Louisville and Pittsburgh: Two No. 1 Seeds Not Headed for Detroit

Days, hours, and minutes before the Selection Sunday show, the whole world knew that there were five possible No. 1 seeds, and six or seven possible No. 2 seeds.

After a few minutes into the show, Louisville, Pittsburgh, North Carolina, and UConn were celebrating their No. 1 seed bids.

In this year's NCAA March Madness tournament, the No. 1 seeds are not the factor that most people thought they would be. It is the rest of the field that can cook up some trouble for those No. 1 seeds.

Michigan State, Duke, Memphis, and Oklahoma were the final list of the No. 2 seeds this year. These teams have been contenders year in and year out. They were a combined 55-11 in their respective conferences.

Oklahoma was upset early in their conference tournament along with Michigan State. Duke and Memphis are the only two No. 2 seeds who won their respective conference title.

Kansas, Missouri, Syracuse, and Villanova round out the three seeds. The three seeds get a little more thinner than those ranked No. 1, but can still be very dangerous.

Syracuse and Villanova have both beaten, and by the toughest conference in the country in the Big East. In fact, Syracuse has taken down No. 1 seed Connecticut, and Villanova took out another No. 1 Pittsburgh.

Kansas is arguably the best competition in all the three seeds. The Jayhawks won the regular season title in the Big 12 beating No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners, and the No. 3 Missouri Tigers.

So which teams could be in trouble come the sweet 16 and elite eight?

The North Carolina Tar Heels are the No. 1 seed in the South region. Oklahoma sits at No. 2, and Syracuse is ranked at No. 3 do pose a threat to the Heels, but not a big enough threat. With Ty Lawson being relieved of his toe injury, the Tar Heels seem impossible to beat.

The Connecticut Huskies are in arguably the weakest region in this years tournament, the West region. UConn's only threat are two teams of Tigers, Memphis, and Missouri.

Memphis was knocked down to No. 2 mainly because of the competition they faced. UConn was in the most competitive conference, making them more experienced. When it comes to the team talent, Missouri does not have enough to match up with UConn.

The Pittsburgh Panthers' East region is possibly the second-strongest region this year. This region's No. 2 seed is this year's ACC Champion, the Duke Blue Devils. A Pittsburgh-Duke Elite Eight match up would be one game for the ages, but who else can compete?

Florida State is ranked at No. 5 in that region. The Seminoles were runner-up in the ACC Championship this year. With their star, Toney Douglas, anything can happen with that team.

Another team to watch for in this region is the Texas Longhorns. Texas needs solid performances every game of this tournament from AJ Abrams, Damion James, and Dexter Pittman in order to make noise. The scary thing is, that could happen.

Pittsburgh has their hands full in this region.

The Louisville Cardinals round up the bracket with the overall No. 1 seed in the Midwest region. The Cards had a rough start to their season dropping games to UNLV and Western Kentucky, but since then Louisville has been a completely different team.

However, the Cards need to keep playing like they have been and take that momentum into the tournament. With Kansas or Michigan State possibly looking their way in the Elite Eight, an upset may occur.

Louisville is one of the Big East teams that have not played Pittsburgh, Marquette, or UConn twice. Their Big East title was virtually sculpted by the victories of West Virginia and Syracuse over Pittsburgh and UConn.

With those stats, and the maturity and teamwork of Kansas or Michigan State, Louisville may have disappointment in their near future.