The SEC has obviously started to take basketball seriously. They have two number one seeds, two number twos, and 14 teams in the tournament. (Out of 16 teams in the conference.)
If you like rooting for the underdog (as I do), your ultimate pick this year is the St. Francis Red Flash. They finished the season with six nail-biting single-digit victories to raise their record to 16-17. They started the season 5-11!
If you’re curious, that is nowhere near the worst record ever to enter the tournament. In the modern era, three teams have qualified with 11-18 records. Before the modern format was adopted, Bradley made the tournament with a 7-19 record in 1955. They were the ultimate underdogs, but made a run into the Elite Eight! To show how long ago that was, the La Salle Explorers made it into the championship game that year, although their dreams of a national championship were rudely disrupted by some guy named Bill Russell. (In recent times, La Salle has only made the tournament once in the past thirty years.)
No team seeded worse than 11th has ever made the Final Four, but a #15 seed has made the Elite Eight. In 2022, 15th-seeded St. Peters made the Elite Eight by knocking off a #2, a #3 and a #7.
They sent Bradley into the West bracket to strengthen it, demonstrating how East-centric college basketball was in those days. They won two games to reach the Elite Eight.