Bradley Beal reveals NCAA Tournament picks, reflects on final college game in Phoenix

The NCAA Tournament creates glorified and agonizing memories for most NBA players, coaches, and fans.

The Phoenix Suns have plenty of former college stars, including its Big 3 in Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, and Bradley Beal, who can attest to that. Most of the Suns came up short of the tournament title, including the Big 3 when they were one-and-done players at Kentucky, Texas, and Florida, respectively. The exception is Grayson Allen, who was with Duke when they won it all in 2015.

Beal reflected on his final college game with Florida, a 2012 Elite 8 West Region loss to Louisville in Phoenix.

"My last game was here at Footprint (Center). The first question I was asked are you going to the NBA right after the game," Beal said with a laugh. "Craziest time ever. I was like, 'Aww golly. I can't even sit through and ponder the loss. 'What you doing now?'"

Kentucky won the 2012 title, led by Los Angeles Lakers superstar and another one-and-done, Anthony Davis.

Beal has studied the bracket and revealed his Phoenix Final Four picks before the tournament begins Thursday.

"That’s tough, man. There’s a lot of great tournament games. There’s a lot of great conference games. Lot of upsets. Lots of teams clicking right now before the tourney," Beal said. "I love UConn. I love Coach (Dan) Hurley and what he does. I’ve always been a fan of them, so you’re still the champs until you're beaten again, so you obviously have to keep them.

"Obviously, my Gators, but they’re in a tough, little region."

The defending champion Connecticut is the tournament's No. 1 overall seed playing in the East Region. Florida is the South's seventh seed, and that region's No. 1 is Houston.

Beal also picked No. 2 Arizona to come out of the West, and the Midwest's top seed Purdue to make Final Four appearances. He's going for Purdue because he said the Boilermakers' All-American center Zach Edey has the same agent.

Beal feels torn about the potential second-round matchup between No. 2 Marquette and Florida because he had an early connection as a former top prep recruit with Marquette coach Shaka Smart.

"They’ll either play Marquette in the second round, which is tough for me because Shaka recruited me at Florida, so that’s gonna be a tough one, but I hope Shaka does well," Beal said. "I am pulling for him because everywhere he goes he has success and he rallies his troops. I'll have a tough, tough Marquette coming out of South Region."

Smart was a former Florida assistant coach from 2008 to 2009, and left the program for mid-major Virginia Commonwealth shortly before Beal arrived at Florida in 2011. Smart led VCU on an improbable run from a first-four play-in game to the program's only Final Four appearance in 2011. He became Texas coach in 2015, where Smart had a six-year tenure before he joined his native Wisconsin-based Marquette in 2021.

Speaking of Wisconsin and Kentucky, Suns coach Frank Vogel said he's hoping the South's fifth seed Wisconsin makes a deep run in the tournament because his daughter attends school there. In addition, Vogel, like Booker, supports the Kentucky Wildcats, which are the South's third seed.

"I have not even looked at the bracket yet, if I'm being completely honest," Vogel said. "We're rooting for coach (Greg) Gard, and all them guys up there in Madison getting ready. I want a nice, fun tournament run for my daughter's college experience, so go Badgers.

"If they do get matched up with Kentucky, then we have to figure that out, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Go Cats, though, too."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Bradley Beal reflects on his final NCAA Tournament game in Phoenix