NCAA Tournament Capsules: Kansas earns overall top seed in NCAA tournament

EDITOR'S NOTE: For continued coverage of the NCAA men's seclections, click on the tabs at the end of these stories.

An injury hurts as much as a loss in the days before the brackets are drawn up for March Madness. Syracuse endured both and will have to rack up some major airplane time to make a run to the Final Four.

Kansas, Kentucky and Duke won their conference tournaments and the top seeding that went with them when the selection committee rolled out its 65-team NCAA tournament bracket Sunday.

The Orange, meanwhile, also got a No. 1 seed, but was ranked fourth of the four top teams and sent West — the result of an early loss in the Big East tournament in which center Arinze Onuaku injured his right quadriceps.

Onuaku, who averages 10 points, five rebounds and 1.1 blocks a game, isn’t expected to play Friday when Syracuse opens against Vermont.

Syracuse’s road to the Final Four, set for April 3-5 in Indianapolis, will have to go through Salt Lake City, a 2,100-mile trek from home.

"We’re proud to be a No. 1 seed," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. "This team has worked extremely hard, been consistent all year. Obviously, the tournament is always going to be challenging. It’ll be challenging right off the bat."

America’s largest, three-week office pool starts getting sorted out Tuesday with an opening-round game between Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Winthrop. The tournament goes into full swing Thursday, with Kansas the overall No. 1 seed.

The Big East led the field with eight teams, tying its own record and marking the third time the conference has put that many teams in the tournament.

But winning the toughest conference’s regular-season title wasn’t the accomplishment it might have been for Syracuse. The Orange (28-4) lost to Georgetown in the Big East tournament quarterfinals. That pushed Syracuse down, below Duke, which was expected to vie with West Virginia for the final No. 1 spot.

Winning the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament helped Duke vault over Syracuse and the Mountaineers.

"Once again, we’re talking about the entire season," selection chairman Dan Guerrero said. "We place value on that. Obviously, the big center for Syracuse got banged up. That’s an issue to some degree."

Before the committee even met, there was no question there will be a new national champion.

Defending titlist North Carolina was on a long list of traditional powerhouses that didn’t receive spots in this year’s tournament. That list also included UCLA, Indiana, Connecticut and Arizona, which saw its NCAA-leading string of appearances snapped at 25 years.

It will mark the first time since 1966 that all five of those big-name schools failed to make the tournament.

"It is strange because obviously those are formidable teams with great traditions," Guerrero said. "But I believe it’s reflective of the culture of college basketball this year."

Now holding the longest current streak is Kansas (32-2), making its 21st straight appearance and coming into 2010 as the early 2-1 favorite in Vegas to win its second national title in three years.

Leading the Jayhawks in the Midwest Region are Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich, two key pieces in the team’s 2008 title run. The Jayhawks earned the overall No. 1 seed based on an 18-1 record against Big 12 foes, which includes three wins over Kansas State, a team in the mix for a top seed until falling to KU in the conference final Saturday.

Among Kansas’ competition in the Midwest are Ohio State, Georgetown and last year’s national runner-up, Michigan State.

"It will be a good recruiting mailout this week," coach Bill Self said of the No. 1 overall seed. "After you look at the bracket, you say, ‘Well, I don’t think we had a lot of favors done for us."’

Kansas and Kansas State were two of seven Big 12 teams in the draw. Another so-called power conference, the Pac-10, struggled all year and got punished. Only two teams — tournament champion Washington and regular-season champion Cal — made it. The Huskies got an 11th seed in the East.

Those two spots were only half of what the Mountain West Conference received, led by regular-season champion New Mexico, which was seeded third in the East and watched the selection show in front of a packed crowd at The Pit.

In all, eight at-large slots went to teams from smaller conferences. That was double the number of last year. Among those left out were Virginia Tech, Mississippi State — a 75-74 overtime loser to Kentucky in the SEC tournament final — and Illinois, which is 19-14 after a double-overtime loss to Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament semis.

"It’s a close game, a call, a basket going in and out, and they don’t get the opportunity to be part of a special thing," Illini coach Bruce Weber said. "I feel bad for them. I reminded them we let some things go early and that put us in a bind."

Weber refused, however, to play the expansion card: One of this season’s biggest topics has been the potential expansion of the field to 96 teams, an idea supported by some coaches but not so much by pundits.

"This is the weakest at-large field in the history of the tournament," ESPN’s Jay Bilas said, leading to the question of whether there were truly another 32 teams that were worthy.

Those at-large teams included Florida, a No. 10 seed in the West after missing the last two years following two straight titles.

