Here is a great summary for those that need to catch up!

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The road to the 2012 NCAA basketball national championship runs through New Orleans

The bracket is broken down into four 16-team regional battles that will culminate in Atlanta in the South region, Phoenix in the West, Boston in the East and St. Louis in the Midwest region.

The winner of each region will advance to the Final Four which will be held at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.

By virtue of a perfect SEC regular season and only two losses overall including the finals of their conference tournament, the Kentucky Wildcats are the overall number one seed in this year's tournament. They also boast possibly the most must see player in the league, freshman forward Anthony Davis who is projected to be the number one pick in the NBA entry draft if he chooses to declare this summer.

Three other teams also hold number one seeds in the tournament: Syracuse Orange, Michigan State Spartans and North Carolina Tar Heels. The four top seeded schools will all have the advantage of facing No. 16 seeds in the opening round of the tournament. All four teams have been crowned National Champions in the last 15 years with the Tar Heels 2009 title the most recent of the four.

No 16th seeded team has never eliminated a top seeded team, having lost all 108 contests.

The defending champion University of Connecticut Huskies are entering the tournament as the 9th ranked team and will face an opening round challenge from the No. 8 Iowa State Cyclones. If the Huskies can advance, they will be on a crash course with the Wildcats in the second round.

Both South Dakota State and Norfolk State will be making their first appearances in the tournament while Harvard, who has not been selected since 1946, will represent the Ivy League this year.

The Butler Bulldogs have made consecutive surprise runs to the tournament finals only to be defeated by the Huskies last year and the Duke Blue Devils the season previous. Unfortunately the Cinderella run of the Bulldogs will not be replicated this season as they failed to qualify.