Rank the Regions- Most Difficult to least difficult

• Prescott

  1.East- OSU(Big 10 Regular Season and Tournament Champ)
  UNC- (ACC Regular Season Winner and Tournament Runner-up)
  Syracuse( 3rd Place in the Big East-Lost to UCONN in BE Tournament in OT)
  Kentucky(Won SEC tournament. Defeated #2 seeded Florida twice in the past month)
  
  2.Southweast- Kansas( Won everything in the Big 12)
  ND(14-4 and 2nd place in the Big East. Would have been a #1 seed if not for an OT loss to Louisville)
  Purdue(2nd place in the Big 10)
  Louisville( Defeated 3! seeded Pitt and #2 seeded ND)
  
  3. West-duke (Won ACC Tournament)
  San Diego State(Defeated noone of note. Lost to a full strength BYU team twice)
  UCONN(Won BE Tournament. Went 9-9 in the conference)
  Texas( 2nd place in regular season and tournament. 4-4 down the stretch.)
  
  4. Southeast-Pitt(-Won BE regular season crown)
  Florida( Lost to #4 seeded Kentucky twice.Lost Jacksonville and South Carolina)
  BYU( Everyone knows the story with BYU.Not worthy of a #3)
  Wisky(Scored 33 points in a loss to Penn State. Enough said)
• bigkahuna

  Prescott;710938 wrote:1.East- OSU(Big 10 Regular Season and Tournament Champ)
  UNC- (ACC Regular Season Winner and Tournament Runner-up)
  Syracuse( 3rd Place in the Big East-Lost to UCONN in BE Tournament in OT)
  Kentucky(Won SEC tournament. Defeated #2 seeded Florida twice in the past month)
  
  2.Southweast- Kansas( Won everything in the Big 12)
  ND(14-4 and 2nd place in the Big East. Would have been a #1 seed if not for an OT loss to Louisville)
  Purdue(2nd place in the Big 10)
  Louisville( Defeated 3! seeded Pitt and #2 seeded ND)
  
  3. West-duke (Won ACC Tournament)
  San Diego State(Defeated noone of note. Lost to a full strength BYU team twice)
  UCONN(Won BE Tournament. Went 9-9 in the conference)
  Texas( 2nd place in regular season and tournament. 4-4 down the stretch.)
  
  4. Southeast-Pitt(-Won BE regular season crown)
  Florida( Lost to #4 seeded Kentucky twice.Lost Jacksonville and South Carolina)
  BYU( Everyone knows the story with BYU.Not worthy of a #3)
  Wisky(Scored 33 points in a loss to Penn State. Enough said)

  
  My thoughts exactly 100%
• sleeper

  

  1. East
  2. Southwest
  3. West
  3. Southeast
• Manhattan Buckeye

  East
  
  Southwest
  
  
  
  West
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Southeast
• sleeper

  

  In all honesty, the Southeast will be fun to watch because we could see a team like Wofford or Belmont make the Final 4.
• bigkahuna

  ^^
  
  I agree with you. I know that Duke is technically the 4th #1 seed, but the SE has the weakest team at each seed. While it may be the easiest region, it's also the most open.
• CinciX12

  

  Belmont won't beat Wisconsin. Well the non-PSU Wisconsin at least. Wofford I only saw way earlier in the year. I'd say it has Florida written all over it.
  
  East by a landslide. Ohio State got crucified for getting to play in Cleveland it seems like. Duke has a much easier (not the easiest) path as the 4 and has to go to the west coast. I really believe they were dumb enough to set it up that way.
• wildcats20

  

  I can't wait for the "doesn't the overall 1 seed get the lowest 2 seed" argument.
• CinciX12

  

  wildcats20;711088 wrote:I can't wait for the "doesn't the overall 1 seed get the lowest 2 seed" argument.

  
  UNC will lose to..well whoever the 15 is and you know it! Lol.
• wildcats20

  

  CinciX12;711092 wrote:UNC will lose to..well whoever the 15 is and you know it! Lol.

  
  Long Island FTW
• CinciX12

  

  I have OSU losing to Texas-SA too though.
• Tiger2003

  

  Ohio State vs Michigan St for the Title.
• Prescott

  East by a landslide. Ohio State got crucified for getting to play in Cleveland it seems like. Duke has a much easier (not the easiest) path as the 4 and has to go to the west coast.

  I think location is overrated. I''m much more interested who I play. OSU got screwed
  
  duke had the easiest path last year. The committee wouldn't dare do it again.
• CinciX12

  

  Prescott;711255 wrote:I think location is overrated. I''m much more interested who I play. OSU got screwed
  
  duke had the easiest path last year. The committee wouldn't dare do it again.

