NCAA Selection Sunday Press Conference Audio
By MICHAEL MAROT
AP Sports Writer
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Duke was seeded No. 1 for the NCAA tournament for arecord fifth straight year Sunday, joined atop the regional brackets bytop-ranked Kansas, Maryland and Cincinnati.
Maryland earned its first top spot, despite losing in the Atlantic CoastConference tournament to unranked North Carolina State. Kansas also did notwin its conference tournament, losing in the title game Sunday to Oklahoma.The Terrapins and Jayhawks won their regular-season league championships.
Only Cincinnati won both its regular season and tournament titles. Duke wonthe ACC tournament.
For the first time, the NCAA selection committee allowed teams – grouped infour-team “pods” – to stay closer to home for the first and second roundsbefore returning to their assigned regionals.
Maryland (26-4) was seeded first in the East and will play in nearbyWashington on Friday against the winner of Tuesday’s opening-round gamebetween Alcorn State of the Southwestern Athletic Conference and Siena ofthe Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
The other matchup in that pod is eighth-seeded Wisconsin againstninth-seeded St. John’s.
The other four teams in that part of the East Regional bracket will playThursday in St. Louis, Mo., with fourth-seeded Kentucky playing Valparaisoand fifth-seeded Marquette going against Tulsa.
The lower part of the bracket features second-seeded Connecticut againstHampton in Washington on Friday, along with seventh-seeded North CarolinaState against Michigan State, which has been in the last three Final Fours.
In Chicago on Friday, third-seeded Georgia meets Murray State andsixth-seeded Texas Tech and coach Bob Knight play Southern Illinois.
In the Midwest Regional, Kansas (29-3), which had its 15-game winning streaksnapped by Oklahoma in the Big 12 tournament championship game on Sunday,will play Holy Cross on Thursday in St. Louis. The other game in that pod iseighth-seeded Stanford against Western Kentucky.
The other half of the upper bracket has fourth-seeded Illinois staying inthe area against San Diego State on Friday, while fifth-seeded Florida facesCreighton.
Oregon, the Pac-10 regular-season champion, is seeded second and will playMontana in Sacramento, Calif., on Thursday, with seventh-seeded Wake Forestagainst Pepperdine in the other game.
The other half of the lower part of the bracket is in Dallas on Friday, withthird-seeded Mississippi State against McNeese State, and sixth-seeded Texasfacing Boston College.
Duke (29-3) will open defense of its national championship as the No. 1 teamin the South, playing Winthrop on Thursday in Greenville, S.C., whileeighth-seeded Notre Dame faces Charlotte.
The other pod in that bracket will be in Sacramento on Thursday, withfourth-seeded Southern California against North Carolina-Wilmington, andfifth-seeded Indiana facing Utah.
Alabama is seeded second in the South and will also play in Greenville,meeting Florida Atlantic, which is making its first tournament appearance.The other game in that pod features seventh-seeded Oklahoma State againstKent State.
Pittsburgh, which lost to Connecticut in the Big East championship game,gets to stay home as the No. 3 seed, playing Central Connecticut State,which has the nation’s longest current winning streak, on Friday. The othergame features another in-state team, Ivy League champion Pennsylvania,against sixth-seeded California.
Cincinnati (30-3), the only team with 30 wins entering the tournament, isNo. 1 in the West Regional. The Bearcats open against Boston University inPittsburgh on Friday, with eighth-seeded UCLA facing Mississippi in theother game.
The other part of the top half of the bracket will be in Albuquerque, N.M.,on Thursday. Fourth-seeded Ohio State, the Big Ten tournament champion,plays Davidson and fifth-seeded Miami faces Missouri.
Oklahoma’s first game after the upset of Kansas will be as a No. 2 seed inDallas on Friday against Illinois-Chicago, with seventh-seeded Xavier facingHawaii in the other game.
The other pod in the lower half features third-seeded Arizona againstCal-Santa Barbara in Albuquerque, along with sixth-seeded Gonzaga facingWyoming.
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