2009 Selection Sunday: NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Preview, Seeds, and Bracket Rundown

The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament begins this week, officially starting March Madness up and setting up one of the most exciting times of the year for sports fans around the country.

The four number one seeds are Louisville, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, and UNC. Like many analysts thought, the Big East ended up getting three number one seeds-a stellar showing for the strong conference. All three Big East teams did deserve number one seeds. The UNC Tarheels from the ACC ended up getting the fourth number one seed, and they should find a good road to the Final Four.

Number two seeds were also very strong this year, with Michigan State, Memphis, Duke, and Oklahoma all in the running for potential number one seeds. Memphis, out of the four, were talked about the most as a potential number one seed (possibly replacing Connecticut and knocking them down to a two seed.

Some surprising seeds that were under-seeded were also in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament field. These teams include USC at a ten seed and Wisconsin at a twelve seed. USC won the Pac-10 conference tournament in impressive style and should be a real force when the tournament starts up. Wisconsin was a great team all season long in the Big Ten, but had a disappointing showing in the Big Ten Conference Tournament. Both of these teams should find success in the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

The Play-In game features Alabama State and Morehead State this season. Louisville is among the top three teams in the field, so don't expect either of these teams to even think about an upset.

Here is a list of the seeds by region.

2009 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Seeds

Midwest Region

1. Louisville

2. Michigan State

3. Kansas

4. Wake Forest

5. Utah

6. West Virginia

7. Boston College

8. Ohio State

9. Siena

10. USC

11. Dayton

12. Arizona

13. Cleveland State

14. North Dakota

15. Robert Morris

16. Alabama State vs. Morehead State (Play-In Game)

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West Region

1. Connecticut

2. Memphis

3. Missouri

4. Washington

5. Purdue

6. Marquette

7. California

8. BYU

9. Texas

10. Maryland

11. Utah State

12. Northern Iowa

13. Mississippi State

14. Cornell

15. Cal State Northridge

16. Chattanooga

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East Region

1. Pittsburgh

2. Duke

3. Villanova

4. Xavier

5. Florida State

6. UCLA

7. Texas

8. Oklahoma State

9. Tennessee

10. Minnesota

11. VCU

12. Wisconsin

13. Portland State

14. American

15. Binghamton

16. East Tennessee State

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South Region

1. North Carolina

2. Oklahoma

3. Syracuse

4. Gonzaga

5. Illinois

6. Arizona State

7. Clemson

8. LSU

9. Butler

10. Michigan

11. Temple

12. Western Kentucky

13. Akron

14. Stephen F. Austin

15. Morgan State

16. Radford

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