Saturday, February 11, 2017

A couple takeaways

So the NCAA did their stupid little dance for TV today...but there are a couple useful things we learned:

1) North Carolina's first preferred regional is the South, not the East.  Thought it'd be close, but I've been assuming the NCAA would send UNC to the East instead of the South.

It seems like among all the ACC teams in contention for a high seed, only Virginia would be sent to the East regional as their first choice - everyone else would be pegged for the South

2) The committee did adjust the position of teams to balance regionals.  And you're not gonna believe this, but it massively benefitted Duke.  Look at West Virginia, #14 overall.  When it's their turn to be placed in the bracket....the East regional is wide open for them to be put in.  Then UCLA can go to the midwest, and Duke gets stuck in the west.  But notice what happens if you do that.  The West already has the worst 1 seed and the worst 2 seed.  Therefore, the NCAA gave that regional WVU instead of Duke to balance the regionals.

However, the cost is now that WVU has to fly across the country, and UCLA has to fly across the country as well (instead of just going to KC).  Meanwhile, Duke gets to go to KC instead of San Jose.

No comments: