Duke and North Carolina both get to play first round games in Charlotte but the Tar Heels have a much tougher road to the Final Four.

Duke got a No. 1 seed but after playing two games in Charlotte that the Devils should win – against Hampton and either Michigan or Tennessee – they are shipped out to Anaheim to try to get a couple more wins to reach the Final Four. San Diego St., at 32-2, is the No. 2 seed in the West, followed by Connecticut and Texas.

San Diego St. has never won an NCAA tournament game. Connecticut, a young team, had to win five grueling games to take the Big East tournament. Texas has not played well lately, losing three of its last five games.

If Carolina can get through two wins in Charlotte – against Long Island and either hot Washington or Georgia -they’ll get to play closer to its fan base in the regional finals (Newark, N.J.) than Duke. The bad news is that, top to bottom, the East region is the toughest.

The tournament’s overall No. 1 seed Ohio State is in the East region as are Syracuse and Kentucky. Syracuse saw its six-game winning streak end Friday, with an overtime loss to UConn in the Big East semifinals while Kentucky handled Florida in the finals of the SEC tournament finals.

If Washington is the Tar Heels second-round opponent, it could prove to be a tough game. The Huskies, winners of three straight, talk like they still have something to prove after surprisingly winning the Pac-10 conference tournament.

The ACC got four teams in the tournament – Duke, UNC, Florida State and Clemson – with Virginia Tech and Boston College being left out, as was Colorado which was thought to be a lock. Two inferior teams – UAB and VCU – made the tournament ahead of those three teams.

Despite three additional at-large teams being added to the field this year, Virginia Tech is outside looking in for the fourth straight season.

Hokie coach Seth Greenberg understandably isn’t happy about it. “You almost wonder if someone in that room has their own agenda and that agenda doesn’t include Virginia Tech. Just plan and simple,” he said in a released statement. “I totally wonder if someone in that room has an agenda. The explanation was so inconsistent with the result that it was almost mind-boggling.”