"It was a stressful 48 hours not knowing if we were in or out," forward Chandler Parsons said.

Tubby Smith and Minnesota got in as a No. 11 seed, and UTEP made it as a 12th seed despite losing the Conference USA final to Houston, which stole a spot.

Another spoiler was New Mexico State, which defeated Utah State in the Western Athletic final. Utah State made it anyway, as a No. 12 seed that gets to play its first games in nearby Spokane, Wash. — not a bad reward for one of the very last bubble teams.

Last week, Guerrero said the committee wouldn’t weigh teams’ performances in their last 12 games as heavily as in the past. How closely the committee toed that line, however, was still in question.

Not up for debate was the reality that key injuries at tournament time make a difference to the committee.

Onuaku hasn’t practiced since he was hurt, and Boeheim didn’t paint an optimistic picture for the first week.

"I’m looking at it positive, taking it day by day," Onuaku said. "It’s getting better, so I’m hoping for the best."

Purdue, meanwhile, was 24-3 and in contention for a top seed as late as Feb. 24. Then, high-scoring forward Robbie Hummel tore up his right knee, and the Boilermakers lost two of the last five, including a 27-point loss to Minnesota. They dropped to the No. 4 seed in the South.

"To have integrity in the field, you’ve got to place them in a place that’s appropriate without Robbie Hummel," Guerrero said. "Without Robbie Hummel in the lineup, they’re a different team, no question about that."

Led by freshman John Wall, Kentucky (32-2) won its 26th SEC tournament and earned a top seed to try for its eighth national title.

In his first year with the Wildcats, John Calipari became the first coach to post five straight 30-win seasons, and he’ll need six more to bring the first title back to the Bluegrass State since 1998.

That’s a big task for a team that has three freshmen — Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe — among its top four scorers.

"We’re one of the youngest teams. We do so many dumb things," Calipari said. "You’re up 18, then you look up and you’re up two. You have to keep your emotions in check, stay together, understand teams are going to come at you and you have to play harder than they play."

Duke and coach Mike Krzyzewski are seeking their first trip to the Final Four since 2004 and first national title since 2001. Led by Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler, the Blue Devils (29-5) have won 12 of their last 13 and will open Friday against the winner of the opening-round game.

"Our committee felt there was some value in that kind of season," Guerrero said. "In the end, we just felt that kind of season Duke had, winning the conference, having some great wins and, of course, just winning the postseason tournament carried the day."

Notebook: Florida returns to NCAAs; Texas puts 7 in field

Florida is back in the NCAA tournament after a two-year absence. Now, coach Billy Donovan and the Gators have a winning streak they want to extend.

Florida earned the No. 10 seed in the West Regional on Sunday and will play seventh-seeded BYU in the opening round Thursday in Oklahoma City. Florida has won 12 consecutive games in the NCAAs, all coming during back-to-back title runs in 2006 and 2007.

"We’re very, very excited, and grateful for the opportunity," Donovan said in Gainesville, Fla. "I’m most excited for our players having a chance to experience this. For most of them, this is something they haven’t been through yet. They’ve worked so hard from Day 1, and it’s great to see them rewarded."

The Gators missed the 65-team field the last two seasons and settled for the NIT. They desperately wanted to get back in the NCAAs this year, but struggled to overcome depth issues, poor 3-point shooting and inconsistent frontcourt play.

Florida (21-12) appeared to be a lock to end its drought after beating Tennessee on Feb. 23, but lost four of its next five games.

The Gators were beaten by Mississippi State in the second round of the Southeastern Conference tournament Friday and had to wait 48 hours to learn their postseason fate.

This time, it was good news.

"It was a stressful 48 hours not knowing it we were in or out," forward Chandler Parsons said. "We’re really excited to be a part of it. For most of us, it’s our first experience with the NCAA tournament. We don’t just want to go and play one game. We want to prove we’re deserving of being there."

SEVENTH HEAVEN: The Lone Star State will be well-represented in the NCAA tournament.

A total of seven Texas schools made the field, tying a record set by California in 2002. Houston, North Texas and Sam Houston State secured automatic berths by winning their conference tournaments. Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M and UTEP earned at-large berths.

Texas already holds the record for most schools to have appeared in the tournament (23), but never before had the state had more than five in one year.

Houston (19-15) is the biggest surprise of the group, winning four straight games at the Conference USA tournament to nab the program’s first berth since 1992. Cougars coach Tom Penders became the ninth coach to lead four different schools to the NCAA tournament.

SITTING PRETTY: Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett and his Gaels finally got to relax and enjoy an NCAA tournament selection show.

