Creighton men's basketball earns 5 seed in NCAA Tournament, will play UC Santa Barbara in first round

OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — The #17 Creighton men's basketball team earned a 5 seed for the NCAA Tournament and will play UC Santa Barbara in the first round on Saturday in Indianapolis. The game will tip at 2:30 p.m. Central time and be shown on truTV (Cox Cable Ch. 203 in Omaha) & be played at Lucas Oil Stadium (South Court).

If the Bluejays win, they'd face the winner of (4) Virginia & (13) Ohio on Monday. Also in CU's half of the West region bracket is the #1 overall seed undefeated Gonzaga. Iowa is also in Creighton's region as the #2 seed while Kansas is the #3 seed. Former CU head coach Dana Altman's Oregon Ducks are the 7 seed in the West region as well and could face the Hawkeyes in Monday's 2nd round.

Here's a look at the entire 68 team NCAA Tournament bracket:

It's CU's 22nd NCAA Tournament appearance in program history & first since 2018, when the Bluejays lost to Kansas State in the first round.

The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos went 22-4 this season winning the Big West Tournament on Saturday over UC Irvine. 79-63.

The Jays are coming off a 73-48 loss to Georgetown in Saturday's BIG EAST Tournament title game.

Here's how the West region looks as a whole:

This is how the NCAA Selection Committee ranked all 68 seeds in the field:

Creighton takes a 20-8 record into the tournament. The last time CU made it out of the first round was in 2014 when the Bluejays lost to Baylor in the 2nd round in San Antonio.

The list of all first round TV networks & start times can be found HERE.