Sunday, March 16, 2008
North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas and UCLA earned the top seeds in the NCAA tournament Sunday, and the top-ranked Tar Heels got the best deal of all: Their road to the Final Four won’t veer more than two hours outside their Chapel Hill campus.
The Tar Heels (32-2) are the top seed in the East, with their first- and second-round games scheduled for Raleigh and the next two rounds in Charlotte.
“It’s an advantage if you play well,” said Carolina coach Roy Williams, trying to lead the Tar Heels to their second title in four years. “Just because the crowd’s cheering for you, I’ve never had a crowd win a game. I know it sounds wacko.”
Like North Carolina, Kansas, UCLA and Memphis won their conference tournaments to seal their top spots — Memphis in the South, Kansas in the Midwest and UCLA in the West.
The Final Four is set for April 5-7 in San Antonio.
Absent from the tournament are last year’s two finalists, Ohio State and two-time defending champion Florida. The Buckeyes were a bubble team that didn’t make it, and the rebuilt Gators saw their chances die with a first-round loss in the Southeastern Conference tournament. They’re the first defending champs to miss the tournament since Kansas in 1989, when the Jayhawks were on probation.