It would be nice if PSU could un-crater itself and get that victory in Crisler back up to Q2 status (plus make a win in Happy Valley a Q1 win). Ditto the IU win at Crisler and Q1 status.
Thought the Holy Cross game could settle in as a Q3 win but they’ve imploded in Patriot League play. Ditto South Carolina and Q2 status but I think they dug themselves too big a hole with bad non-conference losses (Stony Brook, Wofford, Wyoming, OK State), though they’ve rebounded to start SEC play. They host Tennessee tonight.
Excellent food for thought.
Des Moines over Columbus is a no-brainer, if possible.
On what basis would that be better? Just the fear of neutral OSU fans?
Seems like far more UM fans would drive to Columbus over Des Moines.
Would a lot of OSU fans buy tickets just to cheer for UM’s opponent? Maybe a few would but I don’t think they care about the rivalry in basketball anywhere near as much as football.
I’m with Dylan, I think being closer in proximity to Michigan is better if the greatest number of fans is the goal.
More significant development in Columbus would be MSU fans cheering for whoever Michigan plays on Sunday IMO.
With the support in LA last year, I’m not so scared of home town disadvantage in a west coast matchup vs Gonzaga. Blue travels!
Michigan definitely has a nice draw in coastal cities. I think DC would be a better draw than Louisville, for example. But remember that Michigan played Texas A&M and Florida State in LA… Not Gonzaga or a school like that. Or Virginia in DC. etc.
Yeah, that is to be expected. And I would fully expect Michigan fans to do the same for MSU’s opponent so I think they’d cancel each other out.
Though as I think about it, I don’t recall that many MSU fans being at the Palace and cheering loudly for SDSU and VCU. I was also there for both of MSU’s games and I don’t recall much vocal support from M fans for Valpo and Memphis.
(It’s also entirely possible I could be misremembering things.)
I wouldn’t mind the Kansas City regional if we were able to get to the Sweet 16. I have some friends there, so I might take a long weekend and head to the games. I don’t know what other sites are tied to what regional though. Is that decided closer to the tournament or is that available now?
The first and second round pods aren’t connected to regionals anymore
I think I remember Michigan playing first that day which usually means that MSU fans would show up around half time and that game was basically over by half time.
EDIT: Never mind, you’re talking about the round of 32 games. Yes, Michigan played first (at 12:15) with MSU playing Memphis at 2:45. And yeah, it was 38-23 at the half so not much drama there (though VCU did get it to 11 a few times early in the second before Michigan buried them in transition baskets).
IMO Michigan would match or outnumber Gonzaga fans in Anaheim. Playing Gonzaga in Anaheim would not be my concern, it’d be more Gonzaga has a very good team when healthy. I’d rather Kansas or Kentucky be the two seed at this time.
You’d still rather not have the real possibility of having your fans outnumbered as the higher seed, plus just playing so much farther from home than your opponent for travel and time zone purposes. But agree Gonzaga is just a dangerous draw regardless.
Very true. Still, Kentucky and Kansas fans are going to outnumber Michigan if they’re both two seeds and match up. I’d still rather play them and their crowd over Gonzaga.
I do think that Michigan getting shipped West worked out well last year because there generally aren’t that many great teams on the West coast. That means that you get some of the worst 1,2,3,4 seeds.
Michigan as a 3 felt like a snub, but Xavier and UNC as your 1/2 seeds was probably a best case scenario and then the whole region has a better chance of imploding.
Is that historically true about the West bracket, or just definitely true last year?
Probably depends how many good teams there are, right?
Considering how bad the Pac 12 is, there just aren’t that many teams that are good enough to be “protected” in the West. So you end up with a bunch of teams who are the least protected at their seed line.
Not sure how scientifically accurate it is, but it certainly makes some sense in my head 