Roundup: Seed and region give Arizona an edge in NCAA Tournament

Four Pac-12 teams are in the field of 68 for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, and let’s start with the Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Tournament champion Arizona Wildcats. Bruce Pascoe believes that playing in the West Region as a No. 2 seed gives Arizona an advantage.

UCLA is a No. 3 seed, playing Kent State in the first round, and the Doug Gottlieb of CBS Sports thinks Lonzo Ball could lead the Bruins to a national title in the video in the link.

The Ducks are a No. 3 seed as well after losing to Arizona in the Pac-12 tourney title game, but Chris Boucher tore his ACL and is out for the season. Boucher suffered the injury in the semifinal win over Cal.

Zach Helfand of the Los Angeles Times gives us a USC-Providence NCAA First Four scouting report. Winner gets sixth-seeded SMU in the round of 64. It's the second straight year Providence and USA have met in the tourney.

Meanwhile, Washington women’s basketball will find out its NCAA Tournament seeding Monday when the bracket is unveiled at 4 p.m. PT on ESPN. Head coach Mike Neighbors has it narrowed down to eight teams the Huskies could potentially play in the first round.

Chip Patterson of CBS Sports believes Cal has reason to believe it was snubbed from the NCAA Tournament, having defeated USC in the regular season. The Golden Bears are NIT-bound instead.

Cal is one of three Pac-12 teams in the NIT, with Utah being a No. 3 seed and hosting Boise State Tuesday night in a first-round game in the field of 32.

Meanwhile, Colorado is a No. 5 seed in the NIT and will face UCF in the first round. The Golden Knights are led by former Stanford head coach Johnny Dawkins and have a 7-foot-6 center in Tacko Fall.

Over the weekend, the New Orleans Saints traded Brandin Cooks to the New England Patriots for the No. 32 pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, with some other draft picks being exchanged.

Reports are surfacing that former Arizona State quarterback Brock Osweiler got into a late-season confrontation with Houston Texas head coach Bill O’Brien (Yahoo Sports), and that’s at least partly the reason why he was traded to the Cleveland Browns.

Stanford baseball split a Sunday doubleheader with Rice. The Card also split the overall four-game series with the Owls in Houston.

CougCenter provides us with some Washington State NCAA Tournament trivia, dealing with where the Cougs played their tourney games.