  
  Maybe not for a team that is a #1 or a #2 seed, but it certainly helps the lower seeded teams. For instance with X you won't convince me at all that Marquette has any chance of winning because it is so close to Cincinnati. Send it out to Tuscon/Tampa/Tulsa and I'm starring at the bracket mad at myself for honestly believing X won't win a game.
  
  For Ohio State it is just ridiculous though. Cleveland will be a pushover, that goes without saying. But Kentucky and then Syracuse potentially? That is insane. Gene didn't take care of his own lol.
• bigkahuna

  Prescott;711255 wrote:I think location is overrated. I''m much more interested who I play. OSU got screwed
  
  duke had the easiest path last year. The committee wouldn't dare do it again.

  
  With the way Kentucky has played this year, I think location is HUGE for us. We get to play the 1st (and hopefully 2nd) round games in Tampa, FL, which will be heavily in favor of UK. If we make it to Newark, it will again be Big Blue Nation. At least for Kentucky this year that goes a long way.
  
  You bring up an interesting debate though
  Play close to home and have a tough road OR Easier road on the opposite side of the country?
• CinciX12

  

  bigkahuna;711269 wrote:With the way Kentucky has played this year, I think location is HUGE for us. We get to play the 1st (and hopefully 2nd) round games in Tampa, FL, which will be heavily in favor of UK. If we make it to Newark, it will again be Big Blue Nation. At least for Kentucky this year that goes a long way.
  
  You bring up an interesting debate though
  Play close to home and have a tough road OR Easier road on the opposite side of the country?

  I think it depends on the team. Ohio State is a very large fan base that travels well and people from Columbus/Ohio in general would go to Anaheim without question.
  
  Duke has such a wide alumni base that it is not crazy to assume they don't have a lot of grads out there in that area. Kinda why NYC turns into a home game for Duke when they play in the Izod Center in the Tournament.
• bigkahuna

  I agree with you on the fact that it depends on the team. The way that I look at it is (OSU for example) would have a nice crowd in Anaheim, however the amount of fans would make a difference as well. They're in Anaheim playing in front of 10-12,000 people with 7-8,000 being OSU fans. Put them in Cleveland, and there are 20,000 fans and 15-16,000+ are OSU fans and makes a much bigger difference.
  
  In the SEC Championship today, there were estimated 20,000 fans in the Georgia Dome and 15-16,000 fans were Big Blue Nation. They'll have the majority of the fans no matter where they go, BUT the actual number of the fans means a lot as well.
• CinciX12

  

  Thats a good point. At locations away from home you do tend to be the evil empire in a way too. The fans with no real bias are going to pull for the upset 9 times out of 10.
• reclegend22

  

  I can tell you, sure as hell, I hope to never play another NCAA game inside of Rupp Arena. Kentucky fans were buying up as many Kent State, Indiana and Pitt tickets for the South Regional semis between Duke and Indiana in 2002 as they could to cheer against the Blue Devils, and Kentucky was playing in Syracuse.
• gorocks99

  

  The Southeast is a big ol' cluster fuck. I've got three potential upsets (Old Dominion, Utah State, Belmont) and two toss ups (St John's-Gonzaga, UCLA-MSU) out of the first eight games. Southeast is next in terms of unpredictability, I think Richmond, USC (if they win) and FSU are potential upsets, while UNLV-Illinois is a toss up.
  
  As far as hardest, definitely the East. Kentucky should probably be a 3 seed. The Southeast is a joke. Pitt is an overrated 1, Florida is an overrated 2 and BYU is an overrated 3. Pitt may just win that regional by default.
• elbuckeye28

  Prescott;711255 wrote:I think location is overrated. I''m much more interested who I play. OSU got screwed
  
  duke had the easiest path last year. The committee wouldn't dare do it again.

  
  Looking at the brackets, I really don't think that OSU's bracket is that ridiculous. Yes there are some very tough teams, but I think the name recognition makes it seems worse than it really is. Besides, Michigan State was in by far the toughest bracket last year but had a relatively easy path because of upsets. It's really easy to look at a bracket before the tournament and think how tough the bracket is, but when the games play out and upsets happen, the brackets and paths look much different.
• elbuckeye28

  By the way, I think the Southwest is just as difficult as the East. Comparing the 2-4 seeds, ND>UNC, Purdue>Syracuse, and Kentucky>Louisville. I think overall they are both pretty tough but neither is crazy tough.
• vball10set

  East=Southwest>West>Southeast
• SportsAndLady

  

  Prescott;711255 wrote:I think location is overrated. I''m much more interested who I play. OSU got screwed

  
  Couple years ago Kansas was the 1 seed, playing in the Elite 8 in the West bracket...guess who was the 2 seed? UCLA..they beat KU, the crowd was 80% UCLA fans, and KU fans travel as well as anyone.
• elbuckeye28

  vball10set;711927 wrote:East=Southwest>West>Southeast

  
  Fixed it for you.