MINNEAPOLIS — The defending national champion is here. The No. 1 team in the nation is here. Two of the hottest squads in the country are here.

So who in the world is supposed to win the national championship?

Who knows?

“I think all four teams are big-time teams,”Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “It’s probably as good a Final Four as there’s been for a while, in that respect. Hopefully, the games will reflect that. I think they will.”

Since the NCAA began seeding teams in 1979, this year’s Final Four marks the third highest field ever with a pair of No. 1 teams (Duke and Michigan State), No. 2 Arizona and No. 3 Maryland.

The highest-seeded Final Four came in 1993, when top seeds Kentucky, Michigan and North Carolina advanced along with No. 2 Kansas.

“It’s an exceptional field,”Wildcats coach Lute Olson said. “Somebody pointed out last night that the early-season rankings had the four teams that are here all in the top five. (CBS commentator)Jim Nantz said we could just as well as held the tournament in November with that.”

That would’ve been fine with Stanford, which was selected No. 4 in the preseason Associated Press poll but lost out to preseason-No. 5 Maryland last week.

Since there are no favorites, players and coaches were asked what factors would give their team the winning edge.

Guard Steve Blake said the Terrapins’ depth would be the key, since Maryland goes 10 deep. Duke center Carlos Boozer gave the Blue Devils the nod because of Krzyzewski’s experience — he’s in his ninth Final Four.

The Wildcats and Spartans, who tip off at 5:40 this evening, can make a case for themselves, too.

“If you really look at Arizona, five guys who were Wooden Award nominees and where they started, I think they’re playing as well as people thought they would early,”added Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo. “I think we’re playing better. We’re maybe not the flashiest of them, but we’re finding a way to get it done, and I guess that’s the name of the game.”

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cream of the crop: The Final Four teams didn’t squeak into the season’s final weekend. The combined margin of victory through the first four rounds of the tournament was 17.4 points per game.

Duke led the way with its 19.8 ppg margin. Southern Cal’s 79-69 loss was the Blue Devils’ closest call. Michigan State, at 18 ppg, had a seven-point win against Temple. Arizona (15.5) beat Illinois by six points in the Elite Eight and Maryland (11.5) had the tightest game of all, an 83-80 victory over George Mason in the first round.

UCLA holds the all-time record for a national champion’s margin of victory. The Bruins beat their four foes in 1967 by an average of 23.8 points.

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Yeah, right! When Maryland was mired in its losing streak in the middle of the season, there were questions as to if the Terps would even make the NCAA Tournament.

When Krzyzewski was asked what he thought of that slump, he said he didn’t pay much attention to it because there were still two more months of basketball to be played.

“I don’t think adversity is losing a game. I mean, in football it is a little bit because of how they do whatever those rankings are,”Krzyzewski said. “I forget what you call them — BSA or whatever.

“Anyway, I’m glad we don’t have anything in our sport that has ‘BS’ in it,”he continued on, drawing laughs.

Of course, anyone at Duke could be excused for not knowing about the BCS — Bowl Championship Series — after the winless campaign logged by the Blue Devils last fall.

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water works: Coaches and players didn’t get the media’s full attention throughout the Friday press conferences.

Heads turned toward the back of the room when a pipe high in the Metrodome tunnels periodically showered water to the floor below.

The waterfall actually landed dangerously close to the room’s sound board, which was scooted to one side and covered with plastic to avoid any embarrassing headlines like “Coach electrocuted at Final Four.”