Virginia, Villanova, Xavier, Purdue top preliminary NCAA bracket preview

Virginia (23-2), Villanova (23-2), Xavier (23-3) and Purdue (23-4) would get No. 1 seeds if the NCAA men's basketball tournament started Sunday, according to a brackets preview released by the selection committee.

Virginia would be the No. 1 overall seed, despite its overtime loss to Virginia Tech on Saturday.

"When the committee started our meeting on Tuesday, I think there was a general agreement on who the top three teams were, but by late Saturday night that group had grown to four," committee chairman Bruce Rasmussen said in a statement. "We initially felt Villanova was the overall top seed, but we flipped that Thursday morning after the Wildcats lost to St. John's at home and Virginia…