March Madness is in full effect with the full NCAA Tournament bracket released! NBC Sports is taking you region by region for all the best storylines, matchups and Cinderella picks in the 2026 field.
East Region breakdown
Midwest Region breakdown
South Region breakdown
West Region bracket
No. 1 Arizona vs. No. 16 Long Island University
No. 8 Villanova vs. No. 9 Utah State
No. 5 Wisconsin vs. No. 12 High Point
No. 4 Arkansas vs. No. 13 Hawaii
No. 6 BYU vs. No. 11 Texas/North Carolina State
No. 3 Gonzaga vs. No. 14 Kennesaw State
No. 7 Miami (FL) vs. No. 10 Missouri
No. 2 Purdue vs. No. 15 Queens
Meet the No. 1 seed: Arizona
Out of the three juggernauts of the season (Duke, Arizona, Michigan), the Wildcats are the team with the most going for it entering the tournament. They’re mostly healthy and coming off consecutive wins over No. 2 seeds in Iowa State and Houston at the Big 12 Tournament.
Arizona boasts a deep roster of talent (five Wildcats average double-figure points per game), a massive front line and elite guard play in senior Jaden Bradley and freshman Brayden Burries. They join Duke as the only teams that rank in the top five in offensive rating and defensive rating on KenPom. This is a team that deserves to be a popular title pick.
Top challenger: No. 4 Arkansas
It was really tough to choose this category. Purdue, Gonzaga and Arkansas all won their conference tournaments and enter playing their best ball of the season. Any of them could win this region.
I go with Arkansas because of Darius Acuff Jr. The Razorbacks’ guard joins Brandon Miller as the only freshmen to win SEC Player of the Year outright since Anthony Davis in 2012, which is pretty strong company. Acuff was an assassin throughout the SEC Tournament and is the exact type of unflappable guard that drives long tournament runs — and the talent around him is nothing to sneeze at, either.
Potential Cinderella: No. 11 North Carolina State
This pick is not simply a callback to the Wolfpack’s Final Four run as an 11-seed in 2024. Head coach Will Wade is in his first season with the Wolfpack and brings prior experience winning in the NCAA Tournament with multiple schools.
His Wolfpack have the 20th-ranked offensive rating and shoot the three at the ninth-best percentage in the country (38.8%). Everyone is always looking for that First Four team that can get on a roll and win a few games; this is a great candidate to do so because of that shooting accuracy.
Storyline to watch: Offense galore
It’s not just the Wolfpack that can put the ball in the bucket in this region. The West features an astonishing seven of the top 20 offenses in the country per KenPom. That’s not even including Utah State (28th), Gonzaga (29th), or Miami (33rd), which aren’t exactly offensive slouches.
Even 12-seed High Point has the nation’s fourth-ranked scoring offense. Not every team plays at the fastest tempo to put up big-time points, but the offensive execution in this region is going to be out of this world. That leads us to...
Best Round 1 matchup: No. 5 Wisconsin vs. No. 12 High Point
Offense is absolutely the strength for High Point, the identity that helped it build the top scoring margin in the country at 19.7 points per game. They attempt the fifth-most free throws in the country and have the 19th-best effective field goal percentage.
Wisconsin, meanwhile, wins by hoisting threes (fourth-most makes in the country) and limiting turnovers (eighth-best in the country). It has helped them against a strong schedule in the Big Ten, but one off night could be the chance High Point pounces on for an upset.
