:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/30178651/20140315_rnb_sc6_075.0.jpg)
Well, that was unexpected.
While the debate surrounding Louisville in the hours leading up to the NCAA Tournament Selection Show mostly centered around whether or not U of L was going to be a No. 1 seed, it turned out the committee didn't feel the Cardinals were worthy of landing anywhere on the top three lines.
Louisville won a share of the AAC regular season championship and then won its three conference tournament games by a combined 100 points. There's a strong chance that the Cardinals are going to be the No. 3 team in Monday's Associated Press Top 25, which means their final pre-tournament ranking (3) is likely going to be better than their actual tournament seed (4).
Rick Pitino has taken the Cardinals to the Final Four twice as a No. 4 seed (2005, 2012), but U of L has also been bounced before the second weekend twice as a No. 4 (2003, 2011) under Pitino.
Louisville's road to a third straight Final Four now includes going through some combination of undefeated Wichita State, Michigan, Duke and Kentucky. It's a Midwest region that includes three of the top seven teams in Ken Pomeroy's latest rankings (Louisville (2), Wichita State (5) and Duke (7)), as well as three of the Final Four teams from a season ago.
The road starts on Thursday against Manhattan (which is no pushover 13 seed) on Thursday in Orlando. We'll have a post on the game time and the television station once that information is released.
