Florida, Arizona, Wichita State, & Virginia Top Seeds in NCAA Final Four Tournament

The brackets are set, with the University of Florida, the University of Arizona, undefeated Wichita State University, and the surprising University of Virginia Cavaliers earning the top seeds in the men's 2014 NCAA Final Four tournament.

Virginia (28-8), ranked sixth in the country, defeated the Duke University Blue Devils 72-63 to win the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) championship Sunday afternoon after having won the regular-season title, edging out Syracuse University in the standings. The Syracuse Orangemen stumbled late in the season, losing five of their last seven games, including a 75-65 road loss to Virginia at John Paul Jones Arena. The Cavaliers kick-off the tounament against Coastal Carolina University on Friday.

"Virginia's total resume was very impressive," said Wake Forest athletic director and chairman of the men's selection committee Ron Wellman, who picked Virginia over the #8 University of Michigan and #3 Villanova University. "They continued to impress us throughout the year."

The Florida Gators (32-2), the top ranked team in the nation, beat the University of Kentucky Wildcats 61-60 in nail-biter to win the Southeast Conference (SEC) championship, having also swept the entire SEC to win the regular-season title. Florida faces the winner of Tuesday's first round match-up between SUNY-Albany and Mount St. Mary's University.

''We've got to stay locked in and not let it get to our heads,'' said Florida G Scottie Wilbekin.

The Arizona Wildcats (30-4) earned the one-seed in the West despite an upset loss to UCLA in the Pacific-12 (Pac-12) championship. Arizona, ranked fourth in the country, won the Pac-12 regular-season championship finishing three games ahead of UCLA in the standings but lost to the Bruins 75-71 on Saturday. Arizona plays Big Sky champion Weber State University on Friday.

The Wichita State University Shockers (34-0), ranked second in the nation, round out the tops seeds in the tournament after finishing the season undefeated and winning the Missouri Valley Conference title, sweeping Indiana State University for the season and earning their first number one seed in school history. Wichita State becomes the first team since the 1990-1991 UNVL Running Rebels to enter the Final Four tournament undefeated. Wichita State opens up against the winner of Wednesday's California Big West conference tourney winner California Polytechnic State University and Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) champion Texas Southern University.

One noticeable 2014 Final Four snub was Southern Methodist University (SMU), coached by former National Basketball Association (NBA) coach Larry Brown, who won titles at both the pro (Detroit Pistons) and college level (University of Kansas Jayhawks). Brown resurrected his career and the SMU Mustangs men's basketball program, finishing the year 23-8 and ranked 25th in country.

"When I saw Louisville (was a 4 seed), I kind of figured that they didn't have a lot of respect for our conference," said Brown after the brackets were announced, referring to the strength of schedule for the American Athletic Conference (AAC). "But we only can blame ourselves, that's the way I look at it."

The University of Louisville Cardinals (26-5), the defending men's NCAA basketball champions who finished ranked fifth in the country and won the AAC inaugural title defeating the UCONN Huskies 71-61 on Saturday, were seeded four in the Midwest brackets despite a strong season.

Louisville head coach Rick Pitino had hoped his strength of conference, or lack thereof, would not have hindered the Cardinals chances to earn a top seed after winning the AAC title.

"I'm very impressed with our guys," said Pitino after the game. "What they've done to win a regular season, conference tournament the way we have done it, in the fashion we have done it fits the eye test. I can't talk about the strength of the league. If you want to blame anybody, blame football. Don't blame us."

Wellman told CBS Sports' Seth Davis during the NCAA Basketball Championship Selection Show that the committee weighed all the variables and believed that Louisville is appropriately ranked going into the tournament.

Louisville is playing as well as everyone and the committee certainly agrees with that," said Wellman after the brackets were announced. "However, we look at the entire body of work and throughout the season in comparing everything they did from November through March, and we feel every time we scrub that seed, and we went through that process with our first quadrant subcommittees as well as the full committee, Louisville ended up right in the same place every time when we compared them with the people above them."

Breakdown of conferences with multiple teams in the men's 2014 Final Four tournament