5 big questions entering the NCAA tournament

The NCAA tournament puts everyone and everything under the spotlight.

Here are five storylines to watch for in this year's run:

Can Arizona get over the hump?

The Wildcats have been immensely successful under head coach Sean Miller, and they consistently recruit top-end talent. Yet, Arizona has an unfortunate reputation for coming up short.

This will be Miller's seventh tournament appearance since taking charge of Arizona in 2009, but he has never advanced past the Elite Eight. It's been one disappointment after another.

Miller's path to the elusive Final Four will be difficult. He could conceivably face Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee just to get out of the South. He also won't have star point guard Allonzo Trier after he was lost to a PED suspension.

Then again, Miller will have the best player in the nation in DeAndre Ayton at his disposal, so it's hard to bemoan his situation too much. Ayton is averaging 20 points and 11 rebounds per game while shooting 61.6 percent from the field. His presence alone should be enough to finally put Arizona over the top.

Will Trae Young recoup the hype?

The world was going gaga for Young's popcorn numbers for the better part of two months, but the scouting report caught up with him.

He opened the year averaging 30 points and 9.5 assists, and immediately put himself on the map. At times, Young looked to be breaking the sport of basketball itself by recording 22 assists in a game and by topping 40 points on four different occasions.

But Young went on an embarrassing cold streak to finish the season, and Oklahoma's season nearly went south because of it. The freshman point guard has made just 35 percent of his shots since January, and Oklahoma lost eight of their last 10 games.

Young is a classic gunslinger, so he's streaky by nature. Teams have found counters to his game, but he's still liable to get hot at any moment. String a few of those performances together in the coming weeks, and Young could be the toast of the nation once again.

What will Grayson Allen do next?

On one hand, it's not Allen's fault that he's a dead ringer for the classic Duke villain archetype. He's cut from the same cloth as previous Blue Devils greats such as Christian Laettner and J.J. Redick which makes him easy to root against.

But then again, Allen also invites the scrutiny with his propensity to make dirty plays. He's known as a serial tripper, but he added hip-checking to his arsenal of dark arts recently in Duke's loss to North Carolina in the ACC tournament. Allen brought it all upon himself.

Regardless, this will be Allen's final year of college eligibility, which means this will be his last chance to set the record straight. Will his legacy be that he grew into an elite player over the course of four seasons to guide Duke to a national title? Or will he just be known as the most hated antagonist of his era?

Can Virginia prevail despite injuries?

The Cavaliers received a favorable draw and looked to be an easy favorite to win it all, but adversity struck before the hype got carried away.

De'Andre Hunter, the ACC Sixth Man of the Year, is lost for the season after suffering a broken wrist. He was a core two-way fixture for the Cavaliers all season, as the athletic 6-foot-8 forward was a walking mismatch for most opponents. For that reason, Hunter was viewed by pro scouts as the best NBA prospect on the roster.

Virginia should be fine on defense, but it might struggle to generate offense with its second unit. The Cavaliers are deep, but they lack that natural go-to guy who can carry the scoring.

What's this year's viral moment?

There's always something every season. Whether it's Miller's sweat-soaked shirt, the crying flautist, Luke Kennard's begging cries, or Northwestern's inconsolable child. There's always one meme that takes over the internet.