NCAA MEN'S TOURNAMENT
North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas and UCLA earned the top seeds in the NCAA tournament Sunday, and the top-ranked Tar Heels got the best deal of all: Their road to the Final Four won't veer more than two hours outside their Chapel Hill campus.

The Georgia Bulldogs are going to the big dance, too. The Dawgs beat Arkansas on Sunday to cap an amazing run to the SEC title. Georgia plays Xavier in the first round Thursday.

The Tar Heels (32-2) are the top seed in the East, with their first- and second-round games scheduled for Raleigh and the next two rounds in Charlotte.

Like North Carolina, Kansas, UCLA and Memphis won their conference tournaments to seal their top spots - Memphis in the South, Kansas in the Midwest and UCLA in the West.

March Madness officially begins Tuesday with an opening-round game between Coppin State and Mount St. Mary's, then with first-round games Thursday and Friday. The real festivities, however, have already started, with the brackets out, the pencils sharpened and office pools getting in full swing.

The Final Four is set for April 5-7 in San Antonio.

NCAA WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT
Connecticut's four seniors have never been to the Final Four. To get there before their college careers end, the Huskies must potentially get past Big East rival Rutgers in the Greensboro Regional.

The No. 1 seeded Huskies (32-1) will open against No. 16 Cornell on Sunday in Bridgeport, Conn.

Other No. 1 seeds are North Carolina, Tennessee and Maryland.

Connecticut, ranked atop the AP poll for 12 of the final 13 weeks, is hoping to get to the Final Four for the first time since 2004. The Huskies lost to LSU in the regional final last season.

"Connecticut being the overall No. 1 got first shot at regional selection," committee chair Judy Southard said. "As we moved on through placing the teams in the bracket, when we got to Rutgers they also were shipped to Greensboro.

"We spent quite a bit of time studying that and trying to find a way to avoid that happening. Once we really got to analyzing it, we got to an impasse if we were to protect the balance of the bracket."

If the Huskies don't get to the Final Four - April 6-8 in Tampa, Fla. - it will be the first Connecticut senior class in 20 years to not have played in at least the national semifinals.