March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Big East Conference schools Louisville, Pittsburgh and Connecticut joined the University of North Carolina as top seeds for the National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament.

Louisville (28-5) received its only previous No. 1 tournament seed in 1983, while Pittsburgh (28-4) is a top seed for the first time in school history. Connecticut (27-4) last received a No. 1 seed in 2006 and North Carolina (28-4) earned a top seeding for a record 13th time.

Since the NCAA started seeding teams for the tournament in 1979, this is the first time that three schools from the same conference have gotten No. 1 seeds. The only time three teams from one conference reached the Final Four was in 1985, when St. John’s, Villanova and Georgetown did it from the Big East.

“We are very proud and pleased to be the first conference to receive three No. 1 seeds,” Big East Commissioner Michael Tranghese said in a statement. “Now comes the hard part. We have to play games against some terrific opposition.”

Memphis received a No. 2 seed even though the Tigers had a 31-3 record and won a fourth straight Conference USA title after losing to Kansas in last year’s NCAA championship game.

“It’s not about what Memphis didn’t do, it’s about what other teams did,” Mike Slive, chairman of the NCAA tournament selection committee, said yesterday in a televised interview with CBS. “When you look at the four teams on the top line, they deserve to be there.”

The NCAA tournament starts tomorrow as Alabama State plays Morehead State to fill the final spot in the 64-team field that begins play on March 19 at eight first-round sites.

The championship game is scheduled for April 6 at Ford Field in Detroit.

Overall No. 1 Seed

Louisville, in the Midwest Region, is the top overall seed after winning the Big East tournament title. The Cardinals would play West Regional No. 1 seed Connecticut in one national semifinal if both teams advanced to the Final Four. North Carolina, the South Regional top seed, would face Pittsburgh, which heads the East Region.

All four No. 1 seeds reached the Final Four for the first time last year, when Kansas won the title.

Louisville, which has won two national titles, will play the Alabama State-Morehead State winner in the first round.

The other top schools in Louisville’s 16-team region are second-seeded Michigan State (26-6), which won the Big Ten Conference regular season title; No. 3 Kansas (25-7), which is the defending national champion; and No. 4 Wake Forest (24-6).

Pittsburgh’s top competition in the East Regional comes from No. 2 Duke (28-6), which claimed its ninth Atlantic Coast Conference tournament title in 12 years; No. 3 Villanova (26-7), which could play the first two rounds in its home city of Philadelphia; and No. 4 Xavier (25-7).

Oklahoma, Syracuse

In North Carolina’s regional are No. 2 Oklahoma (27-5); third-seeded Syracuse (26-9), which reached the Big East tournament title game; and No. 4 Gonzaga (26-5), which is in the NCAA tournament for the 11th straight year.

Memphis is the No. 2 seed in the West Regional behind Connecticut, while Missouri (28-6) is the third seed and Pacific-10 Conference regular-season champion Washington (25-8) is seeded fourth.

Headed by Louisville, Pittsburgh and Connecticut, the Big East landed seven schools in the tournament. The conference had eight schools in the field last year.

The ACC and Big Ten also have seven representatives, while the Big 12 and Pac-10 have six each. The Southeastern Conference has three.

Automatic bids went to 31 conference championship winners and the remaining 34 teams received at-large bids.

No. 25

Arizona (19-13) will make its 25th consecutive NCAA appearance after receiving one of the last invitations to the tournament. The Wildcats made the field as a No. 12 seed even though they lost five of their final six games.

Among the other teams to get the last at-large spots were Maryland (20-13), Wisconsin (19-12), Dayton (26-7), Michigan (20-13) and Minnesota (22-10).

Among the schools left out of the tournament were St. Mary’s (26-6), Penn State (22-11), San Diego State (23-9), Creighton (26-7), Auburn (22-11), Florida (23-10) and Davidson (26-7), which reached the final eight last year before a two- point loss against eventual champion Kansas.

“The final analysis is who you play, where you play, how do you do,” said Slive, who is commissioner of the Southeastern Conference. “It’s all about teams, not about conferences.”

First-Round Games

The other first-round matchups in the Midwest Region are Ohio State-Siena, Utah-Arizona, Wake Forest-Cleveland State, West Virginia-Dayton, Kansas-North Dakota State, Boston College- Southern California, and Michigan State-Robert Morris.

In the West Regional, it’s Connecticut-Chattanooga, Brigham Young-Texas A&M, Purdue-Northern Iowa, Washington-Mississippi State, Marquette-Utah State, Missouri-Cornell, California- Maryland and Memphis-Cal State Northridge.

First-round games in the East Regional are Pittsburgh-East Tennessee State, Oklahoma State-Tennessee, Florida State- Wisconsin, Xavier-Portland State, UCLA-Virginia Commonwealth, Villanova-American, Texas-Minnesota and Duke-Binghamton.

In the South Regional, it’s North Carolina-Radford, Louisiana State-Butler, Illinois-Western Kentucky, Gonzaga- Akron, Arizona State-Temple, Syracuse-Stephen F. Austin, Clemson-Michigan and Oklahoma-Morgan State.

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 16, 2009 00:04 EDT