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West Region preview: Gonzaga headlines tough region studded with individual standouts

Murray State's Ja Morant (12) puts a Racers sticker on the NCAA tournament ticket board following the team's win over Belmont in an NCAA college basketball game for the Ohio Valley Conference men's tournament championship in Evansville, Ind., Saturday, March 9, 2019. (Sam Owens / AP)
Associated Press

Gonzaga earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the third time in seven years, topping a difficult West Region that includes Michigan, Texas Tech, Florida State, Marquette, Buffalo, Nevada and Syracuse.

The lower seeds include Baylor, Murray State, Vermont, Northern Kentucky and Florida. Arizona State and St. John’s will play in the First Four on Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio. The West Region concludes March 28-30 in Anaheim, California.

Must-watch game: The West Region includes one of the most intriguing first-round matchups in the bracket.

No. 5 seed Marquette and No. 12 Murray State not only are exciting teams to watch, they have two of the nation’s most dynamic players.

Markus Howard, Marquette’s 5-foot-9 shoot-from-anywhere guard, is the nation’s fifth-leading scorer at 25 points per game. He had a Big East-record 53 points against Creighton and scored 45 twice, including a 40-point second half against Buffalo.

Murray State’s Ja Morant may have played himself into being a lottery pick during his sophomore season, scoring in bunches and dunking over bigger players with regularity. He led the nation in assists with 10.0 per game and was eighth in scoring at 24.7 points per game.

Tough bracket: Teams in the West Region could make an argument they’re playing in the bracket’s toughest region.

Gonzaga may have more talent than the team that went to the national title game two years ago. Michigan opened its season with 17 straight wins after playing for a national championship last season and made it to the Big Ten title game.

Florida State is long, athletic and finished fourth in the ACC, arguably the nation’s toughest conference. Marquette and Murray State each have players who can carry a team deep into the bracket in Howard and Morant. Buffalo has a veteran team that knocked off Arizona in the NCAA Tournament last year and swept the Mid-American Conference regular-season and tournament titles.

Syracuse and its difficult-to-decipher zone are almost always a problem in the NCAA Tournament, Nevada and Baylor have the talent to compete with anyone.

First Four sweat out: Arizona State and St. John’s had some anxious moments on Selection Sunday.

Both were considered bubble teams and had to wait until near the end of the reveal show to find out if they were in.

Bobby Hurley’s Sun Devils will be making consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time since 1979-81, despite losing in the Pac-12 tournament semifinals.

St. John’s appeared to be in trouble after being stomped by Marquette in the Big East tournament, but had two previous wins over the Golden Eagles and knocked off another NCAA Tournament team in Villanova to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015.