The selection committee unveiled its first top 16 reveal of the 2025-26 season Saturday night. By Sunday evening, their work was irrelevant.
Vanderbilt, anointed as the No. 4 overall seed, fell at Georgia. Ohio State, projected as a No. 3 seed, blew a 19-point lead at home against Maryland. Ole Miss, slotted at No. 15, got dismantled in Lexington. The bracket the committee crafted less than 24 hours earlier? Already requires substantial revision.
Undefeated UConn remains untouched at the top, pulling away from Marquette 71-56 behind Azzi Fudd’s 25 points to improve to 27-0. UCLA and South Carolina also hold firm. Everything below them is chaos.
How Sunday’s Results Reshuffle the No. 1 Seed Race
Vanderbilt entered Sunday riding a four-game winning streak, including three wins against ranked opponents. The Commodores had just beaten Texas by 16 in a top-five showdown, catapulting them onto the No. 1 line and pushing the Longhorns to fifth overall. Mikayla Blakes, the nation’s leading scorer at 26.2 points per game, seemed unstoppable.
Then Georgia happened. Dani Carnegie torched Vanderbilt for 29 points, and Trinity Turner buried a driving layup with 50 seconds left to put the Bulldogs ahead. Vanderbilt had a final look to force overtime, but Sacha Washington’s floater fell short off the front rim as time expired. Final: Georgia 76, Vanderbilt 74.
Blakes and Pissott combined for 50 points, but the Commodores never established tempo control against a Georgia team that improved to .500 in SEC play with the win. One loss to an unranked opponent won’t sink Vanderbilt’s tournament positioning entirely, but the No. 1 seed suddenly feels precarious.
Texas, meanwhile, got back on track by escaping Knoxville with a 65-63 victory over Tennessee. Bryanna Preston stripped Talaysia Cooper with six seconds remaining to preserve the win after the Longhorns coughed up a 10-point fourth-quarter lead. Madison Booker scored 14, while Rori Harmon and Jordan Lee each added 12. The Longhorns rebounded from Vic Schaefer’s “no heart” postgame tirade on Thursday and now own wins over multiple ranked SEC opponents.
Vanderbilt held the edge Saturday because of the head-to-head victory over Texas. That still matters. But Texas has the eighth-best NET strength of schedule compared to Vanderbilt’s 36th, plus neutral-site wins over UCLA and South Carolina at the Players Era Festival. The gap between these two programs for the final No. 1 seed has effectively vanished.
South Carolina solidified its position Saturday night in Baton Rouge, holding off LSU 79-72 behind 40 combined points from Tessa Johnson and Raven Johnson. Flau’jae Johnson’s missed front end of a one-and-one with 45.5 seconds remaining proved costly, and the Tigers failed to hit a three-pointer over the final three quarters. The Gamecocks are now 25-2 and have won 18 straight against LSU.
Kentucky’s Rise, Ohio State’s Slide, and the Hosting Bubble
The committee slotted Ohio State ninth overall, firmly on the No. 3 line. That looks optimistic now.
Maryland erased a 19-point first-half deficit and survived a frantic finish in Columbus, winning 76-75 on the road. Oluchi Okananwa recorded a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Yarden Garzon added 17 points, including four three-pointers in the second half. Jaloni Cambridge poured in 29 for Ohio State, but Chance Gray was largely silenced in the second half after scoring 19 in the first. The Buckeyes couldn’t convert down the stretch.
Ohio State dropped to 22-4 and 11-3 in Big Ten play. Maryland improved to 21-6 and 9-6, potentially climbing into the hosting conversation if it continues this run.
The biggest winner Sunday wasn’t even in Saturday’s top 16. Kentucky manhandled Ole Miss 74-57 behind Clara Strack’s 28 points and nine rebounds, holding the Rebels to 27% shooting from the field. Ole Miss scored just 20 points in the first half.
Kentucky has now beaten three AP Top 15 opponents this season, including Oklahoma, and is 20-7 overall. The Wildcats entered Sunday outside the top 16, beyond the hosting cutoff. That’s changing. Ole Miss, which was positioned as the No. 15 seed and eyeing first-time hosting, just took a hammer to its résumé. Kentucky’s wins over ranked opponents could push it into the top 16 and knock the Rebels out entirely.
The March 1 reveal will look dramatically different. Vanderbilt needs to regroup before hosting Kentucky next Sunday. Texas faces a gauntlet of remaining SEC games but has proven resilient. Ohio State must stop the bleeding in Big Ten play.
And somewhere in Lexington, Kenny Brooks is watching his tournament seeding climb with every statement win his team collects.