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Kansas earns No. 1 overall seed in NCAA Tournament

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Associated Press
March 15, 2010

By Eddie Pells

Associated Press

Kansas, Kentucky, Duke and Syracuse earned top billing and the No. 1 seeds for the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, with the Jayhawks named the top seed overall for the 2010 version of March Madness.

Big Ten regular-season and tournament champion Ohio State received the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region and will open play against 15-seed UC-Santa Barbara on Friday in Milwaukee.

With all the conference tournaments complete, the NCAA selection committee rolled out its 65-team bracket, setting it up for millions of fans to start making their picks for what is annually America’s largest, three-week office pool.

Play starts Tuesday with an opening-round game between Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Winthrop, and the tournament goes into full swing Thursday.

The Big East led with eight teams, which ties its own record and is the third time the conference has put that many teams in the tournament. The Big 12 placed seven, and the struggling Pac-10 only put two in the tournament. There were eight at-large spots given to teams from smaller conferences, double the number of last year.

Syracuse was ranked fourth of the top seeds and sent to the West Region. That was a surprise for the Big East regular-season champions, who were considered a lock for a top spot, while Duke was expected to vie with West Virginia for the final No. 1 seed. Duke was ranked third and will play in the South region.

Before the committee even met, there was no question that 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.

According to the committee, Kansas (32-2) is the favorite 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.

Kansas opens Thursday against No. 16 Lehigh in the Midwest regional. No. 1 seeds are undefeated in the first round since 1985, when the field first was expanded to 64 teams.

Led by freshman John Wall, Kentucky (32-2) won its 26th SEC tournament and is in good position 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.




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