USA - March Madness tips off as Niagara face Rattlers

NEW YORK (NCAA) - The NCAA Tournament officially gets underway on Tuesday when Florida A&M face Niagara.

The 64th and 65th teams in the field face each other for the right to go forward and play top-seeded Kansas (30-4), the Big 12 Conference champion, on Friday in Chicago.

Florida A&M (21-13) beat Lehigh, 72-57, in an opening-round game in 2004 under coach Mike Gillespie before losing to top seed Kentucky in the first round.

The Rattlers won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament, edging Delaware State, 58-56, on a buzzer-beating layup by Brian Greene in the championship game.

Niagara (22-11) last appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2005 under coach Joe Mihalich and lost in the first round to Oklahoma.

The Purple Eagles extended their winning streak to 11 games with an 83-79 victory over Siena in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title game.

Niagara won its only NCAA Tournament game in 1970 when guard Calvin Murphy was the star. This team is led by junior swingman Charron Fisher, who averaged 21.0 points and 8.1 rebounds.

Defending champion Florida, Ohio State, North Carolina and Kansas are the top seeds.

All four of the teams earned the honor after wrapping up their respective conference tournament titles on Sunday.

Looking to become the first repeat champion since Duke in 1992, Florida (30-4) captured the first No. 1 seed in school history, heading up the Midwest Regional.

The Gators, who have bounced back from a three-loss stretch in four games in February, enter their ninth consecutive appearance in the NCAAs on a four-game winning streak after posting a 77-56 victory over Arkansas in the title game of the Southeastern Conference tournament on Sunday.

Florida will open up against Southwestern Conference champion Jackson State (21-13) on Friday at New Orleans.

The last time that a defending champion had a No. 1 seed in the tournament was 2002, when Duke lost in the regional semi-finals to eventual national runner-up Indiana.

The top team in the South Regional is Ohio State (30-3).

Led by outstanding freshman center Greg Oden, the Buckeyes collected their third No. 1 seed all-time and first since 1992. Ohio State added to its Big Ten regular-season title with a tournament crown following a 66-49 victory over Wisconsin on Sunday.

The Buckeyes will face Northeast Conference champion Central Connecticut State (22-11) on Thursday at Lexington, Kentucky.

North Carolina (28-6) captured its first Atlantic Coast Conference tournament crown in nine years on Sunday, posting an 89-80 victory over intrastate rival North Carolina State.

The Tar Heels got one up on another league and intrastate foe by receiving their 11th overall No. 1 seed, pushing them past Duke for the most in NCAA history.

It is the 39th all-time tournament appearance for the Tar Heels, tying them with UCLA for second all-time. Kentucky leads with 48.

The national champion in 2005, North Carolina will face No. 16 seed Eastern Kentucky, the champion of the Ohio Valley Conference, in the East Regional on Thursday at Winston Salem, North Carolina.

Kansas earned its 11th straight win on Sunday with an 88-84 overtime victory over Texas.

It was because of that strong finish that 2006 national runner-up UCLA was dropped to a second seed in the regional, making the West probably the toughest of all in the bracket.

The region has four schools - including Duke and Kentucky - that have won titles in the 64-team format and three others that have reached the championship game this decade.

Since the tournament field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, no top seeded team has lost in the first round.

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