A dozen things to know ahead of this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament

Selection Sunday has come and gone, and now the fun begins. Technically, it begins Tuesday as a quartet of play-in games tip off before the real action begins on Thursday.

We’re a good three weeks from when the next NCAA men’s champion will be crowned and regaled with the annual rendition of “One Shining Moment,” so there’s time to get to know a few of the 68 teams in the field before the madness begins.

With that said, we at The Inquirer compiled a few things you should know ahead of the tournament along with a few “did you know” tidbits so you can impress the people in your bracket pool this week.

» READ MORE: Need a bracket? The Inquirer’s got you covered.

This year’s UConn team, the defending NCAA champion and overall top seed in the field, brought us back to the days of when Kemba Walker and Rip Hamilton were running through the Big East Conference. These Huskies, now 31-3 after their 73-57 rout of No. 10 seed Marquette in the Big East final, look the part of a team that’s going to be tough to stop. Keep your eyes on 7-foot-2 sophomore center Donovan Clingan and guard Tristen Newton, the Big East tournament MVP, to be the driving forces behind coach Dan Hurley’s run to another national title.

» READ MORE: 10 things you should know before the NCAA women’s basketball tournament begins

Looking for a sleeper team? Consider the Catamounts of Vermont, and here’s why. You’d have to go back to the 2015-16 season for the last time Vermont was left out of the tournament, having won the last eight America East titles. This year’s team can shoot the rock, collectively 34.4% from beyond the arc. The 13th-seeded Catamounts entered the tournament with a 28-6 record, including 15-1 in conference play. They open against No. 4 seed Duke on Friday.

March Madness has expanded beyond bracket pools for bragging rights. The Associated Press reports that states allowing gambling on college basketball games, and March Madness specifically, has increased for the sixth consecutive year, with North Carolina being the latest to allow bettors to wager at sportsbooks and online. That makes it 38 out of 50 states, as well as Washington, D.C.

Former Penn guard Jelani Williams is again in the NCAA Tournament with Howard, the historically Black college to which he transferred two years ago. Howard won the MEAC championship and is in as a No. 16 seed for the play-in game against Wagner on Wednesday. The winner will play top-seeded North Carolina in the West Region in Charlotte, N.C. Despite his transfer, Williams has fond feelings for Penn, which he displayed after the Quakers beat Howard at the Palestra on Dec. 11. Following the postgame handshakes, he joined his former teammates in the traditional singing of “The Red and the Blue.”

The Final Four takes place in the desert outside Phoenix in Glendale, Ariz. State Farm Stadium, the site of the Eagles’ Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs last year, is the venue for the semifinal rounds on April 6, with the national championship slated for Monday, April 8 (8 p.m., TBS).

Kentucky came up small in the SEC tournament second-round game against Texas A&M, but the Wildcats boast a tournament resumé any team would die for and is a big reason they were given the No. 3 seed in the South region. This high-scoring group averaged 89.3 points largely fueled by a trio of products local to the Philly area, mainly Camden’s D.J. Wagner (10.3 points) and Imhotep freshman guard Justin Edwards (8.7). However, their engine is 6-3 freshman guard Rob Dillingham, who leads the team with 15.7, and scored a team-high 27 in the loss to the Aggies.

» READ MORE: Mike Sielski: Villanova and Kyle Neptune have to figure out what kind of program they want to be

How about those Antelopes or simply “Lopes” of Grand Canyon University, punching a ticket for the second year in a row after winning the Western Athletic Conference championship game, this time against University of Texas-Arlington. Grand Canyon is the classic underdog team, though the Antelopes’ 29-4 record and top seed in the WAC tournament suggest they don’t go down lightly.

If you were expecting Princeton in the men’s NCAA Tournament, so was everyone else until Brown upset the Tigers on Saturday. Yale (22-9) is the Ivy League’s representative instead, after beating Brown, 62-61, on a buzzer-beater by guard Matt Knowling. Yale isn’t a stranger to the tournament, as this will be the Bulldogs’ fourth appearance since 2016.

» READ MORE: Temple nearly authored a Philly college hoops tale for the ages, one with many layers

This is the second year in a row that the men’s NCAA Tournament will be devoid of a Big 5 team. The team that came the closest was perhaps the most unlikely. Temple, which snapped a 10-game losing streak last month, rattled off four wins in the American Athletic Conference tournament only to get smacked 85-69 by Alabama-Birmingham in the title game. The last men’s Big 5 team in the NCAA Tournament was second-seeded Villanova that lost in the 2022 Final Four to eventual champion Kansas.

Speaking of Temple, remember when the bulk of its entire starting five left for greener pastures last season? Well, only one of the five players who departed will be dancing this season. Former Owls guard Damian Dunn will join Houston (30-4), the No. 1 team in the South region, when the Cougars take on Longwood (21-13) on Friday in Memphis. The Cougars have been dominant, even spending time earlier this season as the No. 1 team in the AP Top 25.

» READ MORE: Temple’s entire starting five left last season. Here’s how they’re faring at new programs.

Suppose there is a pseudo-Philly team in this year’s tournament, but going to preface by saying we already know we’re reaching. Stetson University, the Atlantic Sun champion and No. 16 seed, bears the same name as the famous Western-style hat company manufactured in Germantown for more than 100 years until it ceased its production here in 1971.

Colgate, the Patriot League champion, returns to the NCAA Tournament as the No. 14 seed that will take on No. 3 Baylor in the West Region on Friday. Colgate has been coached since 2011 by Moorestown’s Matt Langel, who was a star player at Penn for current La Salle coach Fran Dunphy. This will be the fifth NCAA Tournament appearance for Colgate with Langel on the sideline.

» READ MORE: St. Joe’s strong Atlantic 10 run shows these Hawks are ‘headed in the right direction’