The Washington papers on the Gtown loss were hysterical...

[ecompt]

complaining that the NCAA should have never rewarded Davidson with a game in North Carolina and that the officials were influenced by the crowd.
My God.
Raleigh is only six hours from D.C. Can you imagine if MU had an NCAA only six hours away?
Davidson wasn't expected to win a first-round game, so you can't say the NCAA was looking ahead and rewarding them.
Georgetown got every call in every game all year. What happens the first time they don't? They lose to Pitt in the BE final. What happens the second time? They blow a 17-point lead.
Remembering that game in MKE, it was nice to see the Hoyas on the receiving end of the whistles for once..

[MarquetteVol]

Georgetown blew a 17 point lead and lost to a team seeded 8 spots below them. Could've played the game on Davidson's campus and the Hoywas still should have got the job done.

Gonzaga, on the other hand, has a legitimate gripe. They had a 5 hour flight to play a team with a worse seed than them. And, their game started at the equivalent of 9 am PST. That's tough.

[lab_warrior]

Maybe they should focus on some more pertinent issues, like Hibbert's habit of mentally checking out of games (the BE final, and first Pitt game, and vs. Davidson), as well as the hideous shooting and horrible possessions in the 2nd half.  There's no excuses, that was  just an epic gag job.

[MarquetteDano]

Georgetown got every call in every game all year. What happens the first time they don't? They lose to Pitt in the BE final. What happens the second time? They blow a 17-point lead.
Remembering that game in MKE, it was nice to see the Hoyas on the receiving end of the whistles for once..

Your point here is why I think UCLA is due for a loss soon.  Anyone with UCLA as the champion in their brackets should be worried.  They have been lucky all year round... they could very easily have 3 more losses than they currently have.  Sooner or later one of those critical calls is going to go against them.

[Norm]

While G'Town fans and the Washington Post went a little overboard in their crying about it, it was an advantage for Davidson to play in Raleigh, especially as a 10 seed. That helped them beat both Georgetown and Gonzaga. As for the refs, Curry scored about 12 more points after he should have been called for his 5th foul (then again, it was against G'Town and I really can't feel sorry for them because of all the fouls that went their way this year).

Remember George Mason's run? They got to play in the Regional Finals at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC. Think that didn't help them beat UConn that year? It was essentially a home game for them.

Playing close to home helps tremendously in the NCAAs. it is going to help Texas this weekend to play in Houston, it helped MSU several years ago to play in Detroit and it saved Illinois when they played in Chicago. Marquette also got a huge crowd in Minneapolis to give encouragement to Wade and co. over Kentucky.

Why do you think Al turned down the NCAA Tournament once and went to the NIT instead? MU was going to be shipped out of the Midwest.

[The Man in Gold]

The Marquette to Minneapolis trip in 2003 is a great example of how you can travel when you're only 6 hours away.  Besides what is the point of have regional sites/pods if you are going to ship every lower seed half way around the country to avoid any unfair home advantage.  Should Texas as a 2 go to Charlotte because its unfair to Memphis to play in Texas?

Georgetown got the closest regional it could have (excluding DC).  If anyone has a problem with a regional crowd then send more fans.  I guarantee the majority of those fans we not really Davidson fans, they were locals rooting for an underdog from NC.  Were they disadvantaged?  Sure, but its a national tournament, not every game is going to be close to home with friendly fans.