5 storylines to watch in the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament this year

Whether you’re a devoted college basketball junkie or you just pay attention for a few weeks each spring, you’ll get a lot more out of the Division I men’s tournament if you know the storylines behind the matchups.

Here are some of the biggest narratives to follow from work, home, and wherever you watch the games. 

The year of the freshmen

From February 2021 until the start of the 2025-26 college basketball season, there were exactly three 40-point games by freshmen. On January 24, 2026, three freshmen achieved that milestone on a single day. Two of them were playing against then-top-12-ranked teams, on the road.

Kingston Flemings of Houston scored 42 points against Texas Tech, Keaton Wagler of Illinois scored 46 points against Purdue, and AJ Dybantsa of BYU scored 43 points against archrival Utah. All three players were selected as Associated Press All-Americans, and play for teams seeded No. 2, 3, and 6, respectively, in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Meanwhile, the national player of the year favorite, Cameron Boozer, is a freshman playing for Duke, the overall top-seeded team. Arkansas, which is a No. 4 seed after winning the SEC Tournament, is led by Darius Acuff Jr., a freshman point guard who averages 23 points per game. Kansas guard Darryn Peterson has been in and out of the lineup with injuries throughout the year, but has looked every bit the part of a potential superstar in the NBA, and will play for the No. 4-seeded Jayhawks in the tourney.

Arizona, another No. 1 seed, starts three freshmen: Koa Peat, Brayden Burries, and Ivan Kharchenkov. Mikel Brown Jr. (Louisville), Nate Ament (Tennessee), Braylon Mullins (UConn), Killyan Toure (Iowa State), and Trey McKenney (Michigan) are all key players on teams with a chance to make a run.

Even some of the mid-majors in the NCAA Tournament have star freshmen on their rosters. Santa Clara’s Allen Graves is getting NBA draft buzz. Hofstra’s Preston Edmead won CAA Tournament MVP thanks to a buzzer-beater and a heroic performance. Alex Wilkins of Furman also won his conference tournament MVP after making the All-Conference second team.

This is the greatest freshman class in the history of college basketball, and these players are ready for their NCAA Tournament moment.

Can Nebraska finally do it?

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has had a basketball team for 130 years. The school has been a member of a power conference for much of that time, first in the Big 12 (which was then known as the Big 8) and then in the Big Ten (confusing, but different conferences). Among the 79 teams in power conferences, Nebraska is the only one that has never won a game in the NCAA Tournament.

The Cornhuskers have as good a shot as ever to wipe that dubious honor clean this year. They started the regular season with 20 consecutive wins and have already matched the program’s single-season win record of 26, entering the tournament at 26-6.

Nebraska earned a No. 4 seed in the tournament and will take on the Troy University Trojans on Thursday, March 19, at 12:40 p.m. Eastern time. KenPom gives the Huskers a 92% chance of winning that game.

Back-to-back back-to-backs

Florida’s miraculous run to win the national championship last year included a hard-fought second-round win over UConn, the winner of the previous two national championships. The Gators are in position to have a chance to match that feat and win back-to-back national championships themselves for the second time in program history.

Head coach Todd Golden’s team started the season just 5-4, but is 21-3 since then, winning the SEC regular season championship by three games. All of that earned Florida a second consecutive No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and made the team a popular pick to win another title.

Should Florida win the national championship, it would be the first time in the 87-year history of the tournament that a team won back-to-back championships immediately after a different team won back-to-back championships. The Gators would also join UCLA as the only two programs to win back-to-back national championships on two separate occasions. Florida won the 2006 and 2007 championships, while UCLA went back-to-back in 1964 and 1965 before winning seven in a row from 1967 to 1973.

Miami has people talking

Think about it: 31 wins; 0 losses. That was Miami University’s regular season.

The RedHawks of Ohio became the first team to enter their conference tournament with an unblemished record since Gonzaga’s 2020-2021 season. But Gonzaga is a college basketball powerhouse. This is Miami University.

Head coach Travis Steele’s team won four overtime games during the regular season, and five other games by one possession, holding on by the skin of its teeth to keep its undefeated record alive. After losing to UMass in the quarterfinals of the Mid-American Conference tournament, the RedHawks didn’t earn the automatic bid from their conference. Because they played one of the weakest schedules in the country—not for lack of trying, their at-large case was one of the most polarizing in recent memory. 

But the selection committee decided to put Miami in the tournament, rewarding the team for winning all of its regular-season games.

Miami will take on Southern Methodist in the First Four on Wednesday, March 18, at 9:15 p.m. Eastern time in Dayton, just 32 miles from its Oxford, Ohio, campus. If the RedHawks win, they move on to play the Tennessee Volunteers in Philadelphia on Friday, March 20, at 4:25 p.m. ET.

Another top-seed collision course?

Last year, all four No. 1 seeds made it to the Final Four of the tournament. The top of the sport was historically good, and it remains historically good this year. On prominent analytics website KenPom.com, Duke, Michigan, and Arizona have power ratings well higher than everybody else, similar to how last year’s top four separated themselves from the pack in that metric.

Most fans don’t like a tournament devoid of upsets, because the upsets are a major part of why March Madness can be so exciting. And it’s certainly true that the most compelling storylines tend to come with those Cinderella runs. Similar to last year’s tournament, this year’s may end up being light on upsets, but it’s likely to be filled with heavyweight battles between elite college basketball teams in the later rounds.

Last season’s Final Four delivered two epic semifinals and a classic national championship game. This year’s action will culminate on Monday, April, 6, at 8:30 p.m. ET, in Indianapolis.

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