- The Huskies’ championship defense begins with a matchup against No. 16 seed Stetson
- The NCAA tournament starts Tuesday and lasts almost three weeks
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UConn earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament after winning a national championship last season.
Purdue, Houston and North Carolina rounded out the top-seeded field of 68, with the entire tournament field revealed Sunday night.
Tournament forecasts varied more this season than ever before, with Florida Atlantic thinking it could barely hold on to an at-large bid but still ended up with a No. 8 seed.
On the other side of that coin, Boise State had a lot of quality wins, but finished as one of the last four teams to reach the field of 68, despite many thinking the Broncos had room to spare before the bubble.
Four teams won 30 games in Division I this season, and all earned No. 1 seeds, UConn or Houston, or No. 12 seeds, James Madison or McNeese State.
UConn is the defending champion and earned a No. 1 ranking in the category this year
After losing in the first round as a No. 1 seed last season, Purdue is a top seed again in March
The NCAA Tournament begins Tuesday night with a pair of “First Four” games, with the first full slate of games featuring different seeds facing each other on Thursday.
Purdue was the No. 1 overall seed last season, but fell to Farleigh Dickinson in the first round. This season, the Boilermakers will play the winner of Grambling State and Montana State in the first round.
The three top seeds Purdue, UConn and Houston appeared to be in lockstep before the weekend started, with North Carolina holding on to the final No. 1 seed despite not winning the ACC Tournament.
Teams whose bubbles burst include Oklahoma, St. Johns and Indiana State.
Big East prospects Providence and Seton Hall are also not part of the tournament field.
The No. 2 seeds are Iowa State, Tennessee, Marquette and Arizona.
NCAA selection committee chairman Charles McClelland said there were five bid-stealers this season, meaning if those teams had not won their conference tournaments, they would not have been in the field of 68.
Most infamous in that quintet was New Mexico, which won the Mountain West Conference Tournament on Saturday.
In theory, this means that Richard Pitino’s team may have cost his father’s new team, Rick Pitino led-St. John’s, an NCAA Tournament spot.