March 15--The race to the Final Four in Indianapolis officially began with Sunday's release of the 68-team NCAA tournament bracket.
It remains to be seen, over the next three weekends, whether this is essentially a one-team race to history.
Kentucky continued beating its torrid path on Sunday when it improved to 34-0 with a win over Arkansas in the Southeastern Conference tournament championship game.
Kentucky enters the tournament six wins shy of a perfect 40-0 season. The Wildcats will be prohibitive favorites when they open Thursday with the No .1 overall seeding in the Midwest. Kentucky plays the Hampton-Manhattan play-in winner.
And what do you know? Kentucky, with eight NCAA titles, will be joined in the field by UCLA, with a record 11 banners. UCLA was a surprise entry to some, but the Bruins made the field with ease and landed as a No. 11 in the South Region.
Proving the NCAA selection committee has a sense of humor, it pitted UCLA in Louisville against former UCLA coach Larry Brown, who now leads Southern Methodist.
UC Irvine, which earned its first NCAA bid by winning the Big West tournament, earned a trip to Seattle as a No. 13 to play No. 4 Louisville in the East region.
Other top seedings were awarded to Villanova (East), Duke (South), and Wisconsin (West).
Wisconsin's overtime win over Michigan State in the Big Ten title game on Sunday likely was the deciding factor in knocking Arizona to No. 2 in the West. The Pac-12 champions open Thursday against No. 15 Texas Southern in Portland.
Most people think, after everything shakes out, that this will be Kentucky's show. Wildcat players didn't even bother, as is the tradition, to cut down the nets after winning the SEC final.
"Those aren't the nets we're really looking to cut down," forward Willie Cauley-Stein said at the postgame news conference. "We're looking for something bigger."
Connecticut, last year's national championship, were faced with winning four games in four days to win the automatic bid from the American Athletic Conference.
It didn't happen. The Huskies fell short with Sunday's loss to SMU in the tournament finals.
Florida, another Final Four team from last year, also will sit this tournament out after a 16-17 finish.
Kentucky becomes the 18th team to take an undefeated record into NCAA Tournament. Only seven have gone on to win the national title.
Wichita State was 34-0 entering last year's tournament before having its perfect dream ended, interestingly, by Kentucky.
Indiana, in 1976, was the last undefeated team to win the NCAA title.
In 1979, the Indiana State team led by Larry Bird was unbeaten until losing the title game to Magic Johnson and Michigan State.
UCLA had four undefeated teams under John Wooden: 1964, 1967, 1972 and 1973.
Hampton (16-17), winner of the Mid-East Athletic Conference tournament, is the only team with a losing record in this year's bracket.
It marks the fourth consecutive year a team with a sub-.500 record has made the 68-team field.
