With the 2025 NCAA men’s tournament upon us, here’s everything you need to know about the East region.
[What to know about each region: South | West | Midwest]
Duke is the second No. 1 overall seed, but the betting favorite to win the national title as of early Monday morning ahead of Florida and No. 1 overall seed Auburn. Alabama is a tournament-tested team that followed up last year’s Final Four run with a third-place finish in the nation’s toughest conference to earn a No. 2 seed. There’s little difference in the eyes of bettors between No. 3 seed Wisconsin and No. 4 seed Arizona.
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This depends very much on the health status of Cooper Flagg. If he’s healthy and ready to go, the No. 1 seed might not go down at all. Duke’s a juggernaut that stormed through the ACC with a 19-1 record and finished the season with the nation’s largest average margin of victory (20.8 points per game).
And it’s not just Flagg. Freshman sharpshooter Kon Knueppel and 7-foot-2 freshman center Khaman Maluach are projected alongside Flagg as first-round NBA draft picks from a roster that runs deep on talent. This is a team that won two games without Flagg to lift the ACC tournament championship trophy.
Head coach Jon Scheyer says that he expects Flagg to be ready and healthy for Duke’s tournament opener on Friday after suffering a sprained right ankle on Thursday. If that’s the case, then Duke’s the clear favorite in the East and on the short list of favorites to win it all.
Can anyone in the East stop Cooper Flagg and Duke? (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
No. 10 Vanderbilt is battle-tested after running the SEC gantlet. The Commodores finished a respectable 8-10 in SEC play in a conference that produced an NCAA-record 14 tournament teams.
They have five wins over ranked teams, including three straight in February and top-10 victories over No. 9 Kentucky and No. 6 Tennessee in January. They rank 48th in NET ranking and 49th in KenPom’s adjusted efficiency metric. This is a double-digit seed built to advance.
No. 11 seed VCU is another potential Cinderella story and a prime candidate to pull off a first-round upset. The 28-6 Rams enter NCAA play having won 12 of their last 13 games, including an Atlantic 10 championship game over George Mason.
They have a strong analytics profile with a No. 31 NET ranking and No. 30 KenPom ranking. They’re also balanced with top 41 rankings in both adjusted and defensive efficiency. No. 6 BYU, their first-round opponent, is close in both NET ranking (No. 25) and KenPom ranking (No. 24), despite being slotted five lines higher on the bracket. This is a tough draw for the Cougars.
Flagg is one of two players alongside Auburn’s Johni Broome in the running for national player of the year honors and the only player in the running to be the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft. Flagg’s managed to exceed the enormous expectations he carried to Duke while leading the top-seeded and ACC champion Blue Devils in points (18.9 per game), rebounds (7.5), assists (4.1), blocks (1.3) and steals (1.5). The only thing that can slow him down is injury. And Scheyer is confident that won’t be the case once the ball is tipped.
A returning second-team All-American, Sears thrived in his final season at Alabama while cracking a stacked list of candidates to earn first-team All-SEC honors. A physical guard who led Alabama in both scoring (18.7 ppg) and assists (4.9), Sears is the engine that drives the nation’s highest-scoring offense (91.1 ppg). He’s been here before and will be key to any hopes of ousting Duke to make a second straight run to the Final Four.
If Love gets hot, there may be no more dangerous guard in the NCAA tournament. Love was the catalyst for North Carolina’s stunning run to the national title game as a No. 8 seed in 2022. After transferring to Arizona last season, he earned All-America honors and was named Pac-12 Player of the Year.
He remains streaky and inefficient (38.6 FG%). But Love led Arizona with 16.6 points per game and does wild, confident things like hitting this half-court buzzer beater. If he gets hot, watch out.
No. 1 Duke vs. American/No. 16 Mount St. Mary’s (Raleigh, Friday, 2:50 p.m. ET, CBS)
No. 8 Mississippi State vs. No. 9 Baylor (Raleigh, Friday, 12:15 p.m. ET, CBS)
No. 5 Oregon vs. No. 12 Liberty (Seattle, Friday, 10:10 p.m. ET, TruTV)
No. 4 Arizona vs. No. 13 Akron (Seattle, Friday, 7:35 p.m. ET, TruTV)
No. 6 BYU vs. No. 11 VCU (Denver, Thursday, 4:05 p.m. ET, TNT)
No. 3 Wisconsin vs. No. 14 Montana (Denver, Thursday, 1:30 p.m. ET, TNT)
No. 7 Saint Mary’s vs. No. 10 Vanderbilt (Cleveland, Friday, 3:15 p.m. ET, TruTV)
No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 15 Robert Morris (Cleveland, Friday, 12:40 p.m. ET, TruTV)
If Flagg is healthy, good luck picking against the Blue Devils. Even if he’s not fully healed, Duke has a strong enough roster cruise to the second weekend of the tournament. The Blue Devils are the clear favorites here if Flagg is anywhere close to 100%.
Yahoo Sports’ Frank Schwab picks the outcome against the spread — and explains why — for each of the opening matchups in the East region.
- No. 14 Montana (+16.5) over No. 3 Wisconsin, 1:30 p.m. Thursday
- No. 6 BYU (-3.5) over No. 11 VCU, 4:05 p.m. Thursday
- No. 8 Mississippi State (-1.5) over No. 9 Baylor, 12:15 p.m. Friday
- No. 15 Robert Morris (+22.5) over No. 2 Alabama, 12:40 p.m. Friday
- No. 7 St. Mary’s (-3.5) over No. 10 Vanderbilt, 4:15 p.m. Friday
- No. 13 Akron (+14.5) over No. 4 Arizona, 7:35 p.m. Friday
- No. 12 Liberty (+6.5) over No. 5 Oregon, 10:10 p.m. Friday