After beating nemesis Gonzaga to win the West Coast Conference tournament and earn an automatic bid to the NCAAs, Saint Mary’s, a perennial bubble team, knew it was in. So the Gaels and their fans started celebrating early at McKeon Pavilion as they awaited word of their seed and first-round opponent.

"I like doing it the way we did it this year so you’re not in suspense," Bennett said in Moraga, Calif. "It’s been a fun week, an enjoyable week."

Saint Mary’s (26-5) received the No. 10 seed in the South Regional and will face seventh-seeded Richmond (25-8) in a first-round game Thursday at Providence, R.I.

This is Saint Mary’s sixth NCAA tournament berth and third under Bennett, in his ninth season at the school. The Gaels are 1-5 in the NCAAs, with their only win coming during their first trip in 1959.

"I think we’re going to make a run in the tournament," center Omar Samhan said. "That’s what we’re planning on. I think beating Gonzaga helped build confidence. This is the year we can do it."

Last year, the Gaels opened the season 18-1 but wound up heartbroken and out of the tournament field. In 2005 and 2008, Saint Mary’s earned at-large bids and No. 10 seeds but had to sweat before hearing the good news. This year, the Gaels, enjoyed the moment with around 1,000 of their fans.

"It’s about 100 times easier," guard Mickey McConnell said. "Just even in practice you don’t have it linger in the back of your mind, ‘Are we going to play?’ We can just focus on getting ready for whoever we’re going to play. Sitting here you’re relaxed. It’s still pretty nerve-racking to find out where you’re going to play, but it’s definitely not the same type of pressure."

BACK IN TIME: Georgia Tech is returning to the city where it launched its run to the 2004 NCAA championship game.

Yellow Jackets coach Paul Hewitt had a warm flashback when he saw his 10th-seeded team was being sent to Milwaukee for its first-round game against No. 7 seed Oklahoma State on Friday in the Midwest Regional. Georgia Tech opened its successful 2004 tournament in Milwaukee.

"Hopefully, that’s a sign of good things to come," Hewitt said in Atlanta.

Georgia Tech beat Oklahoma State in the 2004 NCAA semifinals before losing to Connecticut in the title game.

Beaten by No. 4 Duke 65-61 in the ACC championship game Sunday, the Yellow Jackets (22-12) are going to the NCAAs for the first time since 2007. They’re looking for their first win since 2005.

Hewitt said he’ll give his team Monday and Tuesday off before it returns to practice.

"They need to sit back for a couple of days and just try to get their thoughts together and enjoy this moment," Hewitt said. "Right now we’re just getting through this ACC tournament. It’s a tough tournament with four games in four days. It’s taxing. We’ll start getting our bodies right for Friday."

LONG AND WINDING ROAD: Vanderbilt will travel a long way to play a team from Kentucky.

Jermaine Beal and the Commodores are a No. 4 seed, matching their best under coach Kevin Stallings. They will play 13th-seeded Murray State, the Ohio Valley Conference regular season and tournament champion, on Thursday in San Jose, Calif., in the West Regional.

"It’s kind of ironic that we have to go 2,500, 3,000 miles to play them," Stallings said in Nashville, Tenn.

Murray State coach Billy Kennedy brought his Racers to Memorial Gym at Vanderbilt just more than a week ago to practice during the OVC tournament in Nashville. The Racers’ home campus is about two hours away in Murray, Ky.

"I was thinking about just calling him and see if he just wanted to play the game here and not have to travel all the way to San Jose," Stallings said. "Jermaine wouldn’t like that because he said he wanted us to play as far away from here as we could. I think you got your wish."

Vanderbilt played in Phoenix during a 2004 run to the regional semifinals and won its first two games in Sacramento, Calif., in 2007 before losing to Georgetown 66-65 in an East Regional semifinal. Stallings also recalled beating Tennessee out west while coaching Illinois State in 1998.

"The West has been blessed for us, or for me, and hopefully it will be again," Stallings said.

Even though the selection committee tries to keep top-seeded teams as close to home as possible, Vanderbilt and Murray State are far from the only squads with long trips ahead of them.

No. 4 seed Maryland goes to Spokane, Wash., to face 13th-seeded Houston on Friday. No. 8 seed Gonzaga will travel from its campus in Spokane to play No. 9 seed Florida State in Buffalo, N.Y., on Friday. And another No. 8 seed, California, gets ninth-seeded Louisville in Jacksonville, Fla., on Friday.

