March Madness and the NCAA Tournament are finally here and the bracket is out and everyone out there is already making their picks, including with the top seeds of Louisville, Gonzaga, Kansas and Indiana.
The Cardinals are the number one overall seed after winning the Big East Tournament with a furious comeback against Syracuse and Indiana made it as a number one seed despite losing in the Big Ten conference tournament. Kentucky was left out of the tournament after winning the championship last season and Gonzaga came in in after a 30-2 season that saw them rise to number one
"You've got to earn it each and every year," said Mike Bobinski, the Xavier athletic director who chaired the selection committee.
Bobinski said at least six teams made it into the running for number one seeds, with Miami likely being one of them, who ended up with a second seed. The first games of the tournament are between Liberty and North Carolina State, who will play Louisville, and Indiana will play the winner of LIU Brooklyn or James Madison.
Kansas will be playing in Kansas City and will face Western Kentucky in a South Region second-round game, while Louisville will be hot after winning 10 straight games. The Jayhawks have the second overall seed after winning the Big 12 tournament and the Hoosiers are third. Gonzaga took the last spot over Miami, who won the ACC tournament.
The No. 16-No. 1 matchups appear easy, but the first time an upset has occurred it always lurking.
"It's going to happen. A 16 is going to beat a 1 eventually," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "This is a unique tournament. I haven't studied the bracket, but I would expect the unexpected. There will be a lot of mild upsets in this tournament."
Head coach Jim Larranaga led Miami to its first ACC tournament and regular-season wins and became the first team to keep either UNC or Duke out of one of those spots in three decades. The tournament has a number of tough teams, including UCLA, Arizona, VCU, Bucknell, Duke, North Carolina, Ohio State and more.