Kentucky Snares No. 1 Overall Seed

The Associated Press

This time around, the madness began before the brackets even came out.

Kentucky, Syracuse and North Carolina all earned top seeding for the NCAA tournament Sunday despite weekend losses that brought even more intrigue to the three-week, 67-game tournament better known as March Madness.

Michigan State earned the other No. 1 seed and was the only one of the four top-billed teams to win its conference tournament. The Spartans defeated Ohio State 68-64 in the Big Ten title game — a contest widely viewed as the game for the last No. 1 seed, even if selection committee chairman Jeff Hathaway wouldn’t quite go there.

“As it turned out, this game put the No. 1 seed into the field,” he said.

While No. 2 seeds Kansas, Duke, Missouri and Ohio State wonder whether they could’ve been rated higher, teams such as Drexel, Seton Hall, Mississippi State and Pac-12 regular-season champion Washington think about what might have been. Those bubble teams were left out, and all will be wondering how Iona, California and South Florida made it.

In the moments immediately after the brackets came out, the Iona-Drexel debate was getting the most traction. MORE....