The NCAA Tournament is over (though, in retrospect, it sure seemed over before it began as nobody posed a serious threat to Villanova).

Most of my trusty bracket rules held true. A No. 1 seed won it all. A team in blue won again. Kansas lost. The Big Ten didn’t win, etc. … Villanova broke just one rule — becoming just the third team since 1985 to enter the tournament with 30 wins and win it all. Normally, that lofty win total spells doom. Not this year. Consider the Wildcats an exceptional exception to the rule.

Before we close the book entirely on the 2017-18 college basketball season, we gathered the SDS staff for an exit survey.

1. What is your tweet-length summary of the 2018 NCAAT (max 280 characters)?

Joe Cox, Kentucky/SEC columnist: Everybody will remember this Tourney for crazy upsets (UMBC, Loyola), but the most balanced team (and best scoring team) won.

Connor O’Gara, Senior national columnist: Sister Jean dunked on people, UMBC did the impossible (so did Virginia but not in a good way) while the traditional blue bloods fell well short and a 21st century blue blood dismantled all in its path en route to another national title.

Adam Spencer, Missouri/SEC columnist: The Villanova Wildcats have shown what it takes to win the national championship — 3s, selfless play and versatility. This is something that teams relying on one-and-dones have trouble with. Perhaps more teams will try to follow the Villanova and North Carolina models in the future.

Chris Wright, Executive Editor: Upsets are great, but on the final weekend and especially the final Monday, trust the blue bloods. (Yes, Villanova is a blue blood.) Trust the No. 1 seeds. (Just don’t trust Kansas.)

2. What team were you fascinated by and thus watched much more of than probably the average fan? Why?

Connor O’Gara: I was captivated by Michigan for the last two months. Without any allegiances to the school, I found myself becoming a bigger fan of John Beilein by the game. I appreciated the fact that his teams could light up a scoreboard (sup, Texas A&M) one night and grind out a defensive slug fest the next (hey, Florida State). That’s rare in this era of college basketball, but it speaks to the coaching. People might have said that Michigan had a favorable road, but winning 14 games in a row and falling to that Villanova in the title game was nothing short of remarkable.

Adam Spencer: I loved watching Robert Williams, Tyler Davis, TJ Starks and the Texas A&M Aggies play during the tournament. It took them long enough to put it all together, but when they did, it was fantastic basketball. Yes, they ended up losing a disappointing game to Michigan, but the Aggies were one of the most-exciting teams in the tournament. Williams will likely head to the NBA, where he could be a lottery pick. However, if Davis and Starks come back, the Aggies should still be a lot of fun in 2018-19.

Joe Cox: Probably Missouri, just because of the Michael Porter Jr. turmoil, the way that they built up a decent team without him, and then went all-in on him in March and went absolutely nowhere. What a weird season.

Chris Wright: Outside of the ACC and SEC, it had to be Villanova. Primarily to keep track on them, anticipating another UNC-Nova showdown. Villanova plays a perfect blend of basketball. Much like Nick Saban’s group, Jay Wright’s team can beat you in a lot of different ways, certainly far different from any Big East style you grew up watching.

3. What was your One Shining Moment from the NCAA Tournament?

Joe Cox: UMBC. Long after people forget that Villanova won the title, they’ll remember the 16 seed that beat the 1 seed. Never again can you roll your eyes at the bracket newcomer and smugly tell them, “A 16 seed has never beaten a 1 seed.” Now you can just take their money.

Connor O’Gara: It had to be Sister Jean. Watching a 98-year-old nun become this spirit of a Cinderella team is what March Madness is all about. You probably could have made One Shining Moment from just Loyola-Chicago.

Adam Spencer: Being in Philadelphia for the past couple of years, it was awesome to have a Philly team cruise to the title. Villanova played the best basketball of any team in the tourney, and utterly dominated other top squads. Plus, I picked them to win it all in my bracket, so it always feels good to be right.

Chris Wright: Game-winning shots, confetti and net-cutting ceremonies happen every year. Sister Jean Mania was fun. I’ll most remember the poise and class Tony Bennett showed in his post-game interview, seconds after No. 1 Virginia suffered its historic loss to No. 16 seed UMBC.

4. What hill are you still willing to die on that most people have abandoned?

Connor O’Gara: I’d send my kid to play for Tony Bennett in a heartbeat. I know the embarrassing NCAA Tournament losses are what people are going to talk to him about, but he put together one of the more impressive pre-NCAA Tournament seasons we’ve ever seen and he did it without McDonald’s All-Americans. I still think he can coach his tail off and that he’d be the top free agent coach on the market if Virginia ever did something insane like fire him.

