(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.)

During the season in this space, we often like to begin with a bit of pop culture or history or some other random bit of nonsense unrelated to college basketball. So, uh, is it OK if we just do that for the entirety of this final installment?

Because we’re going to be totally transparent here. For the first time in six years of making mock brackets for The Athletic, we go into Selection Sunday with no earthly idea of what the selection committee is going to do. Oh, sure, there are always small surprises, but for the most part, the field is obvious except for maybe one slot.

Not this year. After one of the wildest Championship Week Saturdays we can remember, which included two power-conference bid thieves and a still-hard-to-believe outcome in the American, we find ourselves utterly confused by the bubble. And whether North Carolina will hold on to that final No. 1 seed or if surging Iowa State will take it. At least we’re not alone:

Been doing this since 2006. It’s never been this hard for the committee, not only because of how close so many of these teams are, but because of the…

BATON ROUGE, La. — When every inch of Angel Reese’s 6-foot-3 frame sank into the pleated leather chair across from coach Kim Mulkey’s desk this fall, it didn’t surprise Mulkey that Reese blurted out exactly what she was thinking.

But it did surprise Mulkey what her star forward said.

“I’m so happy to have a schedule again.” 

After a summer of photo shoots and events, flights and airport terminals, award shows and a medalist podium, after a summer of getting so much of everything Reese has wanted, what she wanted at the end of it all was … monotony. A week that looked similar to the previous one and the next and the one after that. She wanted to sleep in her own bed and potty train her new Toy Yorkie puppy, Tiago. She wanted to be in her apartment and cook her own meals. Alone. In quiet.

The player who’s estimated as one of the most highly compensated college athletes, whose rise to fame included a viral one-shoed block and a TikTok dance during a game, who might just have the most famous ring finger in college basketball and whose whereabouts have been chronicled by TMZ and Shade Room this offseason, just wanted to know: What can I expect of my Mondays?

LSU’s Angel Reese lost her shoe, and made the block while holding her shoe

(via @SportsCenter)