DURHAM, N.C. — The first peek at the NCAA Tournament selection committee’s thoughts on the tournament’s top seeds showed Duke in the top eight and no other ACC teams in sight.
Tied for first place in the ACC standings with Notre Dame heading into Saturday, the Blue Devils (22-4, 12-3 ACC) were seeded No. 2 in the West Region in the projection of the top 16 seeds announced on Saturday.
NCAA selection committee chair Tom Burnett, the Southland Conference commissioner, revealed his committee had Gonzaga (22-2) as the No. 1 overall seed and placed in the West Region. Duke was seeded No. 8 overall, the lowest of the No. 2 seeds.
Burnett said Villanova, which was seeded No. 9 overall and the best of the No. 3 regional seeds, was close to overtaking Duke. But the committee was impressed with Duke’s marquee nonconference wins in November.
“Duke has those wins against Gonzaga and Kentucky,” Burnett said during the televised announcement of the seeds on CBS. “That made the difference there.”
The No. 2 overall Auburn is the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region, followed by No. 3 overall seed Arizona (South) and No. 4 overall Kansas (East).
Next up is Baylor, the No. 5 overall seed and the No. 2 seed in the South behind Arizona. Kentucky is No. 6, seeded No. 2 in the East behind Kansas. Purdue is No. 7 overall and No. 2 in the Midwest followed by Duke at No. 8.
Villanova is seeded No. 9 overall and No. 3 in the East, followed by No. 10 Texas Tech (Midwest No. 3), No. 11 Tennessee (South) and No. 12 Illinois (West).
The No. 4 seeds were, in order of overall seed, Wisconsin (East), UCLA (Midwest), Providence (South) and Texas (West).
