Bracketing analysis

Let's take a quick look at the bracket itself and see if the committee did anything unusual.

EAST

@Buffalo
1) Villanova vs. 16) Mount St Mary's/New Orleans
8) Wisconsin vs. 9) Virginia Tech
- Nothing special to note.  No major travel problems

@Orlando
4) Florida vs. 13) East Tennessee St
5) Virginia vs. 12) UNC-Wilmington
- This regional worked out well too, geography-wise and seedwise

@Tulsa
3) Baylor vs 14) New Mexico St
6) SMU vs. 11) USC/Providence
- Another regional that worked out perfectly on geography.  They are sending a PIG winner to Tulsa, but that's not that bad

@Greenville
2) Duke vs. 15) Troy
7) South Carolina vs. 10) Marquette
- South Carolina's seed is one of the greatest injustices I've ever seen in my life.  And they get to play in-state against Duke.  Someone, please think of poor Duke, losing games in the state of NC and now having a road game in the round of 32.  When o when will Duke ever catch a break

WEST

@Salt Lake City
1) Gonzaga vs. 16) South Dakota St
8) Northwestern vs. 9) Vanderbilt
- Vandy's seed is a bit weird, although they're one of the ones that are suffering geographically.  So I guess it balances out

@Buffalo
4) West Virginia vs. 13) Bucknell
5) Notre Dame vs. 12) Princeton
- Geographically perfect setup.  Notre Dame is a bit underseeded, I think it's fair to move them up a line

@Orlando
3) Florida St vs. 14) FGCU
6) Maryland vs. 11) Xavier
- Yet another regional with pretty solid geographical placements for teams.  Committee did a nice job on this front so far

@Salt Lake City
2) Arizona vs. 15) North Dakota
7) St Mary's vs. 10) VCU
- There was always going to be a eastern team like VCU sent careening out west.  Other than that, solid regional

MIDWEST

@Tulsa
1) Kansas vs. 16) North Carolina Central/UC-Davis
8) Miami vs. 9) Michigan St
- Yawn

@Milwaukee
4) Purdue vs. 13) Vermont
5) Iowa St vs. 12) Nevada
- Yet another regional which makes geographic sense.  I'm running out of things to complain about

@Sacramento
3) Oregon vs. 14) Iona
6) Creighton vs. 11) Rhode Island
- Well URI going cross-country ain't great, but those things are bound to happen

@Indianapolis
7) Michigan vs. 10) Oklahoma St
2) Louisville vs. 15) Jacksonville St
- Still, running out of things to complain about

SOUTH

@Greenville
1) North Carolina vs. 16) Texas Southern
8) Arkansas vs. 9) Seton Hall
- Yawn

@Milwaukee
4) Butler vs. 13) Winthrop
5) Minnesota vs. 12) Middle Tennessee
- Another case where we had a good geographic fit for the 4 and 5 seeds.  It almost never works out that way.  Usually a team or two has to play way out of position just due to the flukes of where the regional sites are and who the top teams are.  This year, it fit perfectly like a glove.  Milwaukee ended up being the ignored site, but Butler and Purdue were on the 4 line waiting.  Orlando was out of most everyone's way, but FSU and Florida were available.  SLC and Sacramento were out there....and there were exactly 4 western teams on the top 4 lines.

@Sacramento
3) UCLA vs. 14) Kent St
6) Cincinnati vs. 11) Kansas St/Wake Forest
- A PIG winner to Sacramento!  Finally something to complain about!  All the PIG participants are on the 11 line.  The sites hosting those seeds: Sacramento, Sacramento, Orlando, Tulsa.  Orlando is Thu/Sat, the others are Fri/Sun.  Here's the problem:
- USC has to go to a Fri/Sun site
- Sacramento and Tulsa are the two Fri/Sun sites
- Sacramento has Pac-12 teams blocking USC
Therefore, right off the bat, USC is headed to Tulsa.  We know K-State can't go there because of Baylor.  Committee chose to put Providence there.  But if they put Wake there instead, then the Orlando regional is open to Provi and K-State.  So....why didn't they do that instead of sending K-State/Wake to Sacramento?  Am I missing something here?

@Indianapolis
2) Kentucky vs. 15) Northern Kentucky
7) Dayton vs. 10) Wichita St

So there's the bracket.  Outside of one questionable situation involving the First Four, they didn't do anything stupid in bracketing.  Seeding was a problem (we'll get to that later), but bracketing was okay.