Beware the 12 seed: Michigan, Memphis among the No. 5 seeds trying to avoid NCAA Tournament curse

UC San Diego coach Eric Olen knew that his team would be good this season.

This good? Maybe not quite.

The Tritons were playing Division II ball just five years ago, when the pandemic shut down its tournament and may have kept his team from winning a national championship. The school began the transition to Division I the following year, and in its first season of NCAA Tournament eligibility, the Tritons punched their ticket by winning the Big West Tournament title.

All of that is reason for rapture in Southern California. And reason for worry in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The Tritons were rewarded with the No. 12 seed in the South Region, where they will face Big Ten Tournament champion Michigan in one of those testy 5-12 matchups that always seem to bust some brackets early.

“It's been a pretty special season, you know?" said Olen, who took over UC San Diego in 2013, when it was a mediocre DII program. “These guys deserve all the recognition that has come their way. I knew we'd have a good team. I knew we'd be good. But his has been, you know, beyond my expectations of what was possible, to be in this situation, to play at this level for so long this season."

The Tritons have won 15 consecutive games, so they will be taking plenty of momentum into their matchup with Michigan on Thursday in Denver. And lest anyone think they will be intimidated, remember this: They took No. 11 seed San Diego State down to the wire in one of their only four losses this season,

“Teams don't just win 30 games by accident,” said UC San Diego guard Hayden Gray, a finalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Award. “We're going to go out there with confidence. See if they can stop us.”

It'll be a tall task for the Tritons, literally and figuratively. Michigan will have a huge size advantage in 7-foot-1 center Vladislav Goldin and 7-foot big man Danny Wolf, and coach Dusty May's team is just as hot as UC San Diego. It toppled three straight Top 25 teams in Purdue, Maryland and Wisconsin to cut down the nets at the Big Ten Tournament.

Still, there have been 55 times in which the No. 12 seed triumphed since the NCAA Tournament field expanded in 1985, including twice last year, when James Madison beat Wisconsin and Grand Canyon knocked off Saint Mary's.

“The process doesn't change. It's still going to be the same things up on the board there before the game,” the Tritons' Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones said. “We're just going to go out and do what we do.”

West Region

Much like Michigan, Memphis was probably hoping for a much better seed after winning the American Athletic tourney, but it got stuck with the dreaded No. 5 seed and a first-round matchup with Colorado State, the winner of the Mountain West Tournament.

The Tigers, who are led by All-American candidate PJ Haggerty, proved they can beat anyone when they beat NCAA Tournament teams Michigan State, Clemson, Missouri, Ole Miss and UConn. But coach Anfernee Hardaway's crew also showed they can lose to just about anyone, such as Arkansas State and Temple.

“What an incredible story,” said Colorado State coach Niko Medved, whose team will face the Tigers on Friday in Seattle. “This team, the legacy of this team, will live on forever. Just resilience and staying together. Believing in something that’s bigger than yourself and not getting ahead of yourself."

East Region

Oregon earned its No. 5 seed by having one of the strangest rollercoaster seasons of any high-major: The Ducks won 12 of their first 13 games, beating Texas A&M and Alabama along the way, then endured a five-game skid in Big Ten play, before running off an eight-game winning streak that ended with a loss to Michigan State in the Big Ten Tournament.

The Ducks now get a game Friday against No. 12 seed Liberty, which won the Conference USA tourney but has not played a single Quad 1 opponent this season.

Midwest Region

Will Wade has No. 12 seed McNeese back in the NCAA tourney for a second consecutive year, and its first-round foe should be awfully familiar: Clemson, where Wade worked as a student manager and started his career as a graduate assistant. The No. 5 seed Tigers, who won 18 games in the ACC, will play the Cowboys on Thursday in Providence, Rhode Island.

___

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

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