Re: NCAA Div I Tournament comments

On Sun, 30 Nov 2003 22:18:52 -0800, The Kaminsky Family wrote
(in message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>):

> As for the placement of teams, however, we do see that nine of the
> sixteen first round hosts are east of the Rockies, with Florida,
> Maryland, Penn State, and Kansas State hosting for the Gainesville
> regional - note that #14 seed Colorado State is playing at Maryland!
> But we do not have the gross indecencies of last year, when California
> played Santa Clara and UCLA played Long Beach State in the first
> round, and then California had to play UC Santa Barbara, and UCLA
> had to play Pepperdine in the second round, while North Carolina
> played South Carolina, Michigan State played Notre Dame, and Ohio
> State played Louisville in the second round (if memory serves, and I
> have not looked this up, none of the latter six teams were ranked as
> high as any of the first four).

I like the field selection, but the regional brackets
(assuming highest seeded teams advance) still seem
rather uneven.  For example, UCLA (#8) drew a very
short straw... playing the Cornhuskers (#9) _AT_
Nebraska with the winner likely to face USC (#1).

Though I don't think it reaches the aforementioned
level of barbarity, I still think an #8-#9 matchup
in front of #9's home fans is unfair to the #8 team.
A #1 versus #9 matchup in front of #9's fans seems
more unfair to #1's _fans_ than to the #1 team (who
is expected to prevail regardless against a much
lower seeded opponent).

I think UCLA would gladly trade seeds with California
(#10), who would play Georgia Tech (#7) with the winner
likely to face Hawai'i (#2) at Hawai'i (where the Rainbow
Wahine squeaked out an early-season five-gamer against
the Bruins).

Though Illinois (#15) is having their best season since
1998, and I think my alma mater has a better chance
against the Rainbow Wahine in the regional semis than
it had against the undefeated national champion 49'ers,
I still have to pick the Wahine in a competitive match.
Perhaps a tough regional semi-final match against the
Fighting Illini would take enough out of Hawai'i for
the Cal Golden Bears to reach their first-ever NCAA
Final Four.

I think Pepperdine (#4) and Stanford (#5) face a less
difficult regional bracket (except for one another)
and Florida (#3) faces the easiest of the four brackets.
I think the Gators have their best chance ever to "get
off the schneid" and win a Final Four match.

John R. Grout
[EMAIL PROTECTED]