Indianapolis ? If the process of seeding the top teams is any indication, this could be one big buzzer-beater of an NCAA Tournament.
As expected, Illinois, once-beaten and top-ranked in the polls, was given the No. 1 overall seed.
The rest wasn’t so cut and dried: Less than an hour before announcing the brackets on national television, the 10 committee members still were debating in an Indianapolis hotel suite. Two of the four No. 1 seeds still were undecided.
It wasn’t until the last two conference tournament games ended, about 45 minutes before the selections went public, that the committee finally gave the top seeds to the Illini, North Carolina, Duke and Washington — the surprise of the group.
“I don’t know if it’s a record, but my blood pressure was going up every five minutes we were waiting,” selection committee chairman Bob Bowlsby said.
Bowlsby acknowledged there were about a half-dozen contingency plans considered, and many of those were being sorted out in conference tournament championships.
Had Kentucky beaten Florida for its third straight Southeastern Conference title, it would have been a No. 1 seed. The Wildcats lost and were dropped to a No. 2.
Had Duke lost to Georgia Tech in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship, Wake Forest could have sneaked in as a No. 1. The Yellow Jackets made it interesting, but that one wasn’t to be, either.
Bowlsby’s committee eventually picked Washington, the Pac-10 champ, as a No. 1 seed.
“I’m not going to lie and say I thought we were going to get a No. 1 seed,” Huskies forward Bobby Jones said. “But then I woke up today, and I started watching the shows. People were saying we could get it. I started believing them.”
The Huskies (27-5) joined elite company. Big Ten champion Illinois (32-1) was assigned to the Chicago regional. North Carolina (27-4), the ACC regular-season champ, will be at Syracuse, N.Y., Duke (25-5) will be in Austin, Texas, and Washington will go to Albuquerque, N.M.
It’s the sixth time in eight years two teams from the same conference were seeded No. 1. The last time was 2003, when Oklahoma and Texas of the Big 12 were No. 1 seeds.
No conference ever has had three No. 1s.
Duke opens against Delaware State, while the Tar Heels face the winner of Tuesday’s play-in game between Oakland and Alabama A&M.
Bowlsby said it was the first time two No. 1 seeds would play in the same city for the first and second round. “I think we may have created a little bit of a problem in Charlotte,” Bowlsby said. “With two No. 1 seeds there, it will be a prime ticket.”
No. 2 seed Kentucky will open against Eastern Kentucky (22-8) in Indianapolis — a matchup that pits Eastern Kentucky coach Travis Ford against his alma mater.
Wake Forest (26-5) drew the second seed in the Albuquerque region and will open against Chattanooga (20-10), the Southern Conference champion, in Cleveland.
And though Washington may have been the biggest surprise, it wasn’t the only one.
Defending national champion Connecticut (22-7) vaulted past seventh-ranked Boston College (24-4) and got a No. 2 seed, even though the Huskies lost in the Big East tournament semifinals. Connecticut opens against Central Florida (24-8), the Atlantic Sun champ, in Worcester, Mass., as part of the Syracuse region. Fourth-seeded Boston College was sent to Cleveland to face Pennsylvania (20-8), the Ivy League champion.
Another stunner was Louisville (29-4), which won both the Conference USA regular-season and tournament titles. Some thought the Cardinals could be a top seed after being ranked No. 6 last week, but they drew a fourth seed and will play Louisiana-Lafayette (20-10) in Nashville as part of the Albuquerque region.
Gonzaga, the West Coast Conference regular season and tournament champion, was seeded third and faces Winthrop (27-5) in Tucson, Ariz.
There was little doubt about the overall No. 1 seed, though.
The Illini won’t get any frequent-flyer miles in this tournament, with the first and second rounds in Indianapolis, the regional in Chicago and the Final Four on April 2 and 4 in St. Louis.
Illinois opens Thursday against Northeast Conference champion Fairleigh Dickinson. They were followed in the Chicago regional by second-seeded Oklahoma State, which won the Big 12 tournament; No. 3 Arizona, the regular-season Pac-10 champion; and Boston College.
Washington opens Thursday in Boise against Montana, the Big Sky champion.
Saint Joe’s, despite a 19-11 record, was among those not invited this year, along with DePaul (19-10), Maryland (16-12) and Notre Dame (17-11).
After North Carolina, which lost to Georgia Tech in the ACC semifinals, and Connecticut, Kansas University is No. 3 and Florida is No. 4.
Along with Duke and Kentucky in the Austin bracket are third-seeded Oklahoma and Big East tournament champ Syracuse, the No. 4 seed.
The Big East and Big 12 each has six teams in the field, one short of the record, while the ACC, SEC and Big Ten have five apiece. The other multiple bid leagues were Conference USA and the Pac-10 with four; the Missouri Valley with three; and the Big West, Mountain West, West Coast and Western Athletic Conference with two.
The last of the at-large teams were all No. 11 seeds: Alabama-Birmingham (21-10), Northern Iowa (21-10) and UCLA (18-10).
Arizona extended the longest consecutive NCAA streak with its 21st straight appearance. Kansas has the second-longest run at 16.
Niagara, the 14th seed in the Austin regional, had the longest run between appearances. The Purple Eagles were last in the tournament in 1970 when Calvin Murphy was their star.
Delaware State, Oakland, Southeastern Louisiana and Alabama A&M are making their first NCAA Tournament appearances.
Some of the most intriguing first-round matchups include Pacific, which had its 22-game winning streak snapped in the Big West title game, facing Pittsburgh, possibly the most physical team in the Big East; Texas against Nevada, the Western Athletic Conference regular season champion; and Villanova against New Mexico, which has been much stronger with the return of forward Danny Granger.
After that — if things break right — the regional final in Syracuse could be North Carolina against Kansas, a matchup of Roy Williams’ current team against the one he took to the Final Four three times. The Austin regional could end with Duke facing Kentucky — the same regional final matchup that featured Christian Laettner’s buzzer-beater in 1992.
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