We’re still a long way away from the 2022-23 college basketball season. However, that is not stopping ESPN’s Joe Lunardi from putting out his updated NCAA Tournament Bracketology for 2023.
Lunardi notes that it’s a “fool’s errand” to compile a bracket this far out, but since he started doing an April bracket in 2005, Lunardi averages two No. 1 seeds landing in the same spot on Selection Sunday and about 20 at-large teams making the field. Obviously, this is simply a starting point as we wait for November to roll around when all of the fun starts again.
Looking ahead to the 2023 NCAA Tournament, the regionals will be held in Las Vegas (West), Kansas City (Midwest), New York (East), and Louisville (South) with it all coming to an end in Houston at NRG Stadium for the Final Four.
As for the seeding, Lunardi has the Liberty Flames in his early bracket as the ASUN’s automatic qualifier as a 12 seed. They’re in the South Region and matched up against 5-seed Virginia. The winner would advance to play the winner of 4-seed Indiana and 13-seed Toledo.
The No. 1 seeds are Kentucky (South), Gonzaga (West), Houston (Midwest), and North Carolina (East). The reigning National Champion Kansas Jayhawks are projected as a 2 seed in the South Region.
Liberty is coming off a season that saw the program win 20 or more games for a sixth consecutive year. The Flames finished the season at 22-11 overall and 12-4 in ASUN play, finishing first in the ASUN’s East Division. Liberty saw its three straight ASUN championships come to an end when the Flames lost to Bellarmine, 53-50, on March 5 in the ASUN Tournament semifinals.