No. 10 seed St. Mary’s must travel from Moraga, Calif., to Providence, R.I., to play seventh-seeded Richmond on Thursday. No. 11 seed San Diego State also is headed to Providence for a matchup with sixth-seeded Tennessee. And 13th-seeded Siena was sent to Spokane to play No. 4 seed Purdue on Friday.

AT THE BUZZER: Four teams from the Southeastern Conference (Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Florida) made the NCAA tournament after the league had an all-time low of three last year. ... The selection committee tries to set the pairings so that teams from the same conference can’t play each other until at least the regional finals. But with eight Big East schools in the field of 65, the round of 16 could include a pair of matchups between Big East squads: No. 2 seed Villanova could face No. 6 seed Notre Dame in the South Regional, and No. 2 seed West Virginia could play No. 6 seed Marquette in the East Regional. "The committee did everything that they could to separate those teams as much as possible. Once you get into the bracketing scenario, it can be pretty complicated," committee chairman Dan Guerrero said. "We tried to match up teams that only played once during the regular season, and in essence that’s where we ended up."

Big Dance missing some of its biggest names

The NCAA tournament will look monumentally different this year.

Connecticut, North Carolina, UCLA, Arizona and Indiana didn’t make it into the field of 65, the first time since 1966 five of the biggest names in college basketball missed the tournament in the same season.

That’s three of the four schools with the most championships, out. The second-longest string of tournament appearances, done.

The blue bloods of basketball are feeling blue and filling out the bracket is going to seem strange, like showing up to Mount Rushmore and realizing Abraham Lincoln is missing.

"It is strange because obviously those are formidable teams with great traditions, but I believe it’s reflective of the culture of college basketball this year," selection chairman Dan Guerrero said Sunday after the field was announced. "Believe me, every one of those teams would have loved to be represented in this tournament, but it didn’t happen."

So many big names, so many big disappointments.

North Carolina was the defending national champion and figured to get back to the tournament even after losing Tyler Hansbrough and nearly everyone else. Instead, the Tar Heels floundered through one of their worst seasons in years, finishing 16-16 and needing a big run in the ACC tournament that never happened.

A program with five national titles and the record with 27 straight NCAA appearances is headed for the NIT.

"I think it is so frustrating because we showed flashes what we can be and the team we can be, it seems like we’ll play that way for a while, then we’ll just stop," North Carolina guard Larry Drew II said.

Connecticut was a No. 1 seed and reached the Final Four a year ago. Without intimidating Hasheem Thabeet, the Huskies backtracked, finishing 12th in the Big East during the regular season, suffering another inglorious one-game exit from the conference tournament for the fifth straight year and settled for the NIT.

Arizona had the nation’s longest active streak of reaching the NCAA tournament at 25, within sight of North Carolina’s record run. After salvaging tournament bids the past two years, the Wildcats didn’t stand much of a chance at getting No. 26, finishing 16-15 after losing to UCLA in the Pac-10 tournament.

The Bruins are the king of title-holders with 11 and they went to three consecutive Final Four appearances under coach Ben Howland. Their run came to an end with the worst season (14-18) since 2003-04 and a loss to eventual champion Washington in the Pac-10 tournament semifinals.

Guerrero, UCLA’s athletic director, didn’t even have to recuse himself from voting for the Bruins; they weren’t getting in anyway.

"To have a losing record is very, very disappointing with the success we’ve enjoyed the previous five seasons," Howland said.

When this year’s Final Four was awarded to Indianapolis in 2003, there was hope the basketball-crazy state’s most recognizable school would make a magical run to a title. Indiana had once gone to 18 straight NCAA tournaments, so why not dream?

It wasn’t even close.

Still mopping up from the Kelvin Sampson mess, Indiana won just 10 games. An improvement from a year ago, but nowhere near NCAA tournament-ready.

"Missing the tournament hurts," said Jeremiah Rivers, who played on Georgetown’s 2007 Final Four team before transferring to Indiana.

There’s a chance one of Indiana’s biggest school can still get through to the Final Four. Purdue is the fourth seed in the South Regional, but the Boilermakers’ chances of going deep in the bracket took a big hit with Robbie Hummel’s season-ending knee injury.

At least Florida sneaked in. Had the 21-12 Gators not made it, that would have been three of the past four champions — accounting for five titles — left out.

Still, the Q Rating isn’t going be nearly as high at this year’s Big Dance.

Not with all those monuments missing.

-- John Marshall

Last-minute changes create confusing selection day

INDIANAPOLIS — Dan Guerrero took a deep breath, sat back in his chair Sunday night and glanced once more at the advice printed on the NCAA selection committee’s grease board: The Pack.

If only the debate over America’s best 34 at-large teams was that simple.

