Just two days before the start of the Ivy League tournament, Princeton star Kaitlyn Chen turned in a draft of her senior thesis. A medical anthropology major, Chen is writing on the relationship between sports and meritocracy. More specifically, she’s researching how socioeconomic status influences accessibility to certain sports, and how that translates to college athletics recruiting. She admits, rather humbly, that she is still figuring out parts of her argument, such as how to square the financial barriers athletes have growing up with the hard work they put in. She’s written about 70 pages. “I’ve still got a lot of editing,” she said. “Stuff to take out and put in.”

Chen played four sports growing up in San Marino, Calif. By high school, she settled on volleyball and basketball. The latter was always her favorite. Like many Angelenos, the Lakers’ back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010 helped cement her interest in the game.

The 2023 Ivy League Player of the Year, Chen is approaching her final stretch with the Tigers. They have made five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances as an automatic qualifier after winning their conference tournament, including this season’s Ivy championship over Columbia. The past two seasons, they won their first round…

First-round (and even first-weekend) upsets in the women’s NCAA Tournament are rare, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see thrillers from Day 1.

Since the women’s tournament expanded to 64 games in 1994, only one No. 16 seed has brought down a No. 1 seed: Harvard over Stanford in 1998. A No. 15 seed or No. 14 seed has never won a tournament game. But the 12-5 matchup remains spicy with 26 upsets through the years. Some teams (Florida Gulf Coast and Belmont) have become particularly adept at these.

The first weekend will also bring us interesting style and personnel matchups. Who will move on? Who’s March Madness dreams will end quickly?

Our experts pick the most fascinating first-round games to watch:

(All times listed are Eastern)

11:30 a.m. Friday, ESPN2

Grace Raynor:  The Spartans’ 22 wins are their most since the 2015-16 season, and they’ve hung right in with some of the best teams in the Big Ten this year, losing on the road to Iowa by just 3 points and Ohio State by 5. North Carolina, meanwhile, gave South Carolina one of its tougher games earlier in the season when the Gamecocks won by just 7 points in Chapel…

April showers might bring May flowers, but Selection Sunday brings Transfer Portal Monday. … That’s what they say, right?

Welcome to transfer portal season, where the action in the portal somehow manages to rival the action we see on the floor. In each of the past two seasons, more than 1,000 women’s basketball players entered the portal in hopes of finding a new landing spot.

As we have in the past, we’ll be tracking the biggest names and most impactful players who enter their names over the next month and a half.

We’re only a day in, and it’s already hot. Here’s a ranking of the top prospects who are available in the transfer portal.

Arkansas freshman guard

Key stats: 22.1 points per game (PPG), 3.3 rebounds per game (RPG), 41 percent field goal percentage (FG%)

Scott will be one of the most highly coveted portal players given her offensive ability and three years of eligibility remaining. Among freshmen nationally, only USC’s JuJu Watkins and Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo scored more points per game than Scott this season. Her 3-point shot needs a bit of work (she shot only 30 percent from beyond the arc), but she’s a three-level scorer regardless. At 5 feet 9, she’s still a threat in getting to the bucket, and she drew more than four fouls per game this…

After a season full of historic performances, thrilling finishes and record-breaking television viewership, the 2024 women’s NCAA Tournament field is set. Undefeated South Carolina is the top seed, with Iowa, USC and Texas the three other programs on the No. 1 line.

All four have their sights set on Cleveland, the site of this year’s Final Four, but they aren’t alone in being potential contenders. Before the first round begins Tuesday night, here’s a look at everything you need to know to help with your bracket and prepare you for the tournament.

How good are the No. 1 seeds?

This year’s crop of No. 1 seeds features some of the best coaches and players in the country.

South Carolina (32-0)

Albany 1 Region

The Gamecocks’ roster turned over in the offseason, with its famed “Freshies” core (led by star center Aliyah Boston) graduating and moving to the pro ranks. This year’s squad has an entirely new starting lineup from the group that was undefeated heading into last year’s NCAA Tournament. Still, the 2024 SEC champions had the nation’s best defense and the No. 2-rated offense in the regular season. Coach Dawn Staley, our unanimous Coach of the Year pick, leaned on South Carolina’s depth, with nine players averaging double-digit minutes. Take particular note…

The Athletic has live coverage of Selection Sunday and the NCAA Tournament bracket reveal. 

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

Pure. Chaos.

Madness came early on Saturday, leaving a trail of stolen bids, burst bubbles and flummoxed bracketologists in its wake. Now? Selection Sunday is here.

We know we have four legit bid thieves: NC State in the ACC, Oregon in the Pac-12 and two more coming Sunday in the A-10 and AAC. Drake’s upset over Indiana State in the MVC title game might end up as a fifth functional bid thief. Wild.

Get your March Madness printable bracket

The bracket reveal is mere hours away. In the meantime, we’ll do our best to calculate the bubble math and take stock of an absolutely wild day of college hoops.

