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Selection Sunday began with a pronouncement of the 2024 NCAA Tournament men’s heavyweights, as Connecticut, Houston, Purdue and North Carolina were crowned the No. 1 seeds in the bracket.

UConn, aiming to be the first back-to-back national champion since 2007, is the No. 1 overall seed.

The tournament is scheduled to begin Tuesday with the First Four round. The No. 1 seeds — and the rest of the tournament field — will play first-round games Thursday and Friday.

Here’s how they got here.

Follow our live coverage of Selection Sunday.

UConn (31-3)

UConn is looking to become the first team since the 2006-07 Florida Gators to win back-to-back national titles. The Huskies were dominant in nonconference wins against Indiana, Texas, North Carolina and Gonzaga, losing only to Kansas on Dec. 1 in a battle of top-five teams and recent NCAA champions.

UConn lost again to Seton Hall a few weeks later in its Big East opener, but quickly shook it off, stringing together 14 consecutive wins and cruising through the Big East tournament to win its first conference title since 2011.

“We feel it’s harder to win the Big East than the national championship,” guard Tristen Newton said afterward.

On a roster without Adama Sanogo, Jordan Hawkins and Andre Jackson, the stars of 2023’s buzzsaw championship run, Dan Hurley’s Huskies refocused around the steady senior backcourt of Newton and Cam Spencer, then retooled around the dynamic combo of splashy freshman guard Stephon Castle — one of the top recruits in the country — and sophomore center Donovan Clingan — a 7-foot-2 defensive behemoth who was Sanogo’s replacement in the middle and could soon be an NBA Draft lottery pick.

The East Region 🙌 pic.twitter.com/bIkCGTN13Y

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 17, 2024

Houston (30-4)

The nation’s No. 1 team in the most recent AP rankings, which came out on March 4, Houston held top-10 status all season en route to earning its second consecutive No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Cougars looked unstoppable in nonconference play and were the last undefeated team in the nation — then won the Big 12 in their first season in the league.

A 14-0 start was snapped on Jan. 9 at Iowa State, a perfectly acceptable place to lose. That loss, however, was immediately followed by another defeat, this time at the hands of TCU. The back-to-back losses sent the Cougars tumbling in the rankings, but forced Kelvin Sampson’s program to reorganize for the stretch run.
Houston followed with 16 wins in their next 17 games, with the only loss coming against Kansas. Houston avenged that loss with a 30-point drubbing on March 9 to clinch the Big 12 regular-season title.

But Houston’s conference tournament ended with its own drubbing. Iowa State bested them once again, this time by 28 in the Big 12 championship game.

The team’s depth has taken a significant hit — JoJo Tugler, Terrance Arceneaux and Ramon Walker all suffered season-ending leg injuries — but the starry trio of L.J. Cryer, Jamal Shead and Emmanuel Sharp has stayed healthy all season. Shead was named Big 12 Player of the Year and Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year as he averaged 13.1 points, 6.2 assists and 2.3 steals per game.

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The South Region 🔥 pic.twitter.com/y85717iukL

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 17, 2024

Purdue (29-4)

One year after its trip to the NCAA Tournament ended devastatingly fast, when the top-seeded Boilermakers were stunned by No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson in the first round, Purdue spent the entire season in the top four of the AP Top 25.

Purdue began the season as the No. 3 team and spent five weeks as the top-ranked team. The bounce-back season began with a dominant Maui Invitational run, featuring consecutive wins over Gonzaga, Tennessee and Marquette.

Zach Edey, the defending National Player of the Year who spurred the professional ranks to come back and rewrite Purdue’s record books, maintained his All-American level all season. The 7-foot-4 star is averaging 24.4 points, 11.7 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game.

But the journey wasn’t entirely smooth. The first hiccup came on Dec. 1, with a 92-88 loss to Northwestern. While they largely coasted through Big Ten play, later losses to Nebraska and Ohio State poked holes in their invincibility.

Since then, the Boilermakers have faced their biggest scares at the worst time: the end of the season. First, indispensable guard Braden Smith suffered a hyperextended knee in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinal against Michigan State. While Smith returned to the game and Purdue held on to win and advance, any hindrance to Smith — who leads the team in assists and steals while shooting 44.8 percent from 3 — would make Purdue’s national championship chances a little slimmer.

In the Big Ten semifinals, the Boilermakers’ run ended as Wisconsin ousted Purdue with a last-second runner in overtime. Edey, who became the school career scoring leader in the loss, was the only Purdue player to score in double figures.

If Smith stays healthy and Edey stays dominant, Purdue has a chance to repeat Virginia’s magic from 2019: Those Cavaliers went from embarrassed No. 1 seed losing in the first round in 2018 to national champions the next year.

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The Midwest Region 👀 pic.twitter.com/c44mnu5ezU

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 17, 2024

North Carolina (27-7)

Unlike the other three No. 1 seeds, North Carolina has not been a constant top-10 team this season. The Tar Heels have been anything but.

While their nonconference slate included wins over Arkansas, Tennessee and Oklahoma, they fell to Villanova — who would finish the year 18-15 — in November and dropped back-to-back games against UConn and Kentucky in mid-December. Those losses, along with three losses in five games in a February stumble, cast serious doubt on the team’s seriousness as a championship contender.

But with a roster boasting star guard R.J. Davis and veteran center Armando Bacot — both of whom starred on UNC’s Final Four run in 2022 — North Carolina always packed the potential to put together a special run. That potential was realized in the final quarter of the season, when the Tar Heels strung together eight straight wins and turned back Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium to win the ACC regular-season title.

They reached the ACC tournament final before an upset loss to NC State in the conference championship game, which might exacerbate early season concerns about consistency. But the program’s midseason surge proved just enough to boost their Selection Sunday resume over Iowa State and Tennessee.

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This story will be updated as Selection Sunday continues.

(Photo: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)