With the NCAA trying to put 1-4 seeds closer to home, I looked over the brackets and host cities.
As of now, if MU stays around where they currently are (#7-12 ranked), I can only see a few locations for them to stay near home...if this is something that actually happens from the committee:
#3 East - Nashville
#2 West - Omaha
#3 West - Pittsburgh a chance
#2 Midwest - Louisville
#3 Midwest - Columbus
Midwest would definitely be the best IMHO.
The round 2/3 sites are not related to regions (The Nashville pod won't necessarily have teams in the East Region, for example). There are eight of them, and 2 pods (groups of 4 teams headed by a 1-4 seed) are placed at each site. So if Kentucky if the number one overall seed, they'll put their "pod" in the location closest to Kentucky in which they are allowed to play by rule, which would be Louisville. Syracuse is next, and their pod would go to Pittsburgh, which is the closest site to Syracuse. They would continue down the list of the top 16 seeds in that manner.
The other thing they do is try to "protect" the top 4 seeds, which means not give an opponent a significant home court advantage. So if Duquesne was the 8 seed in Syracuse's region, they would either move Duquesne to another pod or seed or move the whole pod out of Pittsburgh. Lunardi has us in Columbus, which seems a likely destination for us if we stay in the high 3 seed area.
Keep in mind that the first three teams from a given conference must be placed in different regionals. Barring a collapse, Syracuse is going to be in the East regional. Even if someone did displace them on the s-curve, all of the remaining top 10 teams right now are closer to Atlanta or St. Louis. So Marquette won't be in the East. If Georgetown displaced MU on the s-curve, they would likely be sent to the South regional any way. So MU one of two things is likely to happen: a) MU is a 2-seed in the West or b) MU is a 3-seed in the Midwest
Quote from: CTWarrior on February 27, 2012, 03:07:52 PM
The other thing they do is try to "protect" the top 4 seeds, which means not give an opponent a significant home court advantage. So if Duquesne was the 8 seed in Syracuse's region, they would either move Duquesne to another pod or seed or move the whole pod out of Pittsburgh. Lunardi has us in Columbus, which seems a likely destination for us if we stay in the high 3 seed area.
Columbus would be pretty sweet, it's a scant 7 hour trip from Milwaukee.
#2 WEST!!!! omaha baby
Quote from: Boozemon Barro on February 27, 2012, 06:15:33 PM
Yes please
MU will NOT be in Omaha for the 2nd and 3rd rounds. Missouri and Kansas will be in Omaha. Probably Louisville or Columbus for MU.
If we end up either a two or three seed Columbus or Louisville would not be bad. If we drop to a four seed those could wind up being bad places as we could play other Midwestern teams in the second game (Indiana, Michigan, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, etc.). Those fans, with maybe the exception of Notre Dame will outdraw us given their size.
As I have stated before, assuming we are a 2-3 seed, Colmubus/Louisville would be a good pod then the West Reigional for our regional. Any other regional and we could very well be playing large universities very close to their campus. We only get burnt in the West Regional if we end up playing Arizona in the Sweet Sixteen, which is unlikely.