This year’s seed selection for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is, in all respects, bulletproof: take a look at the teams that have advanced to the Final Four and you’ll see two overall No. 1 and No. 2 seeds. It is important to note that something like this hasn’t happened in 14 years, when three No. 1’s and a No. 2 advanced; all four top seeds made it to the final. The committee must be in their offices doing cartwheels right about now. 

Not only was the committee right on point when it came to its seed selection, but most analysts and journalists were in tune as well, making the teams that are now in the Final Four rank in the top 8 in terms of selections. So, after a very exciting month of pure, unfiltered basketball we have the teams everyone picked in advance to be where they are now: Florida,

Ohio State, UCLA and

Georgetown will see a lot of action very, very soon.

 

What does this mean for spectators and bettors? The fact that most people predicted these 4 teams would be in the Final Four is no accident: they are, pound for pound, the best teams in college basketball. Note the phrase “no accident” in the previous statement. There is no team going to the Big Dance that should feel simply happy to be there. There is not one individual in any of the teams that has not earned and does not deserve to be in the position he is right now. The talent is good, elevating the match-ups to nail-biting affairs where the team who blinks with undoubtedly loose.                                      Look at the facts: All four teams land on the Final Four with 30 wins, a first in NCAA tournament history. Every team won its regular-season conference championship, and three out of four (the exception being UCLA) won their conference tournament. Every team has won at least one NCAA championship, something that hasn’t happened since 1995; UCLA is gunning for its 12th national title, an unprecedented feat by all means. All of the big leagues (Big East, Pac-10, SEC and the Big Ten) are represented. The matches themselves are impossible to look away from: Final Four rookies

Ohio State (pk) and

Georgetown (pk) will show their true colors, both teams going through a FF veteran to get to where they are. And should the importance of UCLA (+3) -

Florida (-3) really be expressed? Not only is it a retread of last year’s final, but it also has an air of revenge that will make of the proceedings the most exciting in recent memory.