Guerrero and nine other committee members spent the past five days hunkered down in an Indianapolis hotel room, trying to get this year’s NCAA tourney bracket right. It was even more difficult than Guerrero anticipated.

"I knew going in and the committee knew going in that parity was going to get us," the committee chairman said. "When you have teams that might be on the bubble playing for an AQ (automatic bid) if they happen to win that automatic qualifier, someone gets bounced. It happened last night."

How difficult were things for Guerrero’s group?

When committee members arrived Wednesday, Guerrero said there were more teams under consideration than he had seen in his five years on the committee.

And even when it seemed as if the committee finally had 65 teams, changes continually forced the committee to make contingency plans.

— Guerrero acknowledged that if Mississippi State had won Sunday’s SEC title game, it would have knocked another team out of the 65-team field. As is customary, the UCLA athletic director wouldn’t reveal which team would have been bumped. It’s likely, based on seeding, Utah State or UTEP would have been out. Both were No. 12 seeds, the lowest-seeded of any at-large team.

— Utah State’s inclusion forced the committee to adapt. After waking up Sunday, committee members learned that the Aggies had been upset by New Mexico State in Saturday night’s Western Athletic Conference title game. That gave New Mexico State the automatic bid that was expected to go to Utah State and bumped another team from the field.

It was that kind of week for the committee.

"We scrubbed the list well into the afternoon (Sunday) and then we said, let’s start bracketing," Guerrero said. "I got the first bracket at about 5 p.m."

Or an hour before the pairings were to be released on television.

But upsets weren’t the only problem.

Separating NCAA teams from the rest of the pack created all kinds of controversy. By winning the ACC tournament, Duke was seeded one spot higher than Syracuse as a No. 1 seed — a surprise to some. The reason seemingly came down Syracuse’s two losses at the end of the season, something the committee had said would be less of a factor in this season’s pairings.

Apparently, it still made an impact.

"It’s one of the pieces we evaluate," Guerrero said. "So if a team, as you indicated, is not finishing as strong, there may be other criteria that makes a difference as to whether they get in or how they’re seeded. There are some teams that finished pretty strong that if it didn’t get them in the field, it helped them with the seed."

Another issue was injuries.

No. 6 Purdue wasn’t the same without swingman Robbie Hummel, and Syracuse lost center Arinze Onuaku with a quadriceps injury against Georgetown in the Big East quarterfinals.

That hurt both those teams, even though Onuaku is expected to be OK.

Notre Dame, meanwhile, may have been helped by its strong showing after losing Luke Harangody. Clearly, it made a difference in the committee’s mind.

"The committee had the benefit of seeing several games after Robbie (Hummel) went down, and obviously they weren’t the same team without him," Guerrero said of Purdue slipping to a No. 4 seed. "To be fair to everyone, Purdue did slip. I think everyone knows that."

-- Michael Marot

Vegas tabs Kansas top favorite in NCAA tournament

LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas oddsmakers like No. 1 Kansas as much as the NCAA selection committee, picking the Jayhawks as the top team in the NCAA tournament.

Las Vegas Sports Consultants, which gives betting lines to about 90 percent of Nevada sports books, made the Jayhawks (32-2) a 2-1 favorite Sunday night to win it all.

"They’re really, truly the only preseason top 5 team to have lived up to all their expectations," oddsmaker Dan O’Brien of Las Vegas Sports Consultants said. "Kansas came into the season absolutely loaded."

Kansas capped its season by winning the Big 12 tournament title Saturday night over No. 9 Kansas State, 72-64.

At MGM Mirage casinos, race and sports book director Jay Rood listed Kansas as a 9-5 favorite. MGM Mirage owns the most casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.

The Jayhawks were 9-4 favorites at the Las Vegas Hilton, race and sports book executive director Jay Kornegay said.

"They just have everything they need to be a championship team," Kornegay said. "Whether they will be or not, we’ll see."

Las Vegas Sports Consultants picked Kentucky (32-2) and Syracuse (28-4) as the next best teams.

Rood, who listed Kentucky as a 2-1 favorite and Syracuse at 11-5, said the field is unpredictable beyond the top teams.

"It’s a weird-looking tournament," he said. "You look at it and there’s really only three or four teams that can make a commanding statement in the tournament, but outside of them it’s really wide open."

Rood said Georgetown (23-10) had done the most to improve its odds, and went from 35-1 to win the title to 15-1 after the Big East tournament, where it beat Syracuse before losing to No. 7 West Virginia.

-- Oskar Garcia

For the second page of NCAA coverage, click here: MORE.

For the third page of NCAA coverage, click here: MORE.