans and Caleb Foster added 26 combined points in the win.
Meanwhile, the Wildcats defeated the Cougars 73-66 behind a career-high 22 points from Anthony Dell’Orso, who played 34 minutes off the bench for the national championship contenders.
There will be a shakeup in the polls on Feb. 23, as No. 6 Iowa State fell to No. 22 BYU and No. 12 Kansas was upset by unranked Cincinnati. No. 18 Vanderbilt also lost to unranked Tennessee.
Here’s a look at the latest risers and fallers for March Madness as the regular season winds down:
March Madness bracket predictions
Risers
Duke
- Projected seed: No. 1
Duke still has remaining games against Notre Dame, Virginia, NC State and UNC in the regular season.
Arizona
- Projected seed: No. 1
Arizona is back to being a contender for the No. 1 overall seed, along with Duke.
Florida
- Projected seed: No. 2
Florida’s frontcourt trio of Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu might be the best in college basketball and starting guards Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee are also heating up, which could be scary for opposing teams facing the reigning national champions.
UCLA
- Projected seed: First Four Out
UCLA coach Mick Cronin went viral for the wrong reasons after its blowout loss to Michigan State on Feb. 17. However, the Bruins turned around and defeated No. 10 Illinois 95-94 at home on Feb. 21, which is a huge boost to their resume.
UCLA still has some work to do but holds an 18-9 record with ranked wins over Purdue and Illinois, two of the top projected teams in March Madness.
Fallers
Houston
- Projected seed: No. 2
Houston is coming off back-to-back losses to Iowa State and Arizona and appears to have fallen behind both schools in the Big 12’s pecking order. While the Cougars are still national championship contenders, they have some work to do to get back onto the No. 1 seed line.
Kansas
- Projected seed: No. 3
Kansas was blown out by Iowa State on Feb. 14, before defeating Oklahoma State on Feb. 18 with limited help from star guard Darryn Peterson. The Jayhawks then suffered perhaps their worst loss of the season on Feb. 21, falling to unranked Cincinnati by 16 points at home.
Thankfully for Kansas, Peterson played 32 minutes in the loss after pulling himself from the game against the Cowboys.
Vanderbilt
- Projected seed: No. 5
Vanderbilt, losers of three of its past five games, is quickly falling out of contention to be the higher seed for the Round of 32, should it reach that stage of the NCAA Tournament.
The Commodores have dropped back-to-back games to Missouri and Tennessee, who are looking to surpass Vanderbilt in the SEC order. The losses were only by five combined points, though, showing how slim the margins can be between winning and losing.
Vandy ends the regular season with games against Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee again, which could all go either way.
Clemson
- Projected seed: No. 9
Clemson was looking to compete with North Carolina to finish second in the ACC standings, until its current four-game losing streak started. The Tigers are 20-8 on the season, but have lost four straight, including three against unranked teams in Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Florida State.
The Tigers have upcoming games against Louisville and North Carolina, two ranked teams. Things could get ugly quick if they can’t win at least one of those two games, in terms of seeding and even avoiding the bubble.
When is Selection Sunday 2026?
The 68-team bracket for the 2026 NCAA men’s basketball tournament will be unveiled on 6 p.m. ET, Sunday, March 15.
March Madness 2026 schedule
The 2026 NCAA men’s basketball tournament will transpire over the next three weeks, which will end with the Final Four and the national championship game in Indianapolis.
Here’s a rundown of the schedule for the 2026 NCAA Tournament:
- First Four: March 17-18 (Buy tickets)
- First round: March 19-20
- Second round: March 21-22
- Sweet 16: March 26-27
- Elite Eight: March 28-29
- Final Four: April 4 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis (Buy tickets)
- National championship game: April 6 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis (Buy tickets)
