Northwestern goes absolutely bonkers at the announcement of first NCAA Tournament berth

It appears there’s a minimum of the controversy and grumbling that traditionally follows Selection Sunday.

But the day has finally come, even though we’ve known it was coming for a while now – wins at Wisconsin and then at home against MI seemed to seal the deal on two separate occasions.

Nine ACC teams, including Florida State, Wake Forest, Miami and North Carolina, made the tournament. They tend to spend plenty of emotion and energy on the most recent surge. A No. 1 has never lost to a No. 16 in Tournament history, but if BYU can beat the Zags …

Villanova will commence its title defense in Buffalo on Thursday.

Duke is arguably the country’s best No.2 seed, having won the ACC Championship this past weekend.

This doesn’t mean Villanova can’t repeat.

Traditional power Syracuse, a Final Four team a year ago, and Illinois State, a team that won 27 games and went 17-1 in its conference, were left at the altar.

With that warning, my Final Four is based mostly on the numbers I have found to be most significant in handicapping the tournament.

The selection committee has a tough job in not only picking and seeding the field, but also determining each game’s location.

The Commodores (19-14) entered the day among ESPN’s last teams into the NCAAs, and then added a sixth top-50 RPI win this season – and a third win against the Gators.

All the 12 seeds are live.

The Northwestern Wildcats react after being selected to play Vanderbilt in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Middle Tennessee State wasn’t far behind Wichita State, and it’s a No. 12 seed against a questionable No. 5 seed Minnesota. Even while the rest of the bracket hadn’t been unveiled, the Wildcats’ staff seemed to already be preparing for their next challenge. “I like their chances”. Doors for the event open at 4:30 p.m. Each team receives a seed, or ranking, in the tournament.

Although Selection Sunday gets all the attention, committee members actually begin the process on Tuesday, and spend five full days pouring over data and casting hundreds of ballots to determine which teams get the 36 at-large bids. Saint Mary’s is your team. Too bad they won’t be playing any games in Tallahassee.

That run, combined with the fact that they played what many felt was the country’s most hard non-conference schedule, was enough to convince the selection committee that 15 losses was an acceptable number in this case.

According to BracketMatrix.com, a compilation of 117 bracket predictions, Kansas is projected as a No. 12 seed, while ‘Cuse is the first one out of the Field of 68. This is a trend. They won 10 games during Big Ten play for the first time, and just this week in Washington, D.C., they advanced to their first Big Ten Tournament semifinal. They knocked off 22nd-ranked Texas early in the season, and they scored a huge road win in Big Ten play when they took down seventh-ranked Wisconsin in early February. Oh, and the committee asks that mid-majors win virtually every other game on their schedule. Rather the number of strong teams you have. That’s 98.5 percent! Wow! The shortest team in the bracket is the Dayton Flyers. Nearly half got all 68. We know who the Ducks play, but if they win, who is next?

Another set of Wildcats – the ones from Villanova – were given the tournament’s top overall seed.