Joe Cox: Defense still wins championships — even though Villanova was an offensive team and Virginia crashed and burned in historic fashion.

Adam Spencer: Virginia will win a national title under Tony Bennett. I know most people hate his style of play, where the Cavs slow everything down and play stellar defense. The naysayers have plenty of ammunition now after the Hoos lost to a 16 seed for the first time in tournament history.

However, the loss of sixth man extraordinaire De’Andre Hunter took more of a toll than people think. Hunter was the team’s best defender, and on a team that prides itself on defense, that’s saying something. Also, Villanova’s Donte DiVincenzo just won the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four coming off the bench for the Wildcats, so we’ve seen how important Hunter’s position is.

The Cavs will be back next year, and it’s not out of the question that they could earn another No. 1 seed this time next year.

Chris Wright: One-and-dones don’t work. Every summer, seemingly, Duke and Kentucky assemble the most and best talent. Every March — except two — they come up short. Duke has more first-round losses (2) since it sold out to the one-and-done movement than NCAA titles (1), and Kentucky has as many titles as NIT appearances.

But that won’t stop the nonsense. Duke, which will open the season with at least 3 new starters, is almost a universal No. 1 in the way-too-early Top 25 polls.

Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

5. Was this an up or down year for the SEC?

Chris Wright: It was a fine year. Ultimately, you’re judged at the top, and the SEC had just two Sweet 16 teams and didn’t make it to the Elite Eight.

Connor O’Gara: A decent year. As the SEC loves to say in football, you’re only as good as your best teams. The SEC didn’t have an elite team. It did, however, have more decent teams than usual. And the most optimistic thing was that a lot of those teams should turn into really good teams next year.

Adam Spencer: This was definitely an up year for the SEC (though it was a down year for Kentucky). It’s always great to see more teams in the mix for a conference title, and it was refreshing to see how well teams like Auburn and Tennessee performed this season.

Getting eight teams into the NCAA Tournament was huge, and even though none made it to the Final Four, it is still a step in the right direction for the conference as a whole.

Joe Cox: It was an up year for the quality of the league as a whole — plenty of NCAA worthy teams — but it was a down year in terms of having a great team to carry the banner for the league, as A&M and Kentucky showed in the Sweet 16.

6. Who was your favorite player of the 2017-18 college basketball season to watch?

Connor O’Gara: Admiral Schofield. I already professed my love for the Tennessee forward. I just loved watching how hard he played on both ends of the floor, but that he still had a finesse about his game. Not many guys with his build would spend so much time working on a mid-range jump shot. To me, he was the reason that Tennessee had the season that it had, and if he does elect to return in 2018-19, the Vols are plenty capable of being that elite SEC team.

Joe Cox: Trae Young. He played like a video game character. There are guys who will be better pros — the answer to this should be DeAndre Ayton, but Arizona often had no idea how to use him — but Young was always worth watching.

Adam Spencer: Coming into the season, Mizzou fans were expecting to see Michael Porter Jr. dominate the competition, but instead, a new star emerged in Columbia. I couldn’t get enough of Kassius Robertson, the transfer guard from Canisius. His silky-smooth threes and impressive leadership were a lot of fun to watch. I only wish he could come back to the Tigers next year.

Chris Wright: I was late to the party, but Texas A&M’s Robert Williams has the kind of athleticism that’s just fun to watch. Sure, other guys score more. And anybody his size can block a shot or dunk, but blocking a 3 on one end and finishing with a wind-mill dunk on the other? That’s pretty Greek Freakish (and, no, I’m not suggesting that’s his ceiling, but that was his NCAA Tournament).

Credit: Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports

7. After all of the NCAAT upsets, including a No. 11 seed again reaching the Final Four, are you more or less convinced that 4 teams is not enough to properly crown a football champion?

Connor O’Gara: Apples, meet oranges. As fun as the NCAA Tournament is, it works because it’s basketball. The ability to play on one day’s rest is huge, as is the significantly larger amount of Division I basketball teams compared to FBS football teams. I love the emphasis of the regular season in college football. I think anyone who thinks that regular season January college basketball games have the same intensity as October college football games is off their rocker.

Adam Spencer: It’s a completely different sport. I’d love to see more teams in the College Football Playoff, but that is a lot of wear and tear on players’ bodies. I think an 8-team Playoff is ideal, but they need to be very cognizant of what they’re asking these athletes to do if they start adding more games to the football season.

