USA TODAY Sports
Though the most casual of college basketball fans might not pay close attention to the sport until the calendar flips to March, it’s clear that the Division I men’s basketball committee does not operate that way.
The selection committee’s No. 1 seeds — Villanova, Kansas, North Carolina and Gonzaga — had accumulated at least a handful of quality wins over the course of the regular season, including during non-conference play. And all four had won their leagues’ regular-season championships, all by multiple games.