The top four seeds in the NCAA Tournament include Michigan State, the defending national champion, Stanford, the top-ranked team in the country, and Duke, the most dominant team of the past decade or so.
Then there's Illinois, made the No. 1 seed in the Midwest on Sunday despite seven losses, including one in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament.
"I was surprised," coach Bill Self said. "Going into this weekend, I thought we would have to win the tournament (to be a No. 1 seed), but I didn't anticipate some early exits by some teams fighting for the same thing we were fighting for."
Self, in his first year at Illinois after taking Tulsa to the final eight a year ago, said his team's rugged nonconference schedule likely had as much to do with getting the top seed as anything.
The Fighting Illini (24-7) lost to Arizona in a tournament in Hawaii, lost to Duke in Greensboro, N.C., and lost at Texas. The Illini beat Maryland in the Hawaii tournament, and beat Arizona, Missouri and Seton Hall before beginning conference play.
"We played a monster schedule," he said. "I'm glad we spent a lot of energy winning those nonconference games."
Self pointed out that Illinois' seven losses came to teams that are seeded seventh or higher in the NCAA Tournament, and five came down to the final possession, including Saturday's game with Indiana in the Big Ten tournament.
"We can draw from being there before. We've played a really tough schedule and that's obviously benefited us," he said.
The Illini (24-7) open NCAA play Friday in Dayton, Ohio, against the winner of Tuesday's opening-round game between Northwestern State and Winthrop.
Self said the region appeared loaded.
"Arizona, obviously, could win a national championship," he said. "Ole Miss, they're hot and they guard as well as anybody in America. The fourth seed is Kansas. How many four seeds out there can possibly be better than the University of Kansas?"
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