Birmingham hit the jackpot with the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament first and second round games in Legacy Arena at the BJCC. Number 1 seeds Alabama and Houston will be in Birmingham, as will Auburn and Hall of Fame head coach Bob Huggins of West Virginia.
There will be plenty of great basketball played in Birmingham on Thursday and Saturday.
Alabama, who is the SEC regular season and tournament champion, drew the top seed in the South Regional. The Crimson Tide play the winner of Tuesday’s First Four game between Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (23-10) and Southeast Missouri State (19-16). The other first round South Region game played in Birmingham matches No. 8 seed Maryland (21-12) against No. 9 seed West Virginia (19-14).
The Midwest Region games in Birmingham will match No. 1 seed Houston (31-3) against Northern Kentucky (22-12) and No. 8 seed Iowa (19-13) against Auburn (20-12).
Second round games between the winners will be played on Saturday.
It’s the first time since 2008 that Birmingham has hosted the NCAA Tournament. First and second round games were played in 1984, 1987, 2000, 2003 and 2008. Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games were played in 1982, 1985, 1988, 1995 and 1997.
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