The dance card is filled, and now the 22-day search for a national champion can begin. Oh, if only the bracket could talk. Maybe it can. Here are nine things it was saying after Selection Sunday:

1. SEC! SEC! SEC! One of every five teams in the NCAA tournament is a conference member. Fourteen is the all-time record by a bunch. So many that, in three cases, they could start bumping into one another in the second round. Florida-Oklahoma, Alabama-Vanderbilt and Texas-Kentucky all could meet on Sunday. The selection committee went absolutely gaga over that conference, ranking all 14 teams in the top 41.

But this comes with the deal: If the SEC doesn’t really clean up the next three weeks, it’s going to have a lot of explaining to do.

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2. Sorry, Indiana and your five national championship banners and 41 appearances. OK, it’s true North Carolina and Xavier went a combined 2-21 in quad 1 games and both had their names called Sunday while the Hoosiers won four quad 1 games, went 15-0 against everyone else, and did not. And it’s true the chair of the committee is Bubba Cunningham, whose day job is athletic director at North Carolina. The thing is, the rules are very strict. Cunningham was not allowed in the room when the Tar Heels’ case was discussed, nor when they were voted upon. True, North Carolina’s 1-12 record in quad 1 games is not a good look for an NCAA tournament at-large invitee. But neither would be Indiana losing to Louisville by 28 points, and Iowa by 25, and Illinois by 25, and Nebraska by 17 and Gonzaga by 16.

3. Good luck on that threepeat, Connecticut. The first opponent is Oklahoma, which went 13-0 in the non-conference and only had trouble with SEC opponents, which UConn isn’t. Next would probably be the Florida Gators, who just won the SEC tournament by scoring 86, 104, and 95 points and the three wins before that with 90, 99 and 89. UConn-Florida would carry one quirk. It’d be a meeting between the last two programs to repeat as national champions.

4. Gonzaga has no pleasure cruise to get to its 10th consecutive Sweet 16, either. The Zags first get Georgia. How ’bout them Dawgs? Florida and St. John’s have only eight defeats between them but they both lost to Georgia. Win that and Gonzaga will likely have to take its 50-percent field goal shooting — third-best in the nation — against the Houston defense.

5. A severe upset warning has been declared for the Midwest region.

No. 4 seed Purdue must deal with a High Point team that has won 14 games in a row and whose five losses this season were by a combined 23 points. No. 5 seed Clemson faces McNeese, a 27-6 steamroller that has lost one game since Dec. 14, trailed only 20 seconds in the Southland tournament and early in the season played Alabama to eight points and Mississippi State to three. The Cowboys have had 35 runs of 10-0 or more, four of them to start games. And they have owned the Southland, going 40-2 the past two seasons against league opponents. Worried yet, Tigers? No. 7 UCLA gets a Utah State program that has been to three consecutive NCAA tournaments with three different coaches. The team thunders on no matter who has the wheel.

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6. The Midwest isn’t the only region with booby traps waiting for higher seeds. They’re all over the place on a landscape where 14 No. 1 seeds did not win their conference tournaments.

No. 5 seed Michigan’s reward for winning the Big Ten tournament? A date with 30-4 UC San Diego, owner of the nation’s longest winning streak at 15, with 13 of them by double digits. The Tritons lead the nation in turnover margin and have won the turnover battle in 32 of 34 games. No. 4 seed Arizona will go from the Big 12 frying pan into the fire of playing an Akron bunch that has lost once this calendar year. Missouri might be a No. 6 seed from the snooty SEC with one of the nation’s most rollicking offenses, but the Tigers now say hello to Drake, with a 30-3 record and the No. 1 scoring defense in the land. Here’s what you call a study in contrast: Missouri averages 84.5 points a game. Drake allows 58.4.

No. 7 Saint Mary’s sees a Vanderbilt team that has beaten five ranked SEC opponents. No. 5 Memphis, with star Tyrese Hunter, who is very iffy because of injury, takes on a Colorado State squad that has won 10 in a row. Oregon had better get to 70 against Liberty, which is 25-0 when opponents don’t. No. 6 BYU plays a 28-6 VCU team coached by Ryan Odom, who knows a bit about upsets in March. He was on the UMBC bench for the Virginia game. And surely No. 4 Texas A&M understands that Yale is always making mischief with James Jones coaching. Yale went 53 years without a tournament bid but this is the fifth in nine tournaments under Jones.

7. Notice how there is room here for every pedigree? Omaha, High Point, Southern Illinois Edwardsville and UC San Diego are in their first NCAA tournaments. Kentucky is in its 63rd. Kansas was invited for the 35th consecutive time. What’s astonishing is only two coaches — Roy Williams and Bill Self — are responsible for that streak. Then again, Michigan State is back for the 27th time in a row, and Gonzaga is back for the 26th. Each coach has had only one coach in that span: Tom Izzo and Mark Few.

8. There are special citations to announce. Best first-round game: Maybe Louisville-Creighton. Both just played for their conference tournament titles. The Cardinals no doubt believe they deserved better with their amazing turnaround that never slowed. Since when does the ACC runner-up get seeded No. 8? Since lately, when so many look upon the league with some suspicion. Then again, if the ACC is so lousy, why is North Carolina in the field?

First-round game that sure doesn’t sound like a first-round game: Kansas vs. Arkansas. Bill Self vs. John Calipari. Ten Final Fours. Most anticipated return: Whenever Cooper Flagg hits the floor for Duke. It’ll be American or Mount St. Mary’s in the first round, Mississippi State or Baylor after that.

Best reason to hope Tennessee fouls Wofford a lot in their first-round game: It increases the chances of seeing Wofford’s Kyler Filewich shoot a free throw. He went to the underhand style in February, trying to improve a sub-arctic percentage. It’s helped. A little. But a player who averages 11.9 points and has the team’s best field goal percentage at 57.6 is still at only 31.8 percent when nobody is guarding him at the line. He was 5-for-17 in the Southern Conference tournament. It’ll be must-see TV next week when he tries a free throw.

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Possible second-round games of special appeal: Rick Pitino vs. John Calipari if St. John’s and Arkansas win. Or for that matter, Pitino vs. Bill Self if it’s Kansas… Auburn vs. Louisville, and Bruce Pearl probably wondering how the No. 1 seed in the entire tournament ended up playing Louisville in Lexington… UCLA vs. Tennessee, a program with 11 national championships against a program still looking for its first Final Four… High Point vs. McNeese. Yeah, that could be a second-round game if the upsets come in… Arizona vs. Oregon, one went this way from the Pac-12, the other that way. They actually played their final Pac-12 games last spring against one another. Oregon won… Alabama vs. Vanderbilt. Their regular season was a 103-87 track meet.

Coaching families to monitor: Rick Pitino and son Richard are both in the field but thankfully St. John’s and New Mexico wouldn’t meet until the Final Four. Brothers Scott and Bryce Drew are back with Baylor and Grand Canyon but that match wouldn’t happen until the championship game. Selection Sunday is big in the Drew family. Between the two brothers and father Homer at Valparaiso, 23 of the past 29 NCAA tournaments have had at least one team coached by a Drew.

A new face with a good chance to light up March: Wisconsin graduate transfer John Tonje. He scored 32 points against No. 7 Michigan State, 41 against No. 9 Arizona, and 32 against No. 7 Purdue. That made him the first player in 14 years to go for 30 in three wins against top-10 opponents in a single season. OK, he was 1-for-14 Sunday in the Big Ten title loss to Michigan, but that was the fourth game in four days.

9. And finally, if the seedings hold, how about these Elite Eight games?

• Houston vs. Tennessee in the Midwest, and wouldn’t that be a big wad of defense?
• Auburn vs. Michigan State. Maybe Tom Izzo’s best chance to get back, and Bruce Pearl is there to try to stop him.
• Florida vs. St. John’s. One team picked to finish sixth in the SEC this year, the other having its best season in 40 years.
• And maybe most compelling of all, Duke and its No. 1 rated defense against Alabama and the only offense in the country to average 90 points a game. Alabama star Mark Sears in his fifth year of college basketball, and Duke’s Flagg in his fifth month.

It could happen. Lots of wild things could. That’s what the bracket has most to say.