Spring is around the corner, and the biggest indicator of that is when the March Madness NCAA Tournament bracket is released on the televised Selection Sunday broadcast. March 14 was the day this year, and with having missed out on the 68-team tournament last season due to COVID, it is a refreshing feeling to have it back.

Things certainly will be different this year than most years, as all games will be hosted within a plethora of stadiums in the Indianapolis area, helping cut down on any long travel required by teams. The bubble mentality, which has been adopted by most professional sports in different capacities while getting through this ongoing pandemic, is what the NCAA is rolling with this year, and their secure testing procedure will hopefully help this tournament go on, from beginning to end.

Top overall seed and championship betting favorite Gonzaga headlines the NCAA West Region, which includes many non-West Coast teams in a way to try and spread the talent out in different ways. But for Gonzaga, who made its run through the regular and conference season tilts undefeated, their path to the Final Four does not necessarily have a ton of roadblocks.

The top four teams, in order of seeding, are (1) Gonzaga, (2) Iowa, (3) Kansas, and (4) Virginia. And while all four squads are worthy of their respective rankings, Gonzaga and Iowa stand out the most, making this region of the NCAA bracket a bit top-heavy.

Regardless, there are going to be some interesting matchups heading into the first weekend for all NCAA regions, and the West is no different – here are a few key matchups to keep an eye on during the opening weekend.

NCAA West Region Spotlight:

(7) Oregon vs. (10) Virginia Commonwealth

With the Oregon Ducks joining the sixth-seed USC Trojans from the Pac-12 in the West Region, there is a bit of heavy West Coast influence in the middle of the line-up. But the Ducks have a matchup with an upstart team that has a history of making NCAA Tournament noise as an upset-minded squad.

Virginia Commonwealth University, or VCU as it is more commonly known, enters this year’s NCAA bracket as a 10-seed, having fallen to St. Bonaventure in the Atlantic-10 conference tournament final. The Rams earned an at-large bid, and enters into the tourney having won five of their final eight games.

While playing in the A-10 may not necessarily do the most for VCU when it comes to standing out for NCAA Tournament selection, their respectable slate of games did enough to get them here.

Led by sophomore guard Nah’Shon Hyland and his team-leading 19.5 PPG, VCU’s offense averages 71.7 points per game, while holding their opponents to 65.2 points on average. On defense, Barbados native and sophomore forward Hason Ward averages just over two blocks per contest, showcasing his interior presence for this NCAA Tournament team.

On the other side, the Ducks come into the NCAA tourney on a bit of a low note, having been knocked out by Oregon State in the Pac-12 semifinals. The conference’s regular-season champ, the Ducks still were able to earn a top-seven seed, due largely to both Eugene Omoruyi and Chris Duarte.

Omoruyi produced 16.7/5.2/2.2 on 47 percent shooting on the season, leading the Ducks in scoring as a transfer from Rutgers. Senior guard Duarte tied Omoruyi in PPG (16.7), while also adding 4.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists on a healthy 52.4 percent shooting.

As a former junior-college national player of the year, Duarte will be counted on to continue his hot shooting numbers (61.6% from 2, 43.0% from beyond the arc, and 80.3% from the charity stripe) against a VCU team hungry to ruin someone’s day. Oregon looks to be the stronger team here, but this should be one of the more hotly-contested 7/10 matchups to start the NCAA Tournament.

(4) Virginia vs. (13) Ohio

Tony Bennett does not know what it means to lose when the calendar turns over to March, it is just simply written into his contract. But this year, a year filled with uncertainties has placed his Virginia Cavaliers against an under-the-radar option in the Ohio Bobcats, something that may test them more than thought in the NCAA Tournament.

But first – the Bobcats. Their season was projected to finish early, as they entered their Mid-American Conference tournament as the fifth seed with a 16-7 record, but crazy things always happen at this time of year, and not just in the NCAA Tournament.

They captured the MAC automatic bid by running through 4th-seed Kent State, 1st-seed Toledo, and 2nd-seed Buffalo on their way to being named conference tourney champions, all thanks to Jason Preston.

Preston was an unknown high school player that ended up joining an AAU team on a whim, eventually getting his way in front of Ohio, and the rest was history. Currently leading the Bobcats with 16.6/6.8/7.2 on 53.0 percent shooting, Preston is this team and Ohio goes as he does, so he will need to continue to be his Superman-self if he wants to make it past the opening round of the NCAA Tournament against a tough, methodical UVA team.

The Cavs underwent some difficult moments this year before the NCAA Tournament, having dropped an early-season matchup against San Francisco, and then a three-game stretch of defeats in ACC play in late February. Their ACC championship hopes were ended prematurely, as they were forced to drop out due to a positive COVID test on their team, and their matchup against a strong Georgia Tech team never happened.

Led by Marquette transfer Sam Hauser, the Cavs produced low-offensive numbers (68.6 PPG) yet again, but that plays perfectly into the kind of scheme they want to run in the NCAA Tournament, helping keep their opponents uncomfortable by continuously changing up the pace and messing with timing.

They will not be traveling to Indianapolis until Friday at the earliest due to the vast majority of their team currently being in quarantine, so they will need to be monitored moving forward – the NCAA has laid out rules for this kind of circumstance, and they also named four ‘stand-by’ teams in case someone like Virginia is unable to field a healthy team in the opening round.

With Ohio getting brought in to see if they have the right size foot for the glass slipper this year, and Virginia wanting to get back to its winning ways in a bracket that looks to benefit the top seeds, this 4-13 matchup goes beyond what is on the paper. If Preston can help keep his Bobcats team in the game, this NCAA Tournament contest may very well come down to a final-minute mishap or miracle, which is all a fan of college basketball can hope for at this time of the year.