Joe Cox: Absolutely NOT. College basketball has enough games that some significant devaluing of the regular season doesn’t hurt the post-season. An 11 seed would be the equivalent to the No. 41-44 teams in the country. I’m a guy who thinks there are too many bowl games, so I definitely wouldn’t want a team that sneaks into the Poulan Weed Eater Bowl now to end up in college football’s Final Four. The fact that a loss — ANY loss — matters in a significant way in college football is part of what makes the sport tick.

Chris Wright: Most people who argue to keep the 4-team Playoff do so because of the worst possible reasons: They truly believe there are only four deserving teams. They truly believe that the regular season is the perfect way to prove who those four teams should be. They truly believe, because they’ve been told ad nauseam, that “every game matters.”

Please, people. If “every game mattered,” Kirk Herbstreit wouldn’t have walked off the set shocked that his Buckeyes didn’t make the Playoff. He would have known already that two losses, one by 31, was a death sentence. Instead, he seemed convinced the Playoff committee would overlook all of that and pick Ohio State because, apparently, some of Ohio State’s other games mattered more.

In truth, we have no idea what games matter, or how much. There’s no set criteria. One year it’s this. The next year it’s that. So the default is a marketing-driven mantra: Every Game Matters.

The entire premise is nonsense. There are at least 10 teams that could win a Playoff, and the regular season is so unbalanced, it’s disingenuous to pretend we get the four most deserving or best teams each year. (Imagine if the NFL did this. We would have been robbed of the wild-card Giants ending Tom Brady’s bid at perfection. That Giants team lost 6 regular season games. The horror! That’s just one example, but let’s keep going with the NFL for a minute. College fans are afraid of “cheapening” the regular season, yet the NFL still sells out most of its regular season games, no? Why? Those games still give those teams a chance to make the playoffs. It’s pretty simple: The more teams you involve in the Playoff process, the more interest you get. That’s a universal rule. Baseball purists hated the wild-card; now it’s seen as a game-saver.)

The reason the NCAA Tournament is so great is it allows everybody in the country to dream the dream. Everybody starts practice in mid-October knowing they have a path to the tournament — and then a chance to make history if they get there. That’s nowhere near the case with a 4-team Playoff.

Eight is the perfect number because it covers up almost all of the flaws of the wildly unfair regular season. We’ll get it, eventually. And those quarterfinal upsets are going to be awesome.

8. Rank the conferences from strongest to weakest.

Joe Cox: ACC, Big East (surprise), SEC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12.

Connor O’Gara: ACC, Big East, Big 12, SEC, Big Ten … Pac-12.

Adam Spencer: ACC, Big East, Big 12, SEC, Big Ten, American, Every middle school basketball conference, Pac-12.

Chris Wright: Big East, ACC, Big Ten/SEC, Big 12, Pac-12.

9. What’s your boldest prediction for next season?

Connor O’Gara: Tom Crean leads Georgia to an NCAA Tournament win for the first time since 2002.

Joe Cox: Kansas doesn’t win the Big 12 for the first time in what feels like forever.

Adam Spencer: Missouri will post an even better record and earn a higher seed in next year’s NCAA Tournament. If Jontay Porter comes back, which he should do since he could be a top-10 pick in 2019, the Tigers will have a nice core of big men with him, Jeremiah Tilmon and Kevin Puryear. If they can land a point guard in the 2018 recruiting class, coach Cuonzo Martin’s squad will challenge for a top-three finish in the SEC next year.

Chris Wright: John Calipari leaves Kentucky for the NBA. When was the last time a Kentucky team overachieved under Calipari? The Wildcats typically don’t. And if he can’t win with the best players …

10. If the NBA allows HS kids to turn pro, what’s your tweet-length impact on John Calipari’s future at Kentucky?

Connor O’Gara: Goodbye, Caaaaal … It’s been niiiiiiiice … hope you find your paradiiiiise … (in the NBA).

Joe Cox: He’ll adjust. He took UMass to the Final Four before one-and-done. Might make him retire quicker.

Adam Spencer: He’ll be fine. Instead of landing all the best one-and-done candidates, he’d simply land some of the best players who aren’t ready to make the jump to the NBA right away. If you think about it, it wouldn’t have affected the 2017-18 Wildcats too much. Kevin Knox, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and guys like Quade Green all still would have likely come to Lexington.

Chris Wright: It’s much shorter than you’d think.