On Sunday, March 13, 2005 the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee overcame any such form of an East Coast bias, which has become the norm in college hoops today.

West Coast powerhouse and Pac-10 champion Washington, surprised many by squeaking into the much-debated final number one seed for this year?s tourney. It had been assumed that three ACC teams would be number one seeds to go along with Illinois. However Wake Forest had a poor showing in the ACC Tournament and this allowed for Washington to make the jump to a number one seed.

Washington joins North Carolina, Duke and Illinois as this year?s four number one seeds.

Washington really capitalized on the opportunity by defeating West Coast rival Arizona in Saturday?s Pac-10 Tournament. Leading up to this game there had been much speculation that whoever could win the game would have an outside shot at the fourth number one seed.

While most people could have justified long time contender Arizona as a number one, almost no one gave serious consideration to Washington pulling this off.

Perhaps the decision was made easier for the committee when Wake Forest got eliminated earlier than was expected in their conference tourney. Either way though, this is a unique situation to see a team from the West leap frog the more frequently covered and analyzed teams from the East such as Wake Forest, Kentucky, or Connecticut.

This also shows that the committee this year placed special importance on each team?s performances within their conference tourneys. Kentucky lost the SEC title game to Florida, while Connecticut was eliminated from their Big East Tourney by Syracuse.

Another interesting characteristic of the 65 teams in this year?s tourney is that there are the same number of teams from the Big Ten as there are from the ACC.

Most of the media outlets this year termed the Big Ten as being a down conference, although boasting the number one ranked team in America, Illinois. However teams such as Wisconsin and Michigan State really put in great seasons this year and should be deserving of the nation?s respect.

Minnesota, another Big Ten member, also rebounded this season and will be going to their first Big Dance since the Clem Haskins? scandal back in 1999.

Steve Alford also will be bringing his ever tough Iowa Hawkeyes team to this year?s tourney and is dangerous at a lower seed.

This shows that although the ACC was this year?s best conference overall, they still get a little over-hyped since they receive all of the close by media coverage which has become known as "The East Coast bias."

The selection committee was able to put all of this added pressure aside though on Sunday as the Big Ten really validated their conference?s solid competition by matching the ACC in invitees this year.

Overall though this year?s tourney looks to be one of the most exciting in recent memory. It appears that many different teams will have a reasonable shot at this year?s national title.

While the most talented teams such as Illinois and North Carolina are emerging as most people?s favorites, do not forget a few other possibilities.

Another team out of the ACC that will be looking to do some serious damage will be Duke. They are led by sharp shooter J.J. Redick and arguably the best coach in the country, Coach K.

After winning the ACC Conference Tourney, Duke looks to be battle tested to make a serious push deep into this year?s tourney and could be cutting down the nets when all is said and done.

Still other teams such as Kentucky or Kansas could go all the way if they can play at a consistent level.

Kansas really ended the season on a bad note and had a terrible performance in the Big 12 Conference Tourney. It appeared that as the season wore on, they became flat.

Kentucky will look to draw upon Coach Tubby Smith?s knowledge and the three point shooting of Sparks. However they also will be coming off of a disappointing conference championship game loss to fellow SEC foe Florida.

What about Connecticut going for the repeat?

Its possible with the solid defense that this team has played all season long. They continue to stay atop the nation in the blocks category which has contributed to their defensive success.

But hey, there are no guarantees and anything is possible when its "March Madness."