Villanova, Kansas, North Carolina, Gonzaga top NCAA seeds

(The Sports Xchange) – Defending champion Villanova was the overall top seed and one of four number one seeds in the NCAA basketball tournament field announced on Sunday.

The Wildcats (31-3), who beat Creighton in the Big East tournament championship game on Saturday, will play in the East Regional.

The other number one seeds were Kansas (28-4) in the Midwest, Gonzaga (32-1) in the West and North Carolina (27-7) in the South.

The 68-team NCAA men’s tournament, nicknamed March Madness, begins on Tuesday with the championship game on April 3.

Kansas won the Big 12 regular-season championship before being upset by TCU in the conference tournament.

Gonzaga, the West Coast Conference regular-season and tournament champion, lost only to Brigham Young this year.

North Carolina won the Atlantic Coast regular-season title before losing to Duke in the ACC tournament semi-finals.

In the East bracket, the other top four seeds after Villanova were number two Duke (27-8), number three Baylor (25-7) and number four Florida (24-8).

In the West, seeded behind Gonzaga were Arizona (30-4), Florida State (25-8) and West Virginia (26-8).

The South top four seeds included number two Kentucky (29-5), number three UCLA (29-4) and number four Butler (23-8).

In the Midwest, the second through fourth seeds were Louisville (24-8), Oregon (29-5) and Purdue (25-7).

Northwestern (23-11) made the NCAA field for the first time in school history. The Wildcats were the number eight seed in the West Regional.

(Editing by Gene Cherry)