We’re still a long way away from the 2023-24 college basketball season and do not have full clarity on who will be on everyone’s roster when the season starts, as there are well over 1,000 players currently in the transfer portal. However, that is not stopping ESPN’s Joe Lunardi from putting out his first NCAA Tournament Bracketology for 2024.
Trying to project the NCAA Tournament bracket just a couple of weeks prior to the start of March Madness is a difficult task, much less doing so in April. 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 2024 NCAA Tournament, the regionals will be held in Los Angeles (West), Detroit (Midwest), Boston (East), and Dallas (South) with it all coming to an end in Phoenix for the Final Four.
Liberty will be making the move to Conference USA prior to the start of the upcoming season. The CUSA had a banner year in 2022-23 with Florida Atlantic advancing to the Final Four and North Texas and UAB each making it to the championship game of the NIT. However, all three of those teams will be leaving the conference and joining the American Athletic Conference. Still, CUSA should be a significant step up in competition for the Flames.
Lunardi currently has Liberty in his early bracket as the CUSA’s automatic qualifier as an 11-seed. He has the Flames in the West Region and matched up against 6-seed Maryland.
The No. 1 seeds are UConn (South), Marquette (Midwest), Duke (East), and Michigan State (West). You can check out Lunardi’s full Bracketology here.
Liberty will looking to make it back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021 after a two-year hiatus. The Flames lost to Kennesaw State in the ASUN Tournament Championship Game this past season before advancing to the NIT for the first time in program history.
Moving into 2023-24, head coach Ritchie McKay and the Flames will have to replace the program’s all-time leading scorer Darius McGhee as well as Blake Preston and Isiah Warfield who have entered the transfer portal. Liberty returns starters Kyle Rode, Colin Porter, and Joseph Venzant while also welcoming in several newcomers including Bowling Green transfer Kaden Metheny and freshmen Curtis Blair, Kai Yu, and Jaylen Davis. The Flames currently have one scholarship remaining for next year’s roster.
