NCAA Tournament: BYU dancing as a 6-seed; Utah State in as a No. 10 seed
Utah women places as No. 8 seed, facing Indiana
Charlie Neibergall, Associated Press
BYU guard Dallin Hall celebrates after making a 3-pointer during a game against Iowa State on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, in Ames, Iowa.BYU will stay close to home, Utah State will not, and both have tall tasks in their first-round matchups as the NCAA released the men’s national tournament brackets in its traditional CBS TV broadcast Sunday.
The selection committee placed BYU as a No. 6 seed headed to Denver to open the tournament Thursday. The Cougars will face No. 11 Virginia Commonwealth. That game tips at 2:05 p.m. MDT on TNT.
The two teams have played just once before, an 81-77 victory in 1983 at a tournament hosted by Kentucky.
VCU enters the tournament with the nation’s No. 1 defense as measured by opponents’ effective field goal percentage. The Rams won 12 of their last 13 games, including taking the Atlantic 10 tournament. BYU is ranked No. 24 by both the NCAA NET and Ken Pomeroy; VCU is 30th and 31st.
VCU (28-6) has a pair of familiar faces as well: second-year head coach Ryan Odom, who took Utah State to the NCAA Tournament in 2023, and former USU guard Max Shulga. Odom also seems to be tentatively out the door, considered a top candidate for open jobs at Virginia and Villanova.
According to the NCAA’s official 1-68 seed order, BYU is No. 21 and VCU is No. 45.
Under first-year head coach Kevin Young, BYU (24-9) rattled off nine straight wins and finished tied for third in the competitive Big 12 Conference. The Cougars, with the nation’s No. 11 offense, beat Iowa State twice in that stretch and reached the Big 12 semifinals, losing to Houston (who’s in the NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed).
The winner would face No. 3 Wisconsin (26-9), who won the Big Ten tournament Sunday, or No. 14 Montana (25-9), who shared the Big Sky regular season and won the conference tournament.
Winners in Denver advance to the regional in Newark, New Jersey.
Beginning with Odom, Utah State has now made the NCAA Tournament three straight seasons with different head coaches. This year it’s Jerrod Calhoun and the Aggies (26-7) landing a No. 10 seed. They’ll head to Lexington, Kentucky, to face No. 7 UCLA (22-10).
USU and UCLA face off at 7:25 p.m. Thursday on TNT.
UCLA finished No. 27 in both the NCAA NET and KenPom, while the committee slotted the Bruins as the 25th-best team. Utah State, which took third in the Mountain West, is No. 37 in NET, No. 52 in KenPom, and was placed 40th by the selection committee.
USU has faced UCLA 10 times in school history dating back to 1932, going 3-7 in those matchups. The last came in 2001; after Bernard Rock, Tony Brown and company upset Ohio State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Utah State lost by 25 to UCLA in the second round.
The winner advances to play either No. 2 Tennessee or No. 15 Wofford.
Winners in Lexington will advance to the regional in Indianapolis.
The men’s tournament airs on CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTV.
Utah nearly had a third team in the tournament. Utah Valley won the WAC regular season and advanced to the conference tournament title game for the first time, but lost to Grand Canyon in Saturday night’s final. A win would’ve given UVU its first-ever ticket to the big dance.
Utah Valley is one of three teams who didn’t make the NCAA Tournament to have already secured an automatic bid to the NIT (joining Northern Colorado and Chattanooga) using its new formula for automatic and exempt selections.
The Wolverines will travel to play San Francisco at 9 p.m. MDT Wednesday on ESPNU. In a field that appears to have had several opt-outs (for example, last-four-out teams from the NCAA Tournament like Boise State and West Virginia are not in the NIT), San Francisco is one of the four No. 1 seeds, joining UC Irvine, Dayton and SMU.
The winner of UVU and USF will play the winner of San Jose State and Loyola-Chicago. Second-round games are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.
UTAH WOMEN GET NO. 8 SEED
The University of Utah will represent the Beehive State in women’s March Madness, grabbing a No. 8 seed with a 22-8 record. Utah will face No. 9 Indiana (19-12).
That game takes place Friday in Columbia, South Carolina. The winner likely advances to face site host and No. 1 seed South Carolina on Sunday.
Fremont High alum Timea Gardiner will represent Weber County with UCLA, joining BYU’s Dallin Hall as local representation. The Bruins were tabbed the No. 1 overall seed and given games as a host site.
From the Big Sky, 30-win Montana State rose to grab a No. 13 seed and will play site host and No. 4 seed Ohio State.
The women’s tournament airs on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and some games stream on ESPN+.
