Planting our top seeds

When it came to picking the top four seeds for our NCAA Tournament bracket, it pretty much came down to eliminating one team from the equation.

No great surprise there.

Pittsburgh, North Carolina and Connecticut were obvious choices. And there's a very good chance that the real Selection Committee will agree come next Sunday, regardless of what happens this week.

Pitt has beaten a No.1 team twice, something nobody had done in 11 years. In the Panthers' case it was the same opponent, UConn. Both teams have been near the top of the polls, and the Ratings Percentage Index, for the longest time. So there was no debating their merits.

Ditto with North Carolina. The Tar Heels do well in the "look" test, as well as number crunching. They probably have as much going for them as anybody, even if all that got them last season was a loss in the national semifinals. So virtually the same cast will try again, from an identical starting position.

Filling out the quartet, as anticipated, was a bit more time consuming. In the end it basically came down to Oklahoma or Memphis, although both Louisville and Kansas rated a mention. Oklahoma, with Player of the Year Blake Griffin, simply had a little more going for it — at least among our panel, although the argument was presented that Memphis had dominated its conference. Once more. But eventually, and without too much heat entering the conversation, we settled upon Oklahoma. Still, we made Memphis No.2 in that region.

Which means if they meet in the EliteEight, the only difference is that Oklahoma will be wearing the white uniforms. Sort of like SaintJoseph's-Oklahoma State in 2004.

In other words, it's mostly splitting hairs. *

— Mike Kern