March Madness 2023: 2 VA Teams To Play In NCAA Men's Tournament

VIRGINIA — Selections are in for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, better known as “March Madness,” which begins Tuesday. The first four games will be played in Dayton, Ohio.

Two teams from Virginia made the annual tournament this year:

• University of Virginia, No. 4 seed in South region
• Virginia Commonwealth University, No. 12 seed in West region

Selections were made Sunday for both the men's and women’s tournaments. Below are the major dates to know for the 2023 March Madness tournament and you can also get a Printable bracket.

• Selection Sunday: March 12
• First Four: March 14-15
• First round: March 16-17
• Second round: March 18-19
• Sweet 16: March 23-24
• Elite Eight: March 25-26
• Final Four: April 1
• NCAA championship game: April 3

The Virginia Cavaliers (25-7) will face 13th seed Furman (27-7) Thursday in Orlando. The game will tip off at 12:40 p.m. and will be shown on TruTV.

UVA is making its 25th overall NCAA Tournament appearance and ninth NCAA Tournament appearance under three-time national and four-time ACC Coach of the Year Tony Bennett.

The 2019 NCAA champion Cavaliers have compiled an all-time record of 35-23 in 24 NCAA tournaments.

The Cavaliers will be appearing in the NCAA tournament less than a month after the death of Terry Holland, who coached the team from 1974 to 1990 and retired as UVA’s all-time wins leader. Holland died at the age of 80. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2019.

VCU received the No. 12 seed after the team’s victory over the Dayton Flyers in the Atlantic 10 conference championship. The Rams will play the 5th seed St. Mary’s Gaels, a Catholic school in California.

The game will be played in Albany, New York, on Friday at 2 p.m. and will be shown on TBS. This is VCU's 19th appearance in the NCAA tournament.

Twelve years ago, under head coach Shaka Smart, VCU upset the No. 1 seeded Kansas Jayhawks to reach the Final Four for the first time ever. The Rams lost in the Final Four that year to the Butler Bulldogs. This year, Smart led Marquette to the No. 2 seed in the East region of the tournament.

Kansas is the defending national champion after the Jayhawks defeated North Carolina to win the national title last year. Alabama enters this year's tournament as the overall No. 1 seed and is joined by fellow top seeds Purdue, Kansas, and Houston heading into this week's opening round of games.

Kansas, which lost in the Big XII championship game to Texas, has less than an 8 percent chance of repeating, according to oddsmakers.

Both the Crimson Tide and Cougars were among the favorites to return to the championship this year. The odds for the top five were as follows, according to DraftKings:

• Houston : +475 (17.4 percent chance)
• Alabama: +650 (13.3 percent chance)
• Purdue: +1000 (9.1 percent chance)
• UCLA: +1200 (7.7 percent chance)
• Kansas: +1200 (7.7 percent chance)
• Texas: +1400 (6.8 percent chance)