Here’s my best estimation of where things stand entering Sunday:

• There are 32 automatic qualifying bids via conference champions. There are 36 at-large bids. Total of 68.

• At least 21 of those 32 conferences will be one-bid leagues, including the Ivy League championship between Brown and Yale on Sunday. So let’s start with 21.

• Give at least four bids to the ACC: AQ and three at-large locks….

The Athletic has live coverage of Selection Sunday and the Women’s NCAA Tournament bracket reveal

The final full day of conference tournaments has come and gone, and wow, what a jam-packed slate. We ultimately came away without any upsets that would put a potential at-large bid in question, but we witnessed some great games and competition.

For the first time since 2002, Kent State is headed to the NCAA Tournament. California Baptist, in Year 6 as a Division I program, earned its first ticket to the Big Dance. Norfolk State matched last season’s win total and tied its program DI record with 26 wins this season after punching its ticket to the tournament as well, back for a second straight year. Fairfield won its 31st game of the season, outlasting Niagara in one of the most frenetic games of the past few weeks to secure its trip to March Madness.

Get your women’s March Madness printable bracket

In the most anticipated game of the day, Princeton won the Ivy League championship comfortably, likely denying the possibility of the Ivy as a two-bid conference.

So on Selection Sunday, as we dive into our final Bracket Watch, a quick thank you for following along. We have a wealth of tournament coverage coming as the brackets are revealed (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) on the selection show. You…

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

Conference tournaments are here and Selection Sunday is nigh, which means Bubble Watch is in full swing.

One day before the bracket is revealed, bid thieves are the big storyline. We know we will already have one in the Atlantic 10 with Dayton out of the mix. Three more are lurking between now and the selection show: North Carolina State in the ACC, Oregon in the Pac-12, and anyone other than Florida Atlantic in the AAC. How those shake out will be critical for a bubble that is nearly at capacity.

NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt suggested on Saturday morning that there were “at least another four or five spots” up for grabs as far as at-large bids. That might be overstating it a tad, and will of course depend on how those possible bid thieves shake out, but there are clearly still decisions to be made.

“We have 35 at-larges out of the 36 voted into the field”

NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball, Dan Gavitt, joins @TheAndyKatz to explain the scrubbing process and give a seed line update! pic.twitter.com/RIMaSEuHRQ

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB)

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

It only took until the day before Selection Sunday, but finally we can say for sure who the top eight seeds will be in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

With Tennessee and Arizona losing on Saturday and North Carolina advancing to the ACC tournament, the Tar Heels will join Purdue, Houston and UConn on the top line. The only minor intrigue left there is whether Houston passes Purdue for the No. 1 overall seed.

Tennessee and Arizona will be on the No. 2 line, along with Marquette and Iowa State. The Cyclones beat Baylor to reach the Big 12 title game and have more than made up for a lackluster nonconference slate, while Marquette got to the Big East final without All-America point guard Tyler Kolek. Given the Golden Eagles’ impressive resume and insistence that Kolek will be back next week, a No. 2 seed is in order.

Clarity comes at the top, and the bubble continues to come into focus as well. Mississippi State and Texas A&M locked up spots by beating Tennessee and Kentucky, respectively. New Mexico beat Colorado State in the Mountain West semis and should be safely in. Colorado finally gets over…

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

Conference tournaments are here, and Selection Sunday is nigh, which means Bubble Watch is in full swing.

I’ll be making regular, daily updates to Bubble Watch from now until the bracket is revealed, so be sure to bookmark this page and check in all week as conference tourneys heat up and the NCAA Tournament field comes into focus. As soon as relevant games in each conference wrap up, I’ll have fresh thoughts on what it means for those teams and any other bubble watchers impacted by the results.

I’m in Kansas City covering the Big 12 tournament, but I’ll do my best to update things in real-time, and I’ll try to hop into the comments and answer questions as well. Even the mean ones.

An important note: An expanded “Movement” section for each conference will be refreshed as often as necessary, while the corresponding team charts will be updated each morning with accurate records, NET rankings and other metrics.

We’ll keep track of the number of auto-qualifiers as they roll in, whether or not there are any “bid thieves” among them, and how the math is shaping up for the rest…

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

For the first time in program history, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi will make an appearance in the NCAA Tournament. It’s Year 12 for coach Royce Chadwick, at his fourth Division I head coaching stop, adding a remarkable note to a career that’s spanned over 40 years.

This is what March is all about. Teams can change the course of history for their program with a hot run when everything clicks into place for a shining moment.

Peeling back the curtains to the game, Lamar — Corpus Cristi’s opponent —- was coming off its best season since 2019 and looked on the brink of making its first NCAA Tournament in over a decade. It had won the Southland regular-season title, beating Corpus Christi twice in the regular season. Aqua Franklin has steadily built this program up, culminating in a breakout Year 5.

This, unfortunately, is also March.

One ball bounce or slip in focus can be the difference between the Big Dance and the end. It’s apt to remember that, because on one side, the games produce cheers and unforgettable memories, and the other side lacks the same picturesque quality.

